Mikel Arteta is at the heart of a reconstruction project that looks to transform Arsenal into a force to reckon with once more. When a football club is attempting to enhance its performance, employing new personnel may be a critical step in the process.
On and off the field, there has been a huge turnover of staff at the North London club in recent years, and as per yesterday’s announcement, another new face will join next season in an attempt to bolster the dugout set-up further.
A vital job and position that may have a considerable influence on a team’s success are that of an attacking-phase coach.
The attacking-phase coach is often in charge of planning and implementing plans and tactics to assist the team in creating and converting goal-scoring opportunities.
For the next season and onwards, Hussein Isa has been named attacking-phase coach at Arsenal, where he will deal with the senior team and key academy stars transitioning into Arteta’s senior side.
Isa is also known as “Tekkers Guru” due to the popularity he has gained for demonstrating his talents online. He is anticipated to offer specialised help to Arsenal’s forwards, focusing on technical elements such as touch, shooting, and heading.
Isa began his career as a trainee with Tottenham Hotspur before moving on to the academies of Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace.
He’s even stood in for players like Lionel Messi, Eden Hazard, and Sergio Aguero on commercial shoots. He represented England in Futsal and also played for Hashtag United for a while.
This employment of such a famous name comes at a critical time for the Gunners.
Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah, the two primary strikers of the team, are finding it difficult to score goals in the Premier League.
Nketiah has an xG of 2.00 in 3 games, while Jesus is severely underperforming his xG of 7.9 by scoring only 5 goals in 14 games.
Martinelli and Saka, the two young wingers, have taken the brunt of scoring goals so far, but with the appointment of the new coach, it is now possible that Arteta is looking to get the strikers more involved in the play.
Additionally, “Tekkers Guru” could, and would, inevitably help Martinelli get even better at dribbling, a skill he excels at but also has a lot of scope for improvement in.
Other attackers like Saka are all very young and with the right development can become world-beaters like Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe.
Of course, with a name like Tekkers Guru, one concern that most would have is that he would be too focused on the showiness of the tricks and not on the actual game. However, Arsenal fans can rest assured knowing that he himself is against being showy.
Although he will not implement his plans throughout the course of this season, it shows potential for the team as they look to the future. Arsenal fans are understandably thrilled, given the club’s ambition to remain at the top.
They are closing in on a new offensive signing in Shaktar’s Mykhailo Mudryk, who was hailed by Brighton coach De Zerbi as a future Ballon d’Or winner. The thought of this new signing being coached by Tekkers Guru is just adding fire to the flame.
With “Airpod Albert” and “Tekkers Guru” both on the coaching staff, one thing is for sure – Arteta is very creative with who he wants on his team, at least when it comes to nicknames.
To see if this hiring would be a success or not, we would need to see how Arsenal perform in the 2023/24 season. With Ten Hag’s United on the rise, and City never failing to perform, it would be a very interesting season to watch unfold.
