Matt Macey on why the time has come for him to leave #AFC Includes: 🤯How Arteta “blew everyone away” in training 🧤What he has learned from Cech & Leno 🧠Why it is “impossible” to stop Ozil’s famous bounce shot : Gunners

Macey on:

“For me it is all about playing regular football again. My focus is to go and find games wherever I can. The club are keen for me to go and play and be successful, wherever that may be and whether that is on a loan or a permanent deal.”

“I am desperate to get back to that environment [at Plymouth Argyle] again. It was a tough season but I got a lot out of it, personally. Being a massive part of the team and having that responsibility on my shoulders — that is the sort of challenge I want to face every morning when I wake up. Not having that in the last 12 months has been incredibly frustrating and I have had to find new ways to stay motivated.”

“Every morning there was a bit more on the session, a bit more edge. You are only step away from getting on the pitch and it adds that edge to everything you do. I had to pick up on all of the systems really quickly.”

“Everyone has bought into the whole system and you can see it in the way we score some of the goals. It is no fluke that it happens. That has been done on the training field the afternoon before. Everyone goes into the game knowing what is going to happen and that just breeds confidence in the team.

“I know where the centre-mid and the left-back are supposed to stand, because the manager presents it in a way that we have to learn it. It is a new way of coaching that I had never seen before. When he first came it blew everyone away. It feels like a wave of momentum and with every big win it just keeps on going and going.”

“To work with Petr was like a childhood dream. It is the mental side of it, the psychology, that separates the best from the rest. I have been lucky enough to see who I think are two of the best in that area in Petr and in Bernd, who never looks fazed by anything. Learning how to do that and how to respond after a bad game, seeing it in the flesh, is the biggest thing I will ever take away from these goalkeepers.”

“When you have the likes of Auba, Laca and Pepe smashing balls past you every five minutes in training, you have to be on it or you will fall apart. When there is a lot going in it is a bit demoralising, obviously, but you see them go out on the weekend and do it against some of the best goalkeepers in the world. The way Auba finished past Alisson against Liverpool in the Community Shield — I had that done to me 10 times the week before.”

“It is almost unsaveable. Although it is bizarre and it looks crazy, it is actually a very good way of scoring a goal. Honestly it makes no sense, the way his foot goes down on the ball. It’s impossible because your body weight goes to the floor and the ball goes upwards. He scores with it most of the time because you can’t do anything about it.

“It’s your muscle memory. You see the way he goes to kick the ball and every other footballer in the world kicks it along the floor. Before you realise he is doing his trick, it is already in the net.”