Summer transfer joy and happiness

[The Emirates Gallactico]

A midfield double pivot of Xhaka & Torreria could be very special. Right blend of abilities.

Ramsey further forward & Lacazette/Auba/Ozil/Mkhi in the forward positions.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Thinking on the same page. Not a fan of Xhaka at all. We can find a use for him. There are ways to make a system work for such players. You only have to look at has previous teams. But I suspect Ozil will be pushed out wide and won't be playing as a 10. Again, if you look at how Emery has played similar playmakers, they often end up playing wide.

I can't see a situation where he tries to accommodate these three in a central midfield. They're all really poor defensively and would need serious drilling.

I really don't get why a player is so desirable to have in a team if he needs 1/2 of exactly the right players around him in the right system to function!!! It's madness. He's fast becoming one of those hipsters choice players that only the intellectuals understand.

His biggest and pretty much only attribute he doesn't execute nearly consistently enough. I can remember very few more purposeless players that have been a mainstay in our midfield over the years.

[Power n Glory]

I really don't get why a player is so desirable to have in a team if he needs 1/2 of exactly the right players around him in the right system to function!!! It's madness. He's fast becoming one of those hipsters choice players that only the intellectuals understand.

His biggest and pretty much only attribute he doesn't execute nearly consistently enough. I can remember very few more purposeless players that have been a mainstay in our midfield over the years.

I know what you mean. As soon as we have a injury in midfield, we might as well be down two players if one can't function without the other. You're right about Xhaka's speciality as well. It's never been vital to how we play or potent enough to give us an edge over any opponent.

We'll see what happens. Just watching the World Cup game and I like how Bilic described the Modric dilemma. Good enough to play deep to help control a game but then you feel you lose an attacking threat if not further up pitch. But play him to in an advanced and you lose his ability to dictate the pace of game from deep. That's the sort of problem I like to hear when talking of midfielders. You can build around that sort of problem. It should never be a case that you need 1 or 2 players to cover over the inadequacy of another player and you definitely don't build around that sort of midfielder.

[I am invisible]

Thinking on the same page. Not a fan of Xhaka at all. We can find a use for him. There are ways to make a system work for such players. You only have to look at has previous teams. But I suspect Ozil will be pushed out wide and won't be playing as a 10. Again, if you look at how Emery has played similar playmakers, they often end up playing wide.

I can't see a situation where he tries to accommodate these three in a central midfield. They're all really poor defensively and would need serious drilling.

He'll want to play 4231 if he can - I think he likes having the 4 advanced players for the high press - so my guess is that we'll see Torreira and Xhaka as the deeper 2 (in a classic DM / DLP pairing), with Ramsey in the centre of the 3 behind the striker (where he'll give Emery the option of doubling-up as either a second CF or a 3rd CM as the game dictates). Very similar roles to Alonso, Mascherano and Gerrard back in the day.

As you say, I expect Ozil and Mhiki will be pushed out to the wide roles in that row of 3 - possibly both will be in the same team to begin with due to lack of other options, but eventually I think Emery prefers one of his wide men to be more of a traditional winger and a goal threat, so the long-term plan might be to only play two of Ramsey, Ozil and Mhiki at any given time (possibly in a 2 games on 1 game off rotation to keep everyone fresh)?

[Niall_Quinn]

Torreria - SECOND TIER

WAKE UP!

We're still rolling in the second rate league. Ivan and his boys have bought some goodwill by booting that loser Wenger, no doubt. But stopping the ship from sinking doesn't mean we're on good time for port. Two different things. Let's not forgive cheapskating and mediocrity because we made a brilliant gain by booting the last French nothingness. Yes, sure, Wenger had to go. But not so we could then sit around doing fuck all. And so far what we have is FUCK ALL. It won't do. Unless this Emery bloke is a tactical genius (which he isn't) then we are still left with the shit pile that fought it out with Burnley for 6th. Where's the spine in all of this? Cech, Kos, Xhaka - STILL? Anyone want to guess how that's going to turn out?

[Static]

The "shit pile" was under the watch, control and instruction of Wenger. If you're complaining about the spine then you're effectively making an excuse for Wenger because this is what he had to make do with.

The fact is we have a new boss man and he'll want to see what he has available to him before he starts to make changes.

Players don't forget how to play, you can only do so much under someone who has lost all the attributes that once made him great. Wenger failed to adapt and, eventually, so did his teams. No point throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Have some patience.

[I am invisible]

Optimism all hinges on what you're pinning your hopes on - I think we all expect some essential investment in certain areas (GK, CB and DM), but if anyone is expecting us to go out and bring in 3 or 4 of the biggest, most expensive, most-established names out there then they're going to be profoundly disappointed with this coming season.

As I said, I'll expect to see a certain amount of investment, but in this first season I'll mostly be looking at what Emery can do with the group for the biggest gains. I don't think he'll even need to be a tactical genius to make a difference - just appreciate that things like urgency and intensity, tactics, shape, training to defend as well as attack, etc, etc are important and make some effort towards them...

[Cripps]

The "shit pile" was under the watch, control and instruction of Wenger. If you're complaining about the spine then you're effectively making an excuse for Wenger because this is what he had to make do with.

The fact is we have a new boss man and he'll want to see what he has available to him before he starts to make changes.

Players don't forget how to play, you can only do so much under someone who has lost all the attributes that once made him great. Wenger failed to adapt and, eventually, so did his teams. No point throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Have some patience.

People expecting Emery to come in and sell all our players without assessing what he has

For years we've wanted a new spine and we're buying Leno, Sokratis and Torreira, with Lichtsteiner added in to give Bellerin some competition. That's a new spine full of experience and leaders.

[I am invisible]

People expecting Emery to come in and sell all our players without assessing what he has

For years we've wanted a new spine and we're buying Leno, Sokratis and Torreira, with Lichtsteiner added in to give Bellerin some competition. That's a new spine full of experience and leaders.

Possibly another young CB coming too.

Then there's Mavropanos and AMN who look like they'll be in regular rotation this season, and we've only had Aubameyang since January - the spine of the side that starts this campaign will be very different to the one the started last year's...

[Özim]

People expecting Emery to come in and sell all our players without assessing what he has

For years we've wanted a new spine and we're buying Leno, Sokratis and Torreira, with Lichtsteiner added in to give Bellerin some competition. That's a new spine full of experience and leaders.

True, but clearly Xhaka isn't been assessed, he's been handed a new contract despite being awful for us.