RC Lens v The Arsenal. 03/10/23. 20:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mac76

my dislike of Zinchenko (and not the person mind, i mean the player) isn't just that he in general isn't good enough - not a pet hate but simple observation - but also as you say it's what he stands for with the whole inverted LB thing which makes us weaker in defence and adds very little in attack, as for him personally his propensity to give the ball away in dangerous situations, which literally happens in every game, is just too big a price to pay and if he wasn't so integral to how Arteta wants the team to play - plus a teacher's pet ;) - he'd be on the bench most of the time if not sold by now

yes we don't transition well enough but it feels ilke that's a desire by Arteta to slow things down and have as much control as possible as anything else - he's very much from the 'patient buildup' school, but as we all know that gives the opposition far too much time to get organised

but i think we have players that could put together better movements but hey don't get a look-in - so i was all for selling ESR but it looks like he may have found some sharpenss and he's lost weight, but how many minutes is he going to get under such a stubborn manager?

Rice isn’t a pet hate, and it’s an example of you arguing against a straw man that you’d even use that term. It is simply a fact that I don’t think he’s good enough for how I think we as a team should play.

I think he’s a damn hard worker, is excellent at tackles and interceptions and I think he is actually a natural leader. But let’s break down why Arteta wanted him, it’s because he’s obsessed with copying the blueprint at Man City, let’s overlook for a second the fact that City succeeds despite the system they play not because of it. But essentially that makes Rice what? Rodri…well first of all Rice could never hope to have the technical ability Rodri has. Second of all we don’t have the level of ball players around us to make playing one central midfielder remotely tenable. De Bruyne, Kovacic and even to an extent Bernardo Silva drop deeper to win possession, Odegaard absolutely does not nay cannot do this, neither can Havertz and I don’t think Vieira can either (although I think Arteta signed him to be this Bernardo Silva type player).

That means if you play out from the back you need two central midfielders, one to play through the press and one to drive from the defensive to the attacking half. Which as I stated in another post is the Arsenal blueprint, it’s the way we won three premier league titles and though the game has changed I call bollocks on anyone who says that isn’t the way most conducive to us winning things.

I like our attacking quartet, I think it’s one of the changes Arteta brought about that I’m unquestionably in favour of. Problem is, he doesn’t agree and has tried to make it an attacking quintet.