At Arsenal, number 10's play cente back.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bumble
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At Arsenal, number 10's play cente back.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bumble
Or whomever is captain at any point in time. One day our keeper will wear the fabled no 10Quote:
Originally Posted by GP
In real life, sure, but in tactics talk 6s, 8s and 10s are always your three CM types: holding, box-to-box or CAM.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bumble
Lokonga is probably a hybrid 6-8, which is all the rage these days! He says he’s better as a 6, but I reckon he’s being eyed as Partey’s immediate understudy and long-term replacement.
Understudy?Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
So we can look forward to Partey teaching him how to blaze it over the bar from 30 yards...? :rolleyes:
So true! :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
We are building a squad of understudies for the future.
We will all be drawing our pensions by the time we start challenging again :oldboy:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Jeez, are you guys really complaining about not having to cover Partey and Tierney with the likes of Elneny, Ceballos, Kolasinac, etc? :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Chippy
Its no that, but Partey is average at best, so an understudy to an average player does not bode well for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
Also, being grumpy makes me happy! :coffee:
:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Chippy
And :blink:
are you by any chance a black cab driver?Quote:
Originally Posted by Chippy
Tammy Abraham - views?
if you'd asked me the season before last, i'd say definitely interested, but i recall he missed a few sitters last season and let's face it if you can be pushed out of the starting eleven by Werner you've got problems...
https://twitter.com/TheAthleticUK/st...79266672529410
I don't see how his ethnicity is important.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Sell Eddie, Balogun on loan, Laca will be gone next year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
I'm not a huge fan of Abraham but he could do a job.
Signing players from Chelsea always seems like a good idea.
:haha:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
My brother is a London Cabbie. He is not as miserable as me though :)
;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Smith Rowe has signed a new contract and will wear the number 10
"It's like Black Rod...you're not black are you Rod?Quote:
Originally Posted by GP
"Yes"
:lol:
Great news, build the team around ESR and SakaQuote:
Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist
:good:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist
ha, good point, let's swerve...Quote:
Originally Posted by GP
It’s every Englishman’s God-given right!Quote:
Originally Posted by Chippy
Partey is world class, though - you have to trust that. He just hasn’t been available that much, and when he has been we’ve rarely been able to use him properly (and I doubt he’s been fully fit at any point last year).
Xhaka’s replacement needs to be the guy who sits deep (and, ideally, not constantly dropping to cover LB, which is where Tavares comes in) and and Partey needs to be free to play box-to-box, which is his strength. If he’s out, or needs a breather, then we need someone with the same profile (Lokonga) to come in so we don’t have to keep changing shape and finding workarounds every other game. I’m sure everyone else is as sick of the constant tinkering and left field solutions as I am.
I trust my eyes, he's sometimes a decent footballer but inconsistent, makes poor decisions and as for his shooting... :doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
Tbf they changed coach and the two of them are very different strikers - Chelsea fans seem to view Abraham as little more than a box poacher whereas Werner, for all of his finishing woes, gets more involved all over the pitch, so he might have been the better instant-fit for how Tuchel wanted to play.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
I dunno… this one doesn’t really excite me, but there might be something there we could work with? As he currently is, I think we’d be buying little more than a taller Nketiah, so if there is genuine interest on our part then we must be looking at it in terms of raw attributes that we need for a specific job? He has presence and he has pace so we might be looking at doing the same work with him that we did with Laca [trying to get him more involved with build-up / hold-up play]? Gotta say, £40m sounds steep given that there’s still development work to do.
Another link with another HG player though - does make you wonder if there’s some big, post-Brexit quota change coming down the line. Feels like we’re armouring ourselves against something here…
He was exceptional at Atletico - it’s the Arsenal team he walked into that was shit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Just give him a chance to shine. He didn’t have any preseason with us last year after signing on the last day of the window, he got injured almost straight away, and was then rushed back too soon, so I doubt he’s been fully fit at any point last year. He’s had to move country and relocate his life in the middle of a pandemic, which must have been annoying AF, and he’s walked into a club and a team in chaos.
When he has played, he’s usually had to fill in as a 6 and stay camped in front of the defence rather than play the box-to-box role that he’s best at, and he’s very often ended up as a one-man midfield as his partner has either had to drop off to cover LB or has been totally fucking useless. All of our CMs have also had to spend way to much time coming deep to take the ball off the CBs to start moves, and they’ve been left with far too much ground to cover because our paceless CBs can’t play too high without leaving themselves exposed (why someone like White is absolutely a priority signing IMO).
And, yes, his shooting is awful!
Excellent news
https://theathletic.com/2741327/2021...shared-article
Don’t tell Mac :lol:
:ilt: :ilt: :ilt:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist
Another season to look forward to :)Quote:
Originally Posted by GP
Ben White has signed.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/welcome...-term-contract
Ben White has finally signed. And just to really wind up the Saliba fan club he's been given the no. 4 shirt as well :lol:
saliba :pal:Quote:
Originally Posted by Gooner23
Phew! Only Arsenal can drag a done deal out for a month.Quote:
Originally Posted by GP
Excited about this one.
Apparently Roma's last offer for Xhaka was 12 million euros plus some add ons. Can see why we've told them to shove it. Frustrating though, thought we were finally moving on :banghead:
The Cult of Saliba need to let this go - just let the kid develop in peace and get behind White and the other CBs in the meantime.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gooner23
I get it - we all wanted to believe the “next Varane” hype, esp. at a time when we desperately needed a good CB to come in and save us, but the reality is he’s just a highly-rated prospect that Raul massively overpaid for (again) and he should never have had the pressure of that price tag heaped on him.
Fwiw, I still think there’ll be a place for him here - for one thing he’ll count as home-grown by the time this current loan ends, and that sounds like it could be a big tick for him - but for now getting regular minutes under his belt is going to be far more beneficial to him than sitting on our bench as 4th choice CB. Final test for him now is to see if he can maintain form and fitness across more than half a season.
Yeah, Roma can go fuck themselves for 12m - Edu needs to get on the phone and start sounding out other options.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gooner23
Nobody else seems remotely interested in Xhaka. I hear we are now planning to offer him a new contract...at an increased level no doubt because that what we always do. A year from now we wont be able to give Xhaka away for free
Honestly, I’d be surprised if Xhaka signs any extension. My take on it is he was ready to storm out in a huff in Dec 19 and was even prepared to drop as far as Hertha Berlin to get out - I think what happened then is that Arteta talked him down from the ledge with the promise of getting him a better move in the summer if he gave him 6 good months, and then the pandemic hit and we all ended up stuck with each other for another year as the market collapsed.
At this point I don’t think there’s any part of Xhaka that is remotely interested in signing an extension, and I’m sure he’s quite aware that the main reason he’d be offered one would be to protect his value if we can’t sell this summer. He wants an easy out so it’s really not in his interest.
I'd pay them 12m euros to take the f****r off our hands tbhQuote:
Originally Posted by Gooner23
Wouldn't go that far but would take the 12m and run laughing :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Totally, let's just clear him out and then it paves the way for more recruitingQuote:
Originally Posted by dazthegooner
City have bid 100m for Grealish. :lol:
After the fun of the Euros, I forgot how stupid football is and that it’s all starting again in a couple of weeks.