Quote Originally Posted by I am invisible View Post
I love that we can play both fast, beautiful football for sustained periods and also completely shut games down when we need to, and have developed the wisdom to know when it’s the right time for each. Again, it just feels way beyond their years and current experience.

The more I see it in action the more I appreciate what we’ve done with our recruitment strategy. The modern game is no longer about putting together a team of specialists who each do one particular job to a 9/10 standard - it’s about putting together an entire team of players who can do two or three jobs to a 7/10 standard so you’re creating constant overloads and doubling-up everywhere: 4 attacking players suddenly become 6; 5 defensive players suddenly become 8 or 9. No matter how good you are, there’s not much you can do against overwhelming numbers.
I think Odegaard is the perfect manifestation of this. He can play like Ozil or Fabregas when we're attacking. But he can also do the pressing and defending to a really high level, like Bernardo or De Bruyne. It took him a while to gain the consistency, but just like Arteta's methods as a whole, it's now all coming together.

As you say, there's no room for one-dimensional players at top teams anymore. Our recent signings all prove this too. Both full-backs are two-footed and can play on the left or right or even centre-back in the case of Tomiyasu. White can play across the back line and in midfield. Sambi and Odegaard are comfortable deeper or higher up the pitch. And summed up by the Ramsdale upgrade, they're all excellent technically and progressive passers.

It feels like the early Wenger years where the profile of the player and how he could be moulded into the team was more important than just signing names (see Manchester United).