Last edited by HCZ_Reborn; 17-05-2022 at 12:18 PM.
He has some nerve right? Mind you I hope he was speaking for himself as one of the players who should go home etc
The past couple of games have exposed the team, squad and manager for what they are, not good enough and not aggressive enough. We have gone out on a whimper, destroyed by two opponents who up until a few weeks ago we would have said we should be getting something from the games.
Tavares needs to be sold, he is an awful player who makes BIG mistakes every game, he isn't very good offensively and is a mess defensively.
I think Tavares is a lot like Andre Santos, can’t defend for shit but can be quite a menace going forward
If we buy that Scots boy I’d play him further forward….we have a thin squad, it’s good to have options on the left wing
Oh I agree. I think Arteta & Edu's hopeful punts have largely been misses, players like Tavares, Sambi-Lokonga to a lesser degree. The likes of Ramsdale, Tomi, White and Odegaard have been relative successes but they are semi-established players now and had a fair bit of experience before they joined us.
We need to be targeting first team players this summer, those are the kind of signings we need and pretty much in every area of the team, I.E. a couple of forwards, a new central midfielder, maybe two, a wide player to replace Pepe who I assume will be leaving and genuine cover for both full back positions.
Arteta & Edu have a lot of work to do this summer.
Hmmm. Much too early to write off Lokonga, for me. At times he has looked like a really exciting prospect. A couple of disappointing performances in disjointed team set-ups not a fair representation of his ability. A player who is very young for one of the most important positions on the picth - for me not surprising that Xhaka and Elneny used in the latter stages. Tavares more questionable, but he was in fact one of our better players in our last 2 games. He is unquestionably raw and has made high profile mistakes but I feel it would be harsh to write him off totally rather than giving him a chance in the early Europa stages next season. For me a failed punt would be Lucas Perez or even Dani Ceballos - who was signed on loan essesntially as a first team player, unlike Tavares.
More generally our business last Summer was good. It spoke to trying to sign the best new young talent with room for improvement, and that is precisely what it achieved. We can be revisionist by lamenting the drop in form at the end of the season, but our best back 5 - with 3 of them being new signings - was excellent in the 10 or so games when it was available.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Tbf, I think a big part of why the two ‘punts’ look like misses is because we’ve had to use them way more than we should have in their first seasons - if Tierney and Partey hadn’t spent half of the season out injured (again!) then I’m sure we would have used them far more sparingly and selectively, and would have done more work with them in the background, free from the spotlight.
Unfortunately the fitness issues of those two players is becoming something we can no longer ignore, and it might mean that we need to think about more oven-ready deputies who can come in for long stints when needed. I think we’ll stick with Sambi because he’s a little more shielded by Xhaka and Elneny, but I can easily see Nuno going. Not really his fault - he just needs more development than we have time for right now. Again, timing and circumstance - if he’d come into a more finished Arsenal side that needed less work then we probably would have had more time to devote to him.
Lokonga obviously has a lot of potential and is still young so I am sitting on the fence with him....however he didn't really add anything to the team this season. The issue with Tavares is due to Tierney being quite injury prone Tavares got a lot of minutes. That isn't a bad thing per say, but his performances on the whole were not up to scratch, he's not good enough for a team with ambition for a top 3/4 finish. He is not only raw, but lacks the basics of what is required. Don't forget Saka broke through as a full back and his performance level was high from start to finish, that's the standard of a top club.
Tavares may well improve, but I wouldn't feel comfortable having him in the team for important games next season.