Is this Xhaka really that good, never really heard of him or indeed seen much of him? Interstingly seems to have been sent off 5 times in 3 years, so seems to have a bit of aggression about him, probably not a bad thing considering the players we currently have.
If we do end up spending this amount on this guy I would think a decent striker coming in would be unlikely.
Priority would have been a striker followed by a CB with a DM third for me.
Last edited by Özim; 11-05-2016 at 09:36 AM.
I would call those inverted goal scoring wingers. All of the players you mention have superior dribbling technique and can glide past defenders with ease. It’s the evolution of the winger but not that far from what we used to see from Overmars and Pires. Players cutting in on to their stronger foot and scoring rather than playing on the opposite flank putting in crosses. Walcott is a different player. He can’t dribble at high speeds. He doesn’t have the close control to weave in and out of defenders. It’s something he should have learned but when it comes to dribbling, I don’t think it’s a skill you can develop so late on. I’ve never seen a player that was really bad at dribbling turn into a Ronaldinho.Originally Posted by I am invisible
Theo has pace but playing him wide is like seeing Podolski out wide. He has a bit of pace but can’t really dribble like the players you mention. You remember how stiff Podolski was and how anonymous he used to be during games. He’d need others to set him up with a shot. It’s like starting Michael Owen or Jermain Defoe on the flanks early in their careers. These sort of players are different and do more damage when the ball isn’t at their feet. It’s the opposite of a Robben, Ribery or Neymar. Again, it boils down to whether or not you’re a dribbler that likes to take your opponent on. If Theo weren’t so short, he’d probably have gotten more games up front ages ago. The manager should have recognised the type of player he was earlier in his career instead of trying to shoehorn him into something he’s not and not training him and instructing him adequately for that role.
I can extent that thought on to a lot of young players I’ve seen that’s grown up under Wenger. Ramsey and Cesc are good examples. Wenger had them focussing on goal hunting and he set goal targets for Cesc instead of telling the boy to track back and tackle harder. Be a more complete player and balanced before going for goals. That weakness in Cesc went undeveloped for so long it’s now so that he can’t really be trusted to play as CM without someone doing the leg work for him. He messed him up at Barca and he’d be playing as a striker instead of CM. Ramsey is the same. He’s goal hunting and focussed on runs into the box, timing his runs and arriving late into the box instead of helping to build play at the back like what we’re seeing from Elneny. I think Wenger is a bad youth coach. For older players that have had more first team experience, he’s great. But he’s like a bad car instructor that has drivers roaming the back streets doing the basics but won’t teach them how to parallel park or navigate a roundabout. Project youth has been an absolute flop and Theo Walcott is the poster child. Theo should have been smart enough to jump ship earlier. I’m sure if Wenger had Bale and Spurs Walcott, we’d have probably see a role reversal. I seriously doubt Bale would have become the player he is under Wenger. He’s had over 10 years picking out the best young talent from academies across Europe and hasn’t produced anything close to the players he’s bragged about nearly signing.
Why not! I'd certainly take Toral as an option over either Walcott or Ox at the moment. At least he looks hungry and seems to know what he is. Still has to prove himself at this level, but he's certainly aced the Championship test! Either give him a chance or let him go, because I see no value in farming him out on another loan, or shoving him back in the reserves.
To be honest, I'd quite happily sack off a massive chunk of the first team squad at the moment, and promote several of the more promising younger players. Several of the senior players are either already at the end of their Arsenal careers, or will have their best years behind them, another handful might be looking to leave, and yet another group simply aren't good enough or reliable enough - there's potentially a lot of changes on the cards here, and we're not gonna be able to do it all with new signings...
We need a striker. That's the main thing we need over everything else. We saw the difference Suarez made with that bang average Liverpool team. Had them pushing for a the title to the very end.
Honestly, we'll get the same results under Wenger. He's a shit coach. We can't get World Cup, CL and League winners to perform consistently so throwing kids into the deep end won't work. They all look hungry at first. I remember Ox and Walcott's first games. Instant impact when they played. It was the same with Jack. But once they stop playing of adrenaline, the form dips and they stop developing.
He's certainly worth a place in the squad based on a season where's taken plaudits like that - and it's only his second full season as a pro, which looks promising. Of course the Championship is the Championship but I can't recall a player going out on loan and getting such high praise. I agree about the current first team sqaud too and the fact that a swathe of new signings are not going to resolve the issue. The only concern is what Wenger will do with someone like Toral. He's an attacking mid I believe, so a place on the wing could be the only spot he gets a shot at in the near future, which is far from ideal.
I know it's comical, it's like he just erases the 15 games where Giroud went missing in the most crucial part of the season.
Interesting. I've always thought of it as being the evolution of the traditional goal-poacher role, but I can see the inverted winger thing too? I suppose it can be either - I've seen players who come to the role from more of a striking background, and others who were more traditional traditional wingers. The role as it is now demands a bit of both, but I think you can still tell what background the player has come from when you look at them, and both can work in their own way. Pires and Ljungberg are a good example of the difference: Pires was far more of a dribbler and a creative, and was more likely to cut inside onto his stronger foot from a bit further out, whereas Ljungberg was more of a burst-through-the-lines type, as he'd look to overlap the forwards and finish first time. I agree that there's no chance that Walcott was ever being another Pires, but I think he could have made a passable Ljungberg? Doesn't necessarily matter if you're not the best at dribbling - you can work around that by building a solid understanding with your fullback. I never thought Freddie was an amazing dribbler either, but it was never an issue because he knew how to work with Ralphy on the overlap.
With Ramsey and Cesc, I don't have a problem with them being focussed more towards hunting goals, per se - it only becomes a serious problem for me when we put them in central midfield. I just think it's a fundamental mis-match between playing style and the demands of that particular role. As you say, what you want to see in a modern central midfielder is more what we're seeing from Elneny - you need to have the ability to do a bit of everything, but it has to be married to positional discipline and solid judgment. Cesc and Ramsey as attackers? No problem with that at all. Cesc and Ramsey as central midfielders? Doesn't work for me - not with how we've trained them to play.
Very selective memory has Arsene. Its why I am not sure the defeats really hurt him that badly. Yes, during the game and in the immediate aftermath I think it gets to him, but after that it seems to be quickly consigned to just another case of bad luck, conditions were not perfect, poor referee etc etc.
I know he has never been in the business of publicly slamming his own players, which I get. But maybe after 20 years of repeating the same sort of thing, he does generally believe what he's saying now.
Yeah, I'd never really heard of him before this season, but he sounds like the kind of player we need in the middle? Heard him likened to Schweinsteiger in terms of style, which sounds promising in as far as it goes.
Not sure where I'd put a CM in our list of priorities? I agree about the desperate need for a striker and a CB, but I also think that our season fell apart alarmingly quickly when we lost Cazorla, and that's not a situation that I'm keen to find ourselves in again. As things currently stand, we'll have 3 senior players who can do that controlling job from CM for next season - Cazorla, Elneny and Wilshere - and of those 3, Cazorla has just done his cruciate at 31 (and may even be looking for one last move - who knows?), and Wilshere is Wilshere! That leaves us with just the new boy as the only option that I have any kind of long-term confidence in. Coq is a different type of player altogether, and Ramsey, IMO, should be classed as an attacker - if we can bring in another proprt central midfielder, then I'm all for it. Not particularly fussed about the order the signings are made in, just as long as they are actually made...
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