Here's where we are.

[mandela8]

The level of fitba insight on here is abysmal, so ima do you all a favor and tell you what to think. Rather than parrot Sky Sports or The Sun or wherever you're getting your opinions from. You can now just copy mine. Will make you all less of a bed wetter and make your penis approx 1 inch longer. That's a 100% increase for many of you.

GK
Ramsay is the boy. A completely unnecessary buy but he's been brilliant. Arsenal should've spent that money elsewhere but meh. He's no1 for the next decade, hopefully.

Defence
Tierney, Tommy are great. Thought Tierney was a bit shit for much of last season but poor form rather than ability. Tommy is extremely limited going forward. The number of times he had an easy forward pass on but he chose to go inside or back was frustrating as fuck but he's a solid defender.
Gabriel is solid enough. Got a howler in him but should mate out of that. I like him.
White is a bit of a pussy. He isn't terrible but he's not very good either. Waste of money. Saliba should start ahead of him and I've genuinely never seen Saliba play.
Holding is shit but for some reason probably my favorite player at the club. No idea why.

MF
Partey is the best player at the club. By a distance. Elite ability. Just has that bit of class about him. Can take the ball on the turn, and moves the ball forward between the lines. The only MF we have that can. The team needs to be built around. Capable of utterly shit passes though. But if I looked up and saw idiots like Xhaka and Saka it'd put me off too.

Xhaka and Elneny. Just horrific players. Xhaka is abysmal and Elneny a coward, terrified of forward passes.

Lokonga is decent, man. Should've played far more than he did, beside Partey.

AM/Wingers
Odegaard is closest to partey in quality. Clear 2nd best. Should get better too. Great player.
Saka. Fuck me. Never seen anything like it. He's atrocious yet over rated to an extent I've never seen in nearly 40 years of me being right about absolutely everything fitba relayed. I've sat and watched him be pure shite then get man of the match. It's just weird. At least he got a few goals last year but more important were the chances that died when the ball goes to him him.

ESR needs to kick on. Doesn't assert himself enough. Hopefully just young but needs to do summin next season.

Martinelli is an exciting headless chicken with close to zero end product.

Striker
Nketiah has never done enough but I seen summin against West Ham. Just had a little bit about him. Glad he resigned.

Signings
Viera I've been a huge fan of ever since I first heard of him 2 days ago. Another progressive/forward thinking midfielder is an absolute must, man.

Rumors
Jesus - not convinced he's the striker to move is up a level. Going from a Vlahovic to Jesus just makes no sense to me. But I'm not against it, I guess. Just naw excited.

Raphinia - sure, good player and we need at least one proven wide player in the squad, ffs.

Tielemans - sure, why not. Need another CM and he's an improvement.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Welcome to the forum


Now down to business, WTF is this shit?

[Letters]

Interesting about Partey, I don't think he's that good.
And Saka is brilliant, give your head a wobble.

[mandela8]

Interesting about Partey, I don't think he's that good.
And Saka is brilliant, give your head a wobble.

Partey is a beautiful player, man. The way he can take a pass and turn past a man is brilliant. He then tries difficult passes that no one else does. He also inexplicably gives the ball away far more than he should buy We're utterly shit without him.

[mandela8]

The Saka stuff is just ridiculous. It's pure mob mentality at this point and there's literally zero objectivity around him.

He's the one constant in a pretty inept attack. That's telling on it's own. Not that I attribute it entirely to him but he's a huge part of it.

His decision making is terrible. Very slow to make a decision and when he does it's usually the wrong one. Laca turned to absolute shit but the service (lack of) was a huge part of it.

His directness is abysmal. The number of great chances that gets to Saka who then takes an age to get the ball out of his feet is staggering. I've never seen a player fail to get a shot away as often as he does. Or a player who has so many blocked shots, because he takes so long to get it off. Can you even post clips on this thread. A great example was the home Wolves game. I think Odegaard played him through on the edge of the box there was no one within 10 yards of him. He lost the ball. One example of dozens.

His shooting is the worst I've ever seen in professional fitba. The number of shots he scuffs is actually mental.

People claim he's great but I challenge anyone to actually give me examples of a few games he's dominated. No one can. Like I said, I've watched him play shockingly only to get man of the match and have everyone fawn over him. Legit bizarre.

I get he's an arsenal boy and seems really nice a likeable but people are just blinded by this. It's quite the phenomenon, really.

Anyway...I'll leave that challenge open for anyone who thinks they can tell me when he's actually been as good as people seem to think he is.

[Marc Overmars]

The Saka stuff is just ridiculous. It's pure mob mentality at this point and there's literally zero objectivity around him.

He's the one constant in a pretty inept attack. That's telling on it's own. Not that I attribute it entirely to him but he's a huge part of it.

His decision making is terrible. Very slow to make a decision and when he does it's usually the wrong one. Laca turned to absolute shit but the service (lack of) was a huge part of it.

His directness is abysmal. The number of great chances that gets to Saka who then takes an age to get the ball out of his feet is staggering. I've never seen a player fail to get a shot away as often as he does. Or a player who has so many blocked shots, because he takes so long to get it off. Can you even post clips on this thread. A great example was the home Wolves game. I think Odegaard played him through on the edge of the box there was no one within 10 yards of him. He lost the ball. One example of dozens.

His shooting is the worst I've ever seen in professional fitba. The number of shots he scuffs is actually mental.

People claim he's great but I challenge anyone to actually give me examples of a few games he's dominated. No one can. Like I said, I've watched him play shockingly only to get man of the match and have everyone fawn over him. Legit bizarre.

I get he's an arsenal boy and seems really nice a likeable but people are just blinded by this. It's quite the phenomenon, really.

Anyway...I'll leave that challenge open for anyone who thinks they can tell me when he's actually been as good as people seem to think he is.

I think you’re right to some extent given the nature to overrate and deify young home grown talent. The kid is only 20 though and playing in the most blunt Arsenal team in modern history, the reliance on him to deliver consistently is ridiculous when he’s got so much to learn. Hopefully with 2 or 3 polished signings this summer to reshape the attack we will see a more functional front line.

[HCZ_Reborn]

The Saka stuff is just ridiculous. It's pure mob mentality at this point and there's literally zero objectivity around him.

He's the one constant in a pretty inept attack. That's telling on it's own. Not that I attribute it entirely to him but he's a huge part of it.

His decision making is terrible. Very slow to make a decision and when he does it's usually the wrong one. Laca turned to absolute shit but the service (lack of) was a huge part of it.

His directness is abysmal. The number of great chances that gets to Saka who then takes an age to get the ball out of his feet is staggering. I've never seen a player fail to get a shot away as often as he does. Or a player who has so many blocked shots, because he takes so long to get it off. Can you even post clips on this thread. A great example was the home Wolves game. I think Odegaard played him through on the edge of the box there was no one within 10 yards of him. He lost the ball. One example of dozens.

His shooting is the worst I've ever seen in professional fitba. The number of shots he scuffs is actually mental.

People claim he's great but I challenge anyone to actually give me examples of a few games he's dominated. No one can. Like I said, I've watched him play shockingly only to get man of the match and have everyone fawn over him. Legit bizarre.

I get he's an arsenal boy and seems really nice a likeable but people are just blinded by this. It's quite the phenomenon, really.

Anyway...I'll leave that challenge open for anyone who thinks they can tell me when he's actually been as good as people seem to think he is.

You’re entitled to whatever opinion you like, just as everyone else is entitled to think you’re a bit silly

The fact that you are attributing us being blunt in attack to Saka is daft imo. There are two key factors, one we’ve been playing without a consistent goal scorer and two we don’t have any creativity in central midfield (Smith Rowe and Odegaard are not central midfielders they play behind the striker) and this is why I will be up in arms if we don’t sign either Tielemans or an equivalent player…someone who is comfortable taking the ball from defensive positions into offensive position.
Xhaka is too one footed and too often doesn’t show for the ball, Partey has tried this but not comfortable playing through the press…Lokonga I think given time will develop into a player who can do this but we need a finished article.
Saka’s finishing isn’t brilliant at times he’s been known to scuff efforts or guilty of indecision, but there’s a world of difference between that and being shit….if Odegaard provides an assist it’s a result of linkup play with Saka. It’s not Saka that goes missing in games it’s Odegaard, if you want to point fingers at a player for amount of missed chances it would be Martinelli.
For a twenty year old player he’s done remarkably well, we clearly need more up front but to suggest he individually he’s not good enough or is overrated because he’s not single handedly carrying us like Atlas is ridiculous.

[I am invisible]

Partey is a beautiful player, man. The way he can take a pass and turn past a man is brilliant. He then tries difficult passes that no one else does. He also inexplicably gives the ball away far more than he should buy We're utterly shit without him.

Good summary of his strengths and value to the side

This is one of those changes to the game that I don't think a lot of the football-viewing world has fully caught up to yet. When people think of the guy at the base of the midfield a lot of minds still automatically go to an energetic, terrier-type, like a Makelele or a Kante, but that's not really the job any more - most of that aggressive pressing and harrying and ball-winning is now done by the forwards in a high press, and the DMs are now the ones getting chased down! The job has become more about being able to take the ball under pressure, turn a marker, wriggle out of tight spaces, and break lines, either through ball-carrying or quick distribution. Don't get me wrong, TP is still a very good ball-winner when he has to be, but it's not really his super-power and it's not what makes him so effective in that role - it's actually a fairly minor part of his game.

Whether you could call his time here a success is up for debate - it's taken him a while to find a role that he really owns (probably more of a systemic issue than an individual one) and he's spent as much time out injured as he has available, but when he's on it then he really is immense and does the job of two men.

[mandela8]

Good summary of his strengths and value to the side

This is one of those changes to the game that I don't think a lot of the football-viewing world has fully caught up to yet. When people think of the guy at the base of the midfield a lot of minds still automatically go to an energetic, terrier-type, like a Makelele or a Kante, but that's not really the job any more - most of that aggressive pressing and harrying and ball-winning is now done by the forwards in a high press, and the DMs are now the ones getting chased down! The job has become more about being able to take the ball under pressure, turn a marker, wriggle out of tight spaces, and break lines, either through ball-carrying or quick distribution. Don't get me wrong, TP is still a very good ball-winner when he has to be, but it's not really his super-power and it's not what makes him so effective in that role - it's actually a fairly minor part of his game.

Whether you could call his time here a success is up for debate - it's taken him a while to find a role that he really owns (probably more of a systemic issue than an individual one) and he's spent as much time out injured as he has available, but when he's on it then he really is immense and does the job of two men.

Exactly this.

I've been careful not to say he's been a success here, despite rating him extremely highly, I don't think he has yet.

Between injuries and a dysfunctional system I think he's struggled at times but when we moved to the single pivot (fuck me that sounds noncey as fuck) he really came into his own and the whole team worked through him. It meant pushing Xhaka up a little, which he's fuckin shite at, but he's fuckin shite at everything, but I think this is the way Arteta wants to play. He's alluded to it before. So, hopefully, Partey as the single DM receiving from the defence then having options like Vieira and Odegaard ahead of him giving us far more options/sets/patterns to progress the ball up the field.

Someone like Tielemans also fits into this too...he might even be the Xhaka replacement and Vieira is apparently pretty versatile so could fill in there, for Odegaard or even wide. Purely guessing here, obvs.

[Gooner23]

Ramsay in goal, top work.