"Always" is a strong word. He's bad at man marking striker as the last man. But this won't be a problem as a DM, especially if they setup like United (2 DM/ defensive box to box).
With Matic and Kante in front of him acting as extra protection too.
Since David Dean was forced out of the Arsenal Board (perhaps the only Board Member that truely cared about the Club), Arsenal have gone though an endless amount of disastrous decisions over the last 15 years or so. A situation that has been caused by both Enos Stanley Kroenke & the Posh Twats that used to own the club before him.
Surely he knew this before he joined from Man City. Likewise while I do sympathise with Arteta and I don't really blame him for Arsenal's current mess, I do feel that his sucessful lobbying to keep Luiz at the club (and his refusal to drop Mustafi) has not helped his plight.
He’s definitely not helping himself by keeping these players. I think managers go into a job with optimism that they can turn it around quickly, Arteta would have known it would be difficult but I think he is starting to see this is significantly harder than first realised. I would be interested to see who they go for in the summer.
For that to work at Arsenal; they not only need to play a Back 3 (which they should do anyway), they would also have to sign someone like Partey as well.
Its particularly bizzare considering that he has first hand experience of a Team being completely undermined by their CBs (Man City).
Here is the thing though; as Pep's Assistant, he would have had first hand knowlege about Arsenal's potential weakenesses. So surely he would know more than most in knowing how bad the siutation was at the Emirates?
Whatever expections anyone has, prepare to be disappointed.
Incredible really
.He may have also been in his head working out what he would be doing to fix them if he was there, especially the period between when he first got an interview and eventually got the job.
Latest rumors indicate it's going to be done next week.I saw it on Twitter, it has to be true
Everybody in the land knows Arsenal's weakness but he can't do anything meaningful at the moment. He doesn't seem to like Sokratis, the 2 english boys are barely back to fitness and before City, Luiz kind of worked if you erase the Chelsea game from your memory. Mustafi must not believe his luck with all that's happening, he go the fans off his back
If he was doing that (which might well be the case), I would like to know what reasons he had in mind when he thought the best solution was...starting Luiz & Mustafi in a Back 4. Despite the fact he knew perfectly well that Luiz is unusable (as a CB) within a Back 4 & that he has first hand experience of Mustafi embarrassing himself against Man City (1).
Thats what happens when you have no real leaders within your team, which is a complete contrast to Arsenal Teams of old (1). In fact its got so bad that when Aubameyang does leave, I can only name 2 players in their current squad that could take on the armband (Sokratis & Torreira).
The funny thing is; Wenger at his best (between 1998-2006) would have signed Partey up by now if he was still at Arsenal, in fact he would be perfect for your club. Not that Kroenke would know anything about that...Latest rumors indicate it's going to be done next week.I saw it on Twitter, it has to be true
He could have recalled Saliba in January, promote Medley to the First Team (and actually giving him chances), retain Mavropanos instead of loaning him out to Nürnberg and play them all in a Back 3 (since 3-5-2 is the best formation Arsenal can play) alongside Sokratis, Mari, Chambers & Holding (depending on injuries of course). Which would cost nothing in Transfer Fees and surely cannot be any worse than any sort of Luiz-Mustafi CB Partnership.
Sokratis I suspect is mainly due to his ball playing abilities.
One would also have to remove the Olympiacos game, the other Chelsea game (whey they bottled a 1 goal lead), the Liverpool game, the Watford game (the 2-2 one), the Sheffield United game & the Leicester game. In fact the only impressive performance I saw of Luiz (at Arsenal) at a Big Game was the 2-0 Victory against United on New Years Day...and even then he was facing a United side with Lindelof at the back and a midfield combination of Matic-Fred-Lingard.
Don't worry; I certainly havent forgotten how bad Mustafi still is!Mustafi must not believe his luck with all that's happening, he go the fans off his back
To be fair I was talking about "Prime" Wenger (1998-2006) when he had the likes of Gilberto Silva & Vieira in the middle of the park, not the "King Lear" Wenger (2007-2018) that spent the following decade undoing all the good he did at Arsenal.
Was there an actual clause that barred Arsenal from recalling Saliba? Or was it more than a Gentleman's Agreement?
George Graham once gambled on frequently playing a 19 year old Tony Adams when he first arrived, the rest they say is history. Regardless, the worst that could have happened with Saliba would be that he turns out to be as bad as Luiz & Mustafi (short of deliberately scoring own goals & commiting Red Card Tackles, it's very hard to be even worse than either), at least then Arteta could prove (to the Arsenal Board) how bad Arsenal's CB options acually are.
I don't know if Medley is the answer; but personally speaking (if I was at a club that refused to invest in the team), I would rather give a chance with youth than give failures more chances to screw up. Especially when they actually have the potential to improve & better themselves. So considering that he is the best Youth CB at Arsenal currently, I don't see what Arteta has to lose to play him regularly (and develop his talent).
He has hardly had a chance with Arsenal to be fair, I have heard though that he is doing alright on loan though.
While I am no fan of Chambers myself, he is still better at CB than Luiz & Mustafi, while also being better RB (at least in a Back 4) than Bellerín. Which kind of shows how far things have fallen...
I don't know but when have you ever heard of a club cancelling these sort of agreements ? That would send a terrible signal to other clubs the next time you try to sign a player.I think we did try to buy him directly and St Etienne flat out refused. And i don't think they were bluffing, 30M is a lot of money for them but a pretty easy gamble. Clubs would have been there this summer for him even with COVID 19.
That's oversimplying things. First of all the deal was done with Emery and he and the board had absolutely no plan to try out things with youth. His only goal was to get top 4 or a Europa League. And as much as you can hate X or Y, at CB you have to go with experience. You can't throw a 19y old against Aguero,Kane and Salah and hope for the best.
Come on now, Bellerin has lost a lot of his explosiveness after his injury but Chambers has never been and will never be a better RB than him. He gets turned and left for dead against Championship players. His best bet is to be a #3CB that you can sometimes use with a very good player alongside him.
Many players are recalled early from their loan spells; for example Arsenal themselves recalled Eddie Nketiah from Leeds United in January, despite the fact that Leeds themselves where unhappy about said recall.
Despite the fact that many other clubs do the exact same thing across multiple seasons. I mean it's not like Arsenal would be breaking any rules by recalling Saliba, especially when he is on Arsenal's books and not St Etienne's.
William Saliba himself wanted to join Arsenal (or so he has claimed); so if St Etienne where open to selling Saliba regardless, I don't see how the club would hold much leverage against Arsenal considering that the club where offering a decent fee for Saliba & said player wanted to go to said club.
Emery could have reached Top 4 Last Season had he stuck with the Monreal-Koscielny-Sokratis Back 3 (With Kolasinac at LWB & Bellerín at RWB) week in week out in the Premier League, especially when you had some your best performances with a 3-5-2 (including wins against Tottenham, Manchester United, Valencia & Napoli). Since this was no longer possible this season (1), he should have been willing to give Medley, Mavropanos & Saliba chances rather than give them to Mustafi & Luiz. Mainly because anyone with any sort of footballing brain would work out that a Back 4 of Kolasinac-Luiz-Mustafi-Bellerín would never enable a team to reach Top 4, especially when none of them can actually defend (especially in a Back 4) and are either too set their ways (Kolasinac, Luiz & Mustafi) or are too arrogant (Bellerín) to actually learn how to defend.
While Bellerin is far better as an attacking full-back than Chambers (hence why he should be playing as a RWB than a RB); when it comes to defensive work, workrate and attitude, Bellerin is so bad in all 3 accounts that Chambers is easily better than him in all 3 regards.
Arteta is best advised to have a Holding-Saliba-Sokrartis CB partnership next season. With Mari, Chambers, Mavropanos & Medley as backups and both Luiz & Mustafi being kicked out of the club.
What are you talking about. Nketiah was an Arsenal player in need of gametime that got loaned out and recalled because "reasons". Saliba was signed under the condition he was loaned out for a year, it's not even a debate. Of course Sanlehi lied, St Etienne had a firm grasp of our balls and made the loan mandatory.
I was using Eddie Nketiah as an example of how loans can be ended up by the parent club, even if the other club involved is opposed to such a recall.
Then Arsenal offically have the world's stupidest negotiating team; I mean Arsenal where willing to meet St Etienne's asking price, Saliba himself wanted to join Arsenal & he would have got a lot of gametime at Arsenal (thus meaning that Saliba would be in favour of joining Arsenal immediately rather than stay at St Etienne for another season) (1). Yet St Etienne where still able to dictate terms as if they are Real Madrid?
I will try to find one, but honestly I can't think of many clubs that buy players & then loan them back despite needing them immediately. Which would be as sensible as United buying Sancho, yet loaning him out to Dortmund for a season and continuing to play Lingard at RW (1)
Fair enough, although surely we can both agree that Arsenal's really needs to have a better RB then either of them.
If Sokartis is sold while Mustafi & Luiz remain; then all it will show is that Arteta & Raul have no idea how to take Arsenal back into the Top 4, let alone towards League Titles.
Saliba also wanted to remain one more year in Ligue 1 to "be ready". He had only played 15/20 games in his first season. He managed around the same this season while having been injured and the league being cut early due to the coronavirus.
He is one of the best young players in Europe. Saliba is a good prospect, nothing more for now.As I said earlier, it would have been a smart move to loan out Saliba back to his former club...if you had a CB partnership that could actually work in a Back 4. Since Arsenal don't, it would have been in their interest to keep him in the first team. Likewise one also could argue that it would actually make more sense for Saliba to spend a season adapting to the Premier League as soon as possible rather than delay that process.
I didn't know who he was until Arsenal where linked to him; but once I was made aware of him, I felt that at the very least he would be better than Mustafi and seemed like he has a great potential as I dug in deeper
He may or may not have be able to "save" Arsenal; but so long as he wasn't worse than Luiz & Mustafi, he would have improved Arsenal's defence this season.
Even if you had a Managerment Team that doesn't get outfoxed by a Mid-Table French side?
Fair enough; in which case Arsenal loaning out Saliba (while continuing to play Luiz & Mustafi at CB) is like United loaning out Greenwood...while continuing to play Lingard at RW.And no, it is not in any way comparable to you signing Sancho
Only time will tell if we got outfoxed or found a way to sign a top young CB for peanuts before anyone else. The truth will probably be somewhere in the middle.
Sometimes seems a bit of an understatement when they often directly lead to goals or going a man down.
Well except the price actually was £24m after agent fees & including his salary. Obviously he's been great today but a bargain he is not.
He’s absolutely overrated today in terms of his performance. Consistently performing like today would make him into a bargain for arsenal. Luiz is consistently inconsistent.
That’s not true. Denied by several of those who should know.
Who denied it? Would be surprised if anyone is better connected at Arsenal than Amy Lawrence and she's the one who reported it initially.
Why only calculate agent fees and salaries for David and not all transfers?
Because you're going on about him being some great bargain and also because it's exceedingly odd that a team would sign a player from another team and only give him a one year contract (with an option). Normally wages are assessed as they're year over year, but if you're signing him for one season it makes sense to include.
It's amazing how people believe the lowest number reported for their team and highest for other teams.
