Dominik Szoboszlai linked with January move

by .

I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but the rampant media bias against OGS simply must stop. This guy is pure, unadulterated, intellectually elite, Norwegian football joy. He proved it today with a beasting of Carlo A’s Everton side. Give OGS more time, give him more money, let’s see where this United experiment goes.

Poch can go to PSG.

In Arsenal news, we can start the day with a sexy transfer rumour. We’re being linked with Le Grove comments section favourite, Dominik Szoboszlai. The Hungarian #8 has been doing exciting things for RB Salzburg.

He’s an all action midfielder. He scores goals, he makes assists, he covers ground like all the best do for RB, and he is a setpiece demon. Apparently, he’d hit 200 freekicks a day… imagine that, having an actual specialist from distance? What a weapon.

He also has an elite mindset, something you need if you’re going to make it in a new country in the most competitive league on the planet. This article from FirstTimeFinish is excellent and had this clipping.

During lockdown with the football on hold, Dominik enlisted the help of Olympic Champion coach, Shane Tusup, to help with his physical and conditioning development.

The results of the pair’s work has been a huge increase in muscle mass. It’s something noticed by Christoph Freund.

‘He’s improved a lot on the physical level,’ Freund says.

Szoboszlai, who appeared timid at times during his first Champions League appearances last season, now looks far more menacing. He was able to dictate the play against the physically commanding Atletico Madrid late last month.

Shane and Dominik remain in close contact and talk everyday.

‘I work on helping athletes get the maximum out of themselves so that they can become true warriors when they enter the battlefield,’

I like Houssem Auoar, he’s undoubtedly a massive talent, but the fuckery of the summer might be a sign of things to come with him. He’d also cost about £20m more. Szoboszlai has a £24m buyout clause, is 3 years younger, and might have more of the all action features we need in an Arsenal team that desperately lacks goals scorers and final pass masters. It might take a year or so for the players to settle, but my word, what a talent he could turn into.

What I love about this sort of rumour is that he’s exactly the sort of player you hope your club is looking at. There’s a clearly defined problem in our midfield and we’ve gone out and looked at young player that could solve it. Is it a risk? No doubt, but a £24m risk for a player trained by RB feels like one worth taking. Arsenal should do this deal. It makes sense at every level and again reinforces the notion that if you have clear vision, it is MUCH easier to buy players against it.

I love clarity.

Before we get into the game. I want to take on a very pressing issue a lot of people have been sidebarring with me about.

Mikel’s jacket.

I’m all for fashion experiments. Like football, sometimes you have to take a chance. But this selection felt like a tactical misstep and the coach has to hold himself accountable for it.

The ‘I’m selling tickets to a Tottenham Court Road night club called FLAME’ euro chic vibes were unexpected and if I’m honest, unwelcome. I think he’s over-coached the choice here. He’s tried to blend fashion with ergonomics and he’s fallen flat. The textures are all wrong and I think we need to see a big response on Sunday with something a little more classic. It’s a young coach thing; we’ve seen it with Julian Nagelsmann a few times, so keep the faith, he’ll get it right.

The line of fire in his press conference largely focused on the underperformance of Willian and Pepe. The manager didn’t shirk. He was asked if he thought their return was good enough and he straight up said no… he wants 10 goals and assists from both players. He was pushed by one journo on Willian because he gets starts over Pepe, but the reality is Willian has shown he can play at the highest level consistently… we’ve never seen that from Pepe.

The Ivorian isn’t shirking reality. He dropped and interview on Sky and basically said he’s adapting to a new coach, a new system, and he needs to give more. I’d agree. The fact he canvassed Gabriel to join Arsenal tells you he’s emotionally invested in Arsenal, so at least his body language isn’t reflective of interest. A few people have floated the idea of him playing through the middle at some point. I like that idea, he could potentially offer quite a lot as a striker, though he does have similar strength physical limitations, he certainly has more speed through the middle, and that unpredictable nature is horrible for defenders in the same way playing against Kanu was back in the day.

I think the Aston Villa game is going to pose a real challenge for Arsenal. Last time we played them, we were taught a lesson in complacency. We’d made the FA Cup final and we switched off against Villa and they beat us. It’s hard to work out what they will do against us because they have players to do more than just deep block. Their attacking players are a joy to watch when they click, Jack Grealish an absolute dream of a player we could do with. There’s a lot we need to be careful of, but we also have to remember we have better players than them and we need to find the keys to our own attacking game.

We also have to be prepared to unpick an Emi Martinez guarded goal and not fall prey to their quick counter. It’s going to be a long afternoon.

Does Joe Willock get some minutes? He was the difference-maker against a shite Molde. He has pace, he’s unpredictable, and on his day he can make and deliver. Elneny was the star the previous Thursday and he started on Sunday. It’ll be interesting to see who makes it this time. Will Xhaka in a more advanced midfield position make a Premier League debut? How will Arteta configure his front three?

Lots of questions I simply can’t answer.

I’m looking forward to the game regardless.

Right, see you in the comments. x

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Kaz

CT

Because Arteta is afraid and he is not going to take risks and has entrenched himself deeper into his way of playing.

Ishola70

Where the fuck is Tierney again

SpanishDave

What’s going on !!
Sounds like a song!
Arteta is just winging it , clueless again.

Captain Tierney

Willian is definitely here for his retirement package.

Marc

Every fucking time I begin to think there’s a glimmer of hope we go to shit.

Dissenter

Willian aiming for the corner flag

Nelson

Laca is so useless against that CB.

Useroz

Thats a big chance. Willian. Not pressed. Time to take a touch and mis cued.

Northbanker

Wtf was that from Willian?

Montana Gooner

OMG Willian

Kaz

Everyone alive is saying put Auba done the middle. Auba didn’t sign the contract to be continued out of position.

azed

Is it too late to return Williams?

Marc

Get Pepe on for Willian.

Useroz

Saka hasn’t played well at all.

250 k a week 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂and they say Ozil is shit

zeus

Pepe on soon

andy1886

On the bright side we can’t play much worse in the second 45, can we?

Dissenter

azed
“ s it too late to return Williams”

2.5 more years

gazzap

Laca and Willian conspiring to fuck it up again. Auba must be shaking his head.

Ben+D

Why does Arteta continue playing Willian. Surely both Pepe and Willock are better options

Marc

Useroz

Might be quicker to list who has played well for us tonight.

Ashburton

This villa midfield are torturing us here. Playing with swigger….. Champions league we are having a laugh

Captain Tierney

Willian needs to be subbed off.

Seems like every Arsenal player is having a bad day on the same day.

Marc

andy

You’re beginning to piss me off now!

Matt

Elneny has been toilet today as well.

Useroz

Elneny reverts to previous form. Even in 1H with Partey around.

Retreating to former shell

Left Testicle

Lacazette is a fooking pussy.

Batistuta

Dissenter

Lol and they’re the remaining teams on an ACCA that’s been running since Friday, was more scared Qarabag and Villarreal would fuck me up but it’s my two favorite teams denying me a healthy end of the year package

Valentin

I can already hear the post game comment.
We stayed competitive during the game and we lost only by 1 goal…

Useroz

Wouldn’t that a yellow!??

Marc

Valentin

You missed off “bumps in the road”

Leftside

Remember that Lacazette and Willian will start the next game, Auba will still be shunted to the wings too.

Useroz

Ceballos needs too many touches before deciding what to do.

Leftside

We’re soo slow in possession and attack.

Marko

Dire stuff honestly

Useroz

Another poor FL routine. Too slow. Poor shot again.

Guns of SF

Move Willian to the left, move Saka more in the middle…. try something new!

andy1886

@Marc, just wait until Pedro takes a leaf out of the Donald’s book. Lost 1-0? No, we won, definitely won the game. Fake news. la la la la la….

Nelson

We need Pepe !!!

Dissenter

This is very Wengeresque

Matt

Is there a worse set piece team in the league than us!?

Ishola70

Saka is isolated again.

Where is the interplay in this side. Zero interplay

Batistuta

Find whatever Arteta is trying to do boring and very rigid. Don’t get me wrong there’s been improvements and one or two good results but his brand if football is quite torturous to watch. Has to be able to mix it up

Ashburton

Grelish is some player tbf

Captain Tierney

That is an impossible save from Leno.

Marc

andy

Don’t give him idea’s – he’ll be claiming we’ve won the CL at the end of the season.

Ishola70

Ceballos looks the best hope to bring a bit of spark atm

Nelson

They play much better than us. Holding is a joke.

Useroz

Ffs. Villa went one end to another in 5 seconds!!!

We take 5 minutes??!

Ashburton

Should be 3 down here… Pish

Marc

Dissenter

Agree

raptora

Leno massive save. Massive

SpanishDave

Clueless , another defeat for our best defense in the league side

Habesha Gooner

Dissenter
Exactly my thoughts. He needs to change it up when things are working. He is very rigid. Wenger esque.

gazzap

Free kicks are jsut awful.

Ishola70

We look like we could concede a second goal at any time.

So much for defensive solidity

DUIFG

To be clear arteta removed our best player when Laca and Willian are on the field. Ok

G8

We are literally being bullied there!

Useroz

We ate second to every 50/50 even 55-45 balls

Luteo Guenreira

Some dry ass pasta so far. No sauce at all.

Samesong

Post match comment will be “Well Villa did beat Pool 7-2′ Wanks!

Guns of SF

The Dani and Mo show is not working

MidwestGun

Tierney took one for the team.. fuck that had to hurt.

Montana Gooner

Willian is terrible today.

Useroz

We look like manure this week! So far…

Habesha Gooner

Things arent working*

Bertfish

Not watching as got stung on PPV last time out & the links are shit. Am I right in saying we ain’t had a shot on target yet?

roaaary

What is disappointing is we can all see this will be a loss and theres so much time to play.

We don’t have the ability to switch things up

Paddy+Gooner

Better team is winning

Useroz

Still fucking about in and around our own box

Mr Serge

We can’t lose at home again that’s not good enough

gazzap

Arteta are you enjoying this??

Matt

This is embarrassing

Captain Tierney

How are Willian and Laca still on the pitch.

Guns of SF

No plan no attack, no nothing,

What were the instructions at half time?

Useroz

Holding needs to hit target from there. Cmon.

Captain Tierney

Holding from 2 yards.

We are so bad our CBs have are having to create chances for each other.

Ashburton

Holding, poor man’s Michael Dawson.

Chris

Just get Pepe on.

Leftside

Martinez hasn’t had much to do at all.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Get the Spanish waiter gone
Let’s get a proper manager in .

@Ashburton

😂😂😂

Useroz

Hate it more when camera pans onto Dirty Ugly Terry

SpanishDave

Arteta got lucky last week, his stubbornness will backfire on him for sure

Captain Tierney

Whenever Saka makes a mistake in the First Half his confidence gets shot and he usually goes on to have a very poor game.

Northbanker

Nketiah for Laca
One piss poor striker for another

Nelson

They are not even parking the bus. Our game sucks so much.

G8

FFS

Habesha Gooner

I have found arteta to be a less creative Benitez so far. Yes he has his moments in big games but we suck against teams that we should be winning against.

Guns of SF

Neketiah and Pepe

should have been on 15 mins ago

Useroz

#LacaSad and #Villian off

Pepe and Eddie on

Matt

Meek performance. Bring on two of the meekest players in the league.

Ashburton

Spurs go get a left back from real Madrid, we go to Scotland for their number 2 left back…. The owners need removing ASAP

Captain Tierney

We cant seem to execute even one of the practiced set plays.

Useroz

We play with hardly any conviction

bacaryisgod

Watching Holding helps me understand why the Titanic was unable to turn away from the iceberg quickly enough.

G8

Auba shall not play centre under my guard!

DUIFG

Beating ole does not wash away sins, we have been on a long term trend of not creating and not playing out best team. Arteta is making it hard for himself again

gazzap

How are Laca and Willian still on this pitch. I’m losing it with Arteta.

Radio Raheem

Eddie Murphy time!

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