I noticed a crucial detail in Arteta's post match interviews when we drop points we're not supposed to by playing poorly. When he first arrived, he takes full responsibility by saying the performance is all down to him but now it's Wenger like delusion saying we 'deserved' to win the game with 'chances' created and all that bullshit. The sooner we hire someone that doesn't have a complicated style of play the better, none of this inverting bullshit, left sided 8, stacking jocks in the team with low technique and footballing intelligence, signing injury prone players etc
Biggest concern of all this season is the only thing we’ve been excellent at is set pieces and safe to say Arteta has bigger all involvement with those.
Take Jover out and what position would we be right now? 10th?
1) play MLS which goes against his instincts to not trust kids. Boy did himself no harm at all and came through the game well
2) was willing to pull of Ode early for Ethan. Correct decision at the correct time which surprised me greatly
But some observations about Ethan recently
1) when he comes on, nobody passes to him. He’s supposed to be brought on so he can add pace and dynamism. Get the ball centrally on the half turn and drive forwards, beat a man and pass or go for goal near the edge of the box. He’s brilliant at this. Yet every time we bring him on the tactics immediately change to just pass to the LW and hope the winger does something magical. This is really poor tactically considering the combination of Ethan’s dynamism with Saka’s threat should mean the Centre right-right wing becomes increasingly dangerous. Instead we ignore that entirely and hope trossard works a miracle by himself on the left. What’s the point? Poor tactic, very very poor. What’s even the point of bringing him on if the tactics are set up not to utilize him at all?
2) Ethan himself should work on his positioning a little bit. He’s brilliant in the ball but with some minor tweaks to his positioning he will pop up in more and more dangerous positions.
I see Arteta resigning by season end. I hope he does. He's peaked. Can't do more than he has. He's a winner, attitude wise. A competitive freak and an absolute workaholic but he can't get it over the line at this club. He doesn't have the self motivation nor the discipline nor requisite skills to do so without an external push. The kroenkes are the last people to push you nor demand success from their coaches.
#KroenkeOut now. Arteta is a problem but Kroenkes are a bigger problem.
Arteta is not a winner.... never has been. One time I remember him as a player he scored an equaliser against Villa via a free kick. He wasted over 2 minutes celebrating instead of hurrying a restart
Well, he talks like a winner. His attitude is that of a winner. He just doesn't know hot to get there and he's decided to surround himself by yes men. No dissenting voices, no accountability coming from the higher ups.
I'd sooner rather he left the club but if he goes to another club that has accountability and external drive, he could win. Inexperience and lack of accountability from management is a requisite for failure. Sadly that's what we have at Arsenal FC at the moment.
Kroenkes are all talk and pander to managers, Arteta is inexperienced.
Wow. He's been out for a while and I didn't even know. Shouldn't have been CEO in the first place. The decision by S&JK to allow the triumvirate of Vinai, Edu and later Arteta to run such a big hitter like Arsenal was trolling material to begin with.
It’s not the point. Arteta getting a poor return on investment is not reason to think wenger would get a better return when it was literally wenger spending big in his final years that drove us totally off the cliff with crap talent ID
He wouldn’t have. Wenger started spending in his later years and his return on investment was frankly awful
Mustafi Ozil Xhaka Laca kola Auba cost a combined 300+m and were all extremely underwhelming over the course of their contracts (Ozil had only about 1.5 good seasons of football, Xhaka only turned good in the last 12 months before he left) etc
This game really broke my heart. Couldn’t believe how tepid we played. Odegaard has been shooting blanks when presented with huge chances (world class?). Martinelli will make you want to break your screen. Dude is so dense. Kai is not a striker, I will excuse him. Saka is being marked out but he still tries. Rice is always panting after 30 mins. Partey is wasted at RB when Timber should be played there and Tierney accommodated. Jesus shouldn’t be playing for the first team by now. All in all, Arteta has shown that he is not a top coach. After 2 consecutive runners up positions, Man City falters and instead of grabbing the opportunity with two hands, you allow two Managers in their debut seasons to snatch it from you.
My take in all of these is that if Slot or Maresca shouid win the EPL, then Arteta should be sacked with immediate effect and possibly probed for fraud. This is totally unacceptable
It’s not that Ode missed his chances that worried me - that’s just bad form in front of goal from a player who definitely has the ability. Far more worrying was how lethargic he and the rest of the midfield and forwards were apart from Saka
They all spent half the game standing still waiting for someone else to do something. No movement. No energy. When we did counter and have a break, they couldn’t really be arsed to do so quickly. Dreadful.
in a normal team, he would be. Not with this ownership. They do not like to shake things up. The Emery hiring and firing was unusual. Now, its back to Wenger era days. Just sit, and hopefully something will happen. Give the manager all he wants. Dont really question anything. Not sure how Mike A is able to survive this as long as he has. Maybe just maybe Josh will grow a pair and get a DOF above Mike next.
Same old, same old. How many times have we seen this game - a team which comes with two banks of players to block all access to the goal. And this time with the addition of a keeper who is bang on form. Without Saka and Odegaard we would have been even more bereft of ideas - at least they looked lively and created chances, with little assistance from their team mates.
Havertz is a donkey, the fastest I saw him move was to get out of the way of Ode's shot after some smart moving at the edge of the box. Perhaps Havertz might have thought to himself, 'that is the sort of thing a centre forward should be doing', but probably not. Another 250k in the bank this week for loitering around the forward line, but with no intent.
Funnily enough, without him against Monaco, we looked livelier and more creative. Jesus might be a poor finisher, but his moments of speed on the turn gave a glimpse of what a forward line might be like with a quicker, more creative, goalscoring forward than him. But we are locked into Havertz world for years to come, as decreed by the genius player acquisition strategy. The same one that snapped up Sterling only to find he cannot be coached back to the player he once was and is of little use to us.
Pedro and other top gooners have been focusing their frustrations of Martinelli. He has not been playing well.
However, there is limited discussion on Havertz. When his name is brought up on various other Arsenal pods, many podcasters are quick to fast forward their speech and do their best zip pas this point. Criticism of him is limited. They are desperate to get one of Chelsea regarding his signing.
Arteta on Rice and Ode substitutions, I hope basmati was just precaution and he fine tomorrow.
--------
’Declan, I had to take him off because he was feeling something and with Martin it was a tactical decision to try to change the rhythm especially on that side.
‘I understand if Ethan comes in and scores a goal it’s a great sub, if he doesn’t you have taken your captain out. That’s football.’
The issue with the team to begin with is the want/need to have 2 defensively oriented players in midfield to accommodate the third one.
City's best lineup in recent years had Rodri, KDB and Gundogan.
From the 3, the only kind of similar profile we have is Rodri/Rice.
From then on, we don't have a midfielder able to do his bits in both defence and offence. Both KDB and Gundogan are able to do that - KDB covers a huge area, is a powerful runner, has long legs and never ending energy (not anymore but for many years in his prime).
Gundogan is similar to Ramsey. We don't have that profile at all. Or De Bruyne's.
Because we've got a highly specific player like Odegaard, there is literally no way to balance the midfield - we'll always be either light or like now, cumbersome.
Odegaard is a player who can literally be a ghost in many games, he's pressing, yes, but that's literally his only defensive contribution.
That's fine if he is a super passer /Ozil or the KDB type of deliveries where the attacker literally has to touch the ball to score/, super dribbler /also KDB but David Silva as well/ or a super scorer /Foden in a purple patch and Palmer/ but he's neither.
Our midfield hasn't been balanced and it's been a struggle to create for years. Realistically speaking, in the last 2 years Arteta has probably been achieving the maximum with the group of players we have. This was the summer to reach the next level and it's why I wanted to see an Arsenal without Odegaard.
In his desperation to fit Odegaard in the team, Arteta made the grave error to start yet another season without trying to fix our struggles - yes, factual struggles with creating enough big chances and chances from open play, he doubled down on a formula not good enough to allow us to reach the top of Europe.
When we look at our issues they are all starting from a midfield not good enough to be dangerous, to create, to pull players from the wings. Our opponents know that nothing Arsenal do come from the middle of the pitch. They double and triple down their wings and we're cooked.
Any other problem we're having - Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard etc... It comes from a player not used to their full potential. Even Saka is made to hug the touchline in an effort to stretch the play and open up space down the middle. But there is no threat in the middle. There is no speed, there is no dribbling, there is no penetration, no danger, just sideways passing to the flanks, rinse and repeat.
It's all down to a midfield disbalance cause by trying to fit a highly specific player in a team that wants to win every single game. It's not a title/trophy winning plan.
Kroenke/Arteta/all the Arsenal fans around the world, want to see us become a top, top club. It won't happen until we have a balanced team. We have maybe 7-8 top players. We are so close. But this summer needed a bigger shuffle than the one we did. We were maybe shorter in money than we think, but the whole idea of Rice, Merino, Odegaard as our main three in the foreseeable future was doomed from the get go. It's a midfield so imperfect that is a disgrace to the talent we have in defence and attack.
If that was Arteta's big plan, then he's failed. Trying to fit and accommodate a highly specific player in a team trying to reach a level to dominate world football was not going to happen. I hoped Arteta was postponing to fix and deal with the issue that he is absolutely aware of, but it doesn't look like he'll move away from Odegaard and that midfield disbalance will always be an issue.
All the folks throwing around Isak, Gyokeres, Osimhen, Sesko, Duran etc. Things will not change. Liverpool are first and I don't even know who they play at CF. Is it Gakpo? Or Nunez? Or Jota? Chelsea have Nico Jackson who I like, but he's not creating by himself, he is getting a buckload of chances by just being in the middle.
Arteta thought he can double down on the football from the previous seasons but we were honestly quite lucky with injuries to our key, key players back then. This season, bad results and an unsettled team due to injuries/red cards, caused us to lose tempo and left us with a mountain to climb.
Our current midfield could semi work if we have 2 or 3 absolute superstars offensive players. We've got 1 in Bukayo who's been carrying us for years. The 2 options we had were to either recruit another superstar or two and hope what we have in midfield is enough. That is the way harder road. The easier option, was to assemble a balanced, workable midfield. We could have done that on a lower budget and with a lot larger pool of players to recruit from.
Liverpool are not that good. Chavs aren't ready. City have lost so many points. But Arsenal just didn't evolve enough. All 3 teams could lose their next games but it won't matter because we won't be able to consistently outscore the opposition.
We've outgrown Jesus, Zinchenko. We've also outgrown Odegaard as the main player in this team. I'm liking so many things about Arteta. I believe he's a top manager. But his decision to not fix a midfield in dire need of a drastic change, is his biggest mistake so far. It will probably cost us this season, I wonder if it will cost us more in the future.
Oh they are, or will be when they come into a top team and a settled environment like Arsenal.
I agree with your sentiment that our midfield is very unbalanced and tilted unnecessarily towards the right but only when it's balanced will you understand the uselessness of Haverts as a striker.
Give an Osimhen that position and see insanity. We don't need supporting castes as our no 9 that shit doesn't work. Put your support on the wings and allow the central guy inflict max damage on opposition.
Ps: nobody can be top 5 without being a bonafide superstar on their own.
No way that I'm accommodating Jesus. I've been desperate to sell him. You and I are his biggest critics here. I said it in this exact post even.
But because of the squad we've assembled, with the idea to build around Odegaard, we are so short of players with X factor, Jesus and Sterling end up our best options off the bench.
I wanted Zinchenko, Jesus and Tomiyasu all sold last summer. Even twice as much this summer. At all cost.
new post
I noticed a crucial detail in Arteta's post match interviews when we drop points we're not supposed to by playing poorly. When he first arrived, he takes full responsibility by saying the performance is all down to him but now it's Wenger like delusion saying we 'deserved' to win the game with 'chances' created and all that bullshit. The sooner we hire someone that doesn't have a complicated style of play the better, none of this inverting bullshit, left sided 8, stacking jocks in the team with low technique and footballing intelligence, signing injury prone players etc
Biggest concern of all this season is the only thing we’ve been excellent at is set pieces and safe to say Arteta has bigger all involvement with those.
Take Jover out and what position would we be right now? 10th?
I was glad Mikel had the balls to:
1) play MLS which goes against his instincts to not trust kids. Boy did himself no harm at all and came through the game well
2) was willing to pull of Ode early for Ethan. Correct decision at the correct time which surprised me greatly
But some observations about Ethan recently
1) when he comes on, nobody passes to him. He’s supposed to be brought on so he can add pace and dynamism. Get the ball centrally on the half turn and drive forwards, beat a man and pass or go for goal near the edge of the box. He’s brilliant at this. Yet every time we bring him on the tactics immediately change to just pass to the LW and hope the winger does something magical. This is really poor tactically considering the combination of Ethan’s dynamism with Saka’s threat should mean the Centre right-right wing becomes increasingly dangerous. Instead we ignore that entirely and hope trossard works a miracle by himself on the left. What’s the point? Poor tactic, very very poor. What’s even the point of bringing him on if the tactics are set up not to utilize him at all?
2) Ethan himself should work on his positioning a little bit. He’s brilliant in the ball but with some minor tweaks to his positioning he will pop up in more and more dangerous positions.
I see Arteta resigning by season end. I hope he does. He's peaked. Can't do more than he has. He's a winner, attitude wise. A competitive freak and an absolute workaholic but he can't get it over the line at this club. He doesn't have the self motivation nor the discipline nor requisite skills to do so without an external push. The kroenkes are the last people to push you nor demand success from their coaches.
#KroenkeOut now. Arteta is a problem but Kroenkes are a bigger problem.
Arteta is not a winner.... never has been. One time I remember him as a player he scored an equaliser against Villa via a free kick. He wasted over 2 minutes celebrating instead of hurrying a restart
Arteta is mediocre
Odds of a manager resigning from one of the best jobs in the game are very very close to nil
Watch this space...
I dont think Mike survives with other ownership.
I absolutely agree he won't survive with another management
Well, he talks like a winner. His attitude is that of a winner. He just doesn't know hot to get there and he's decided to surround himself by yes men. No dissenting voices, no accountability coming from the higher ups.
I'd sooner rather he left the club but if he goes to another club that has accountability and external drive, he could win. Inexperience and lack of accountability from management is a requisite for failure. Sadly that's what we have at Arsenal FC at the moment.
Kroenkes are all talk and pander to managers, Arteta is inexperienced.
So, my hottest of takes is this.
Play the damn players in positions where they were designed to f'n play.
Timber at rb
Partey at dm
Rice further up
Kiwior at lb if at all
or just play three at the back and play Partey, Rice, Marino and Ode in mid
Everton were not going to score for goodness sakes.
Put Sterling out on the left to make runs in the box
If you are going to play Jesus, force the guy to stay in or around the box only
How about some shots outside the box now and then or a bunch a few yards inside the box.
Lobbing balls into the center and expect Saka and Tross to get on the end of headers is futile
Get the team dialed for cups and see were we end up
Oh, get a winger, cf or a healthy lb in the window.
Partey rice merino and ode is an insanely defensive midfield setup for a team that already creates very little
Agreed, but unless Mikel puts one of the youngsters in what have we got??
Agreed, but unless Mikel puts one of the youngsters in what have we got??
NO CEO no DOF, Tets show now.
But who is better out there lol
Wow. He's been out for a while and I didn't even know. Shouldn't have been CEO in the first place. The decision by S&JK to allow the triumvirate of Vinai, Edu and later Arteta to run such a big hitter like Arsenal was trolling material to begin with.
Vinai out too? Haha
he been gone already
If Wenger was given funds like these, we would have won a league or two by now.
Generational been great but unfortunately, he is not him. He won't win the league for us.
It’s not the point. Arteta getting a poor return on investment is not reason to think wenger would get a better return when it was literally wenger spending big in his final years that drove us totally off the cliff with crap talent ID
nice deflection
He wouldn’t have. Wenger started spending in his later years and his return on investment was frankly awful
Mustafi Ozil Xhaka Laca kola Auba cost a combined 300+m and were all extremely underwhelming over the course of their contracts (Ozil had only about 1.5 good seasons of football, Xhaka only turned good in the last 12 months before he left) etc
now do the math on what mikel has spent
I really don’t know why merino was bought or what he brings to this team. Dude is just useless
This game really broke my heart. Couldn’t believe how tepid we played. Odegaard has been shooting blanks when presented with huge chances (world class?). Martinelli will make you want to break your screen. Dude is so dense. Kai is not a striker, I will excuse him. Saka is being marked out but he still tries. Rice is always panting after 30 mins. Partey is wasted at RB when Timber should be played there and Tierney accommodated. Jesus shouldn’t be playing for the first team by now. All in all, Arteta has shown that he is not a top coach. After 2 consecutive runners up positions, Man City falters and instead of grabbing the opportunity with two hands, you allow two Managers in their debut seasons to snatch it from you.
My take in all of these is that if Slot or Maresca shouid win the EPL, then Arteta should be sacked with immediate effect and possibly probed for fraud. This is totally unacceptable
It’s not that Ode missed his chances that worried me - that’s just bad form in front of goal from a player who definitely has the ability. Far more worrying was how lethargic he and the rest of the midfield and forwards were apart from Saka
They all spent half the game standing still waiting for someone else to do something. No movement. No energy. When we did counter and have a break, they couldn’t really be arsed to do so quickly. Dreadful.
in a normal team, he would be. Not with this ownership. They do not like to shake things up. The Emery hiring and firing was unusual. Now, its back to Wenger era days. Just sit, and hopefully something will happen. Give the manager all he wants. Dont really question anything. Not sure how Mike A is able to survive this as long as he has. Maybe just maybe Josh will grow a pair and get a DOF above Mike next.
Same old, same old. How many times have we seen this game - a team which comes with two banks of players to block all access to the goal. And this time with the addition of a keeper who is bang on form. Without Saka and Odegaard we would have been even more bereft of ideas - at least they looked lively and created chances, with little assistance from their team mates.
Havertz is a donkey, the fastest I saw him move was to get out of the way of Ode's shot after some smart moving at the edge of the box. Perhaps Havertz might have thought to himself, 'that is the sort of thing a centre forward should be doing', but probably not. Another 250k in the bank this week for loitering around the forward line, but with no intent.
Funnily enough, without him against Monaco, we looked livelier and more creative. Jesus might be a poor finisher, but his moments of speed on the turn gave a glimpse of what a forward line might be like with a quicker, more creative, goalscoring forward than him. But we are locked into Havertz world for years to come, as decreed by the genius player acquisition strategy. The same one that snapped up Sterling only to find he cannot be coached back to the player he once was and is of little use to us.
Oh well, if not upwards, then onwards.
"We have an easy run of games till January. We'll be close to Liverpool by then. And Liverpool will lose 10 points in December."
Arsenal after 3 games of the easy run: 5 out of 9 points.
Some Arsenal fans are too arrogant. That's why opposition fans mock us.
Too much hype and little substance. Win something major before you start running your mouth at other clubs.
Liverpool and Chelsea that are supposed to be shit for the next 5 years are now in the title race.
Pedro and other top gooners have been focusing their frustrations of Martinelli. He has not been playing well.
However, there is limited discussion on Havertz. When his name is brought up on various other Arsenal pods, many podcasters are quick to fast forward their speech and do their best zip pas this point. Criticism of him is limited. They are desperate to get one of Chelsea regarding his signing.
I’m a Havertz fan and will say bluntly he’s done very little for a good while now.
Arteta on Rice and Ode substitutions, I hope basmati was just precaution and he fine tomorrow.
--------
’Declan, I had to take him off because he was feeling something and with Martin it was a tactical decision to try to change the rhythm especially on that side.
‘I understand if Ethan comes in and scores a goal it’s a great sub, if he doesn’t you have taken your captain out. That’s football.’
Mutiny on gooner twitter tonight, first real backlash to Arteta that I remember, there is a lot of irritation with Ode in particular.
-------------
Points after 16 league games:
2024: 30 points
2023: 39 points
2022: 43 points
Going backwards
Some people are ignoring it, but we saw the best of Arteta in the past 2 seasons.
The best managers are always ruthless when you give them the opportunity to win trophies. Arteta isn't.
And that's not only in the premier league. We only had to beat Villarreal and Man United to win the Europa league and Arteta fvcked it up.
And again Arteta's talent ID is poor. Of every player Arteta has bought at Arsenal, only Odegaard can be sold today at a profit.
The issue with the team to begin with is the want/need to have 2 defensively oriented players in midfield to accommodate the third one.
City's best lineup in recent years had Rodri, KDB and Gundogan.
From the 3, the only kind of similar profile we have is Rodri/Rice.
From then on, we don't have a midfielder able to do his bits in both defence and offence. Both KDB and Gundogan are able to do that - KDB covers a huge area, is a powerful runner, has long legs and never ending energy (not anymore but for many years in his prime).
Gundogan is similar to Ramsey. We don't have that profile at all. Or De Bruyne's.
Because we've got a highly specific player like Odegaard, there is literally no way to balance the midfield - we'll always be either light or like now, cumbersome.
Odegaard is a player who can literally be a ghost in many games, he's pressing, yes, but that's literally his only defensive contribution.
That's fine if he is a super passer /Ozil or the KDB type of deliveries where the attacker literally has to touch the ball to score/, super dribbler /also KDB but David Silva as well/ or a super scorer /Foden in a purple patch and Palmer/ but he's neither.
Our midfield hasn't been balanced and it's been a struggle to create for years. Realistically speaking, in the last 2 years Arteta has probably been achieving the maximum with the group of players we have. This was the summer to reach the next level and it's why I wanted to see an Arsenal without Odegaard.
In his desperation to fit Odegaard in the team, Arteta made the grave error to start yet another season without trying to fix our struggles - yes, factual struggles with creating enough big chances and chances from open play, he doubled down on a formula not good enough to allow us to reach the top of Europe.
When we look at our issues they are all starting from a midfield not good enough to be dangerous, to create, to pull players from the wings. Our opponents know that nothing Arsenal do come from the middle of the pitch. They double and triple down their wings and we're cooked.
Any other problem we're having - Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard etc... It comes from a player not used to their full potential. Even Saka is made to hug the touchline in an effort to stretch the play and open up space down the middle. But there is no threat in the middle. There is no speed, there is no dribbling, there is no penetration, no danger, just sideways passing to the flanks, rinse and repeat.
It's all down to a midfield disbalance cause by trying to fit a highly specific player in a team that wants to win every single game. It's not a title/trophy winning plan.
Kroenke/Arteta/all the Arsenal fans around the world, want to see us become a top, top club. It won't happen until we have a balanced team. We have maybe 7-8 top players. We are so close. But this summer needed a bigger shuffle than the one we did. We were maybe shorter in money than we think, but the whole idea of Rice, Merino, Odegaard as our main three in the foreseeable future was doomed from the get go. It's a midfield so imperfect that is a disgrace to the talent we have in defence and attack.
If that was Arteta's big plan, then he's failed. Trying to fit and accommodate a highly specific player in a team trying to reach a level to dominate world football was not going to happen. I hoped Arteta was postponing to fix and deal with the issue that he is absolutely aware of, but it doesn't look like he'll move away from Odegaard and that midfield disbalance will always be an issue.
All the folks throwing around Isak, Gyokeres, Osimhen, Sesko, Duran etc. Things will not change. Liverpool are first and I don't even know who they play at CF. Is it Gakpo? Or Nunez? Or Jota? Chelsea have Nico Jackson who I like, but he's not creating by himself, he is getting a buckload of chances by just being in the middle.
Arteta thought he can double down on the football from the previous seasons but we were honestly quite lucky with injuries to our key, key players back then. This season, bad results and an unsettled team due to injuries/red cards, caused us to lose tempo and left us with a mountain to climb.
Our current midfield could semi work if we have 2 or 3 absolute superstars offensive players. We've got 1 in Bukayo who's been carrying us for years. The 2 options we had were to either recruit another superstar or two and hope what we have in midfield is enough. That is the way harder road. The easier option, was to assemble a balanced, workable midfield. We could have done that on a lower budget and with a lot larger pool of players to recruit from.
Liverpool are not that good. Chavs aren't ready. City have lost so many points. But Arsenal just didn't evolve enough. All 3 teams could lose their next games but it won't matter because we won't be able to consistently outscore the opposition.
We've outgrown Jesus, Zinchenko. We've also outgrown Odegaard as the main player in this team. I'm liking so many things about Arteta. I believe he's a top manager. But his decision to not fix a midfield in dire need of a drastic change, is his biggest mistake so far. It will probably cost us this season, I wonder if it will cost us more in the future.
LoL wouldn't have bene complete without tying it to Odegaard
This is a great post and it’s 100% on the money. Odegaard is a top player however he’s very limited. Merino none of us are sure of his purpose yet.
The obvious thing to do is point at Martinelli week in/week out however our midfield isn’t up to it.
Great post.
never thought I would say it but Xhaka >>>>>>>> Merino
"Our current midfield could semi work if we have 2 or 3 absolute superstars offensive players. We've got 1 in Bukayo who's been carrying us for years"
Thank heavens you are over your notion that Harvets is a top 5 striker in the world
Havertz is. But he's a supporting type like Firmino. He makes our team better. But he isn't a superstar.
He can be a top 5 CF and not be a superstar/all timer like Bukayo. The CFs today are not exactly insane, are they?
Oh they are, or will be when they come into a top team and a settled environment like Arsenal.
I agree with your sentiment that our midfield is very unbalanced and tilted unnecessarily towards the right but only when it's balanced will you understand the uselessness of Haverts as a striker.
Give an Osimhen that position and see insanity. We don't need supporting castes as our no 9 that shit doesn't work. Put your support on the wings and allow the central guy inflict max damage on opposition.
Ps: nobody can be top 5 without being a bonafide superstar on their own.
Your Odegaard obsession is weird man
You don’t have time for Odegaard but you keep accommodating Jesus
This is a truly bizzare fixation
No way that I'm accommodating Jesus. I've been desperate to sell him. You and I are his biggest critics here. I said it in this exact post even.
But because of the squad we've assembled, with the idea to build around Odegaard, we are so short of players with X factor, Jesus and Sterling end up our best options off the bench.
I wanted Zinchenko, Jesus and Tomiyasu all sold last summer. Even twice as much this summer. At all cost.