Dominik Szoboszlai

[Rex Stone]

People need to stop looking for star names leave these things when we back to CL now be smart who you that players can improve us specially in area we struggling at the moment

Got to be a long term plan though because otherwise you just load up on junk with huge contracts that are technically short term “improvements” on what you have.

Club should try for Aouar still, for me it should go:

1) Aouar
2) Mbuemo
3) Buendia
4) Eriksen

 

[MikelHadADream]

Best move for the player, and not the end of the world for us. I think there is a misconception about the type of player he is.

From watching Saltzburg's CL games, he looks more of a forward than a midfielder to me. He never really gets involved in build up play and is really passive. That being said he has amazing technique when hitting the ball. No way is he capable or ready to play centrally yet in the PL, he would have come in and played on the left imo.

 

[dashsnow17]

Problem is, that it isnt anymore like 10 Years ago.

There are only a few "hidden talents", due to the new Social Media Hype etc. nearly every Talent is already known and hyped.

I mean, we are talking about a player from the Austrian League. 10 Years ago he would have been a 3 Million Signing and only a few would have known him.

Now it's pretty difficult to find these Talents, which arent on the list from many clubs.

Can you imagine if we were buying even Rosicky or Hleb now in 2020, it'd be at least a 40m type thing with huge social media hype. But back then it was just a calm 7m and "oh cool who's this guy".

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Got to be a long term plan though because otherwise you just load up on junk with huge contracts that are technically short term “improvements” on what you have.

Club should try for Aouar still, for me it should go:

1) Aouar
2) Mbuemo
3) Buendia
4) Eriksen

You right even the Eriksen deal if we are serious about it shouldn't be anything more than 6 month loan.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Obviously we arent going to spend that money. Which is why "our project" is nothing like City or Chelsea. We dont have a project to offer players. We have no clear direction in the way we are going and that is evident in our signings.

We are throwing money at young developing players, throwing money at peak age players and throwing money at players who are a year or two of retiring. There isnt a defined plan.

Which is why we will find it difficult to lure top young talent here. We arent a hot bed for developing players. The club needs to make a decisions which direction its going in because right now we arent an attractive proposition. And we cant afford to throw huges wages on the table with no guarantees.

We don't have a project but every single new signing mentioned how they want to be part of the new project?

We aren't throwing money around for the sake it, there's clearly a plan and intentions with the signings we're making.

What did Arteta openly want? Two players in every position, physicality and athleticism in midfield, creativity in the team.

What did we go for and what did Arteta get? (bare in mind this is during a pandemic year)

• We signed Cedric on a free because the belief was AMN was off, good backup to Bellerin for peanuts.
• We went for Gabriel in January and failed. So we signed Mari for £4M because Arteta wanted two left footed, left sided CB's.
• We went for Willian on a free, looked a good addition at the time with everything considered. Still a good squad player who will hopefully hit some kind of form when things click. He was signed because we lacked a creative forward.
• We went for Gabriel in the summer, someone we wanted in Jan. Offers everything Arteta wanted in a CB, excellent signing for £23M.
• We went for Aouar because Arteta wanted a creative central midfielder, and almost got him if it wasn't for his agent.
• We went for Thomas Partey for the physical presence and athleticism in midfield we've been lacking since Vieira. He's also a world class midfielder, excellent addition.

You can't just think about your end goal, you have to grind through the gears. You sign players you know you'll want long term, like Gabriel and Partey. You sign players who can help us in the short and medium term, like Willian, Auba and Cedric. And then you keep players who can help us in the short term. Like Luiz, Ceballos and Lacazette.

Why do you have long, medium and short term plans? Because you cannot do everything in one summer in your first full season. You don't know your squad properly for starters, you don't know who will be with you long term. You don't know how new signings will adapt.

I can assure you there is a plan, and the only reason you don't think so right now is because of the position we are in and because things aren't looking great.

 

[14Henry]

We don't have a project but every single new signing mentioned how they want to be part of the new project?

We aren't throwing money around for the sake it, there's clearly a plan and intentions with the signings we're making.

What did Arteta openly want? Two players in every position, physicality and athleticism in midfield, creativity in the team.

What did we go for and what did Arteta get? (bare in mind this is during a pandemic year)

• We signed Cedric on a free because the belief was AMN was off, good backup to Bellerin for peanuts.
• We went for Gabriel in January and failed. So we signed Mari for £4M because Arteta wanted two left footed, left sided CB's.
• We went for Willian on a free, looked a good addition at the time with everything considered. Still a good squad player who will hopefully hit some kind of form when things click. He was signed because we lacked a creative forward.
• We went for Gabriel in the summer, someone we wanted in Jan. Offers everything Arteta wanted in a CB, excellent signing for £23M.
• We went for Aouar because Arteta wanted a creative central midfielder, and almost got him if it wasn't for his agent.
• We went for Thomas Partey for the physical presence and athleticism in midfield we've been lacking since Vieira. He's also a world class midfielder, excellent addition.

You can't just think about your end goal, you have to grind through the gears. You sign players you know you'll want long term, like Gabriel and Partey. You sign players who can help us in the short and medium term, like Willian, Auba and Cedric. And then you keep players who can help us in the short term. Like Luiz, Ceballos and Lacazette.

Why do you have long, medium and short term plans? Because you cannot do everything in one summer in your first full season. You don't know your squad properly for starters, you don't know who will be with you long term. You don't know how new signings will adapt.

I can assure you there is a plan, and the only reason you don't think so right now is because of the position we are in and because things aren't looking great.

I dont disagree with any of that. But right now if it's hard for fans to see our identity imagine being a player with multiple offers on the table.

We arent playing any particular way at the moment. So Arteta hasnt been able to really implement any style. Yes he may not have the players but hes changing things every week. Which shows hes trying to fix problems by changing things rather than sticking to his so called philosophy.

There is 0 logic behind us going from normal amount of crosses to in the last 2 or 3 games 30-40 crosses a match. That is clearly a desperation tactic. Especially when Auba is afraid of heading the ball and Laca and Saka are about 5ft 8.

We need new players but most of all we need players who are noticeably better than what we have. First team players. Not squad players anymore. Arteta has to be showing new players if they come here and work hard he will improve them. That doesnt really look like it's happening.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

I dont disagree with any of that. But right now if it's hard for fans to see our identity imagine being a player with multiple offers on the table.

We arent playing any particular way at the moment. So Arteta hasnt been able to really implement any style. Yes he may not have the players but hes changing things every week. Which shows hes trying to fix problems by changing things rather than sticking to his so called philosophy.

There is 0 logic behind us going from normal amount of crosses to in the last 2 or 3 games 30-40 crosses a match. That is clearly a desperation tactic. Especially when Auba is afraid of heading the ball and Laca and Saka are about 5ft 8.

We need new players but most of all we need players who are noticeably better than what we have. First team players. Not squad players anymore.

I think the whole crossing thing is because we are desperate for goals yes. We've completely come away from the initial plan which was passing out from the back.

Mikel clearly has an issue with some of his players playing this way. I mean Bellerin and Holding just aren't it when it comes to that so you're left trying to constantly build play from the left which isn't ideal.

I don't know the overall answer, but I think the short term answer is to play the youngsters who are doing well in EL.

 

[14Henry]

I think the whole crossing thing is because we are desperate for goals yes. We've completely come away from the initial plan which was passing out from the back.

Mikel clearly has an issue with some of his players playing this way. I mean Bellerin and Holding just aren't it when it comes to that so you're left trying to constantly build play from the left which isn't ideal.

I don't know the overall answer, but I think the short term answer is to play the youngsters who are doing well in EL.

Yeah obviously we need our senior pros mostly. You never know how stable maybe a Xhaka is (I would sell him tomorrow) until you throw a teen in there.

But in the wide forward positions I would be going more youth. We arent finishing CL. We arent going to get relegated. May as well give the likes of ESR a game instead of Willian, or throw Balogun on last 20 minutes.

Sometimes these players just need a lucky break. Rashford would have been nowhere near the United team until years later had it not been for united having all their strikers injured and Van Gaal having no choice. We need that luck.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Yeah obviously we need our senior pros mostly. You never know how stable maybe a Xhaka is (I would sell him tomorrow) until you throw a teen in there.

But in the wide forward positions I would be going more youth. We arent finishing CL. We arent going to get relegated. May as well give the likes of ESR a game instead of Willian, or throw Balogun on last 20 minutes.

Sometimes these players just need a lucky break. Rashford would have been nowhere near the United team until years later had it not been for united having all their strikers injured and Van Gaal having no choice. We need that luck.

Balogun specifically for me needs a chance in the PL. Feel like he would be getting a shot if we didn't have Eddie, who I don't really rate at all.

 

[field442]

Just listened to the Ornstein and Chapman podcast

• Said he has seen reports of Szobszlai joining RB Leipzig but he hasn’t heard that to be the case
• Heard very recently that Arsenal are still interested in him
• Arsenal have reservations about him and don’t see him as someone who can start every game at this stage of his development
• Said we have other options and doesn’t believe Eriksen is one of them
• He thinks we might be forced to bring forward a creative signing we had earmarked for the summer

 

[Elite Smarts]

Just listened to the Ornstein and Chapman podcast

• Said he has seen reports of Szobszlai joining RB Leipzig but he hasn’t heard that to be the case
• Heard very recently that Arsenal are still interested in him
• Arsenal have reservations about him and don’t see him as someone who can start every game at this stage of his development
• Said we have other options and doesn’t believe Eriksen is one of them
• He thinks we might be forced to bring forward a creative signing we had earmarked for the summer

I believe Arsenal will sign one creative midfielder

 

[Rex Stone]

Just listened to the Ornstein and Chapman podcast

• Said he has seen reports of Szobszlai joining RB Leipzig but he hasn’t heard that to be the case
• Heard very recently that Arsenal are still interested in him
• Arsenal have reservations about him and don’t see him as someone who can start every game at this stage of his development
• Said we have other options and doesn’t believe Eriksen is one of them
• He thinks we might be forced to bring forward a creative signing we had earmarked for the summer

Edu mentioned Messi the other day actually which is interesting.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

What the deadline Salzburg set to activate his clause? 15 of December?

 

[Rex Stone]

What the deadline Salzburg set to activate his clause? 15 of December?

Yeah it’s today according to Ornstein.

 

[Gooner416]

I still think he ends up at Leipzig, the stars just align. Maybe we can pry one of Leipzig's gems in his place - Nkunku or Sabitzer? Besides if we signed Szoboszlai, imagine all the work the mods would have to do to create an autocorrect filter... only for Arteta to leave him on the bench for Willian.

 

[Legend14]

Replace Eriksen with Aouar.

I believe Arsenal will sign one creative midfielder

I believe they will sign someone who pairs well with Partey and a forward who can consistently score goals.

 

[DanDare]

Is he actually particularly creative?

 

[Red London]

Just listened to the Ornstein and Chapman podcast

• Said he has seen reports of Szobszlai joining RB Leipzig but he hasn’t heard that to be the case
• Heard very recently that Arsenal are still interested in him
• Arsenal have reservations about him and don’t see him as someone who can start every game at this stage of his development
• Said we have other options and doesn’t believe Eriksen is one of them
• He thinks we might be forced to bring forward a creative signing we had earmarked for the summer

Very intruiging last bullet point there.

 

[Red London]

Is he actually particularly creative?

I dont think so. Think he is more of an output player, he's not the type of guy to have a high progression + take on percentage. He may be the type who doesn't control games or consistently make defence splitting passes.

Very good striker of the ball, but even though it would be useful he certainly wouldn't solve our issues in the midfield.

 

[Legend14]

Is he actually particularly creative?

Still trying to figure out what “creative” means nowadays. Are you thinking “magical”? Not many magical players around.

Arsenal need another player to give Partey more freedom.