TakeChillPill
Established Member
Ben white...I'm sorry I didn't cost Ā£5m
He is an ordinary defender. Goes hiding in the box. Even yesterday, he just seemed to lose his man all too often in the box.Given Whiteās price tag, and the affinity Saliba has garnered (even without playing), I can understand why people expected a centre-back that was going to hit the ground running with no material for improvement. But that isnāt Ben White.
We bought White because he is a good player now with potential to be a great player in the near, medium and long term future.
On the ball, Ben is exceptional. Whether that is ball carrying, distributing or evading pressure. I havenāt seen an Arsenal defender as good as him at that in many years. That quality is necessary under Artetaās positional play scheme. Just consider this:
Defensively he reminds me a young Koscielny. Solid one v one, good pace, capable defending wide and high and is very comfortable on the front foot. Where he has to make serious advances is aerially. White is not bad there but he is far from dominant. Being surrounded by Gabriel and Tomiyasu will certainly help mitigate his current area for development short term too.
Give White time. We have a potentially outstanding modern CB on our hands.
The jury is still out on this guy. I will wait at least 1/2 a season to have a firm opinion but his performances so far are definitely not reassuring.
I actually think this is wrong. 30 min against Norwich and a couple of minutes against Burnley only means that a high line is not a primary plan for Arteta and never has been since he took over. We have technical quality and pace at the back now (except for Tierney but Tavares looks confident) so that's definitely not an excuse anymore.
As soon as we have any sort of advantage we end up parking a bus in front of our goal, inviting all the pressure and we are riding our luck atm because this will backfire very soon. We don't have Chiellini and Bonucci as CB's to deal with the long pressure.
Glad others thought his ball playing was ordinary.He had about four poor moments that on another day get punished. What stood out for me is how slow he was to play the ball out from the back and how average he seemed on it. On the plus side, he was really good in the air. He needs to switch on quick and with Gabriel in beast mode, he has another level to aim at.
And it took years for him to become good and waas benched. Wasnt even first choice last season until laporte had big injuryNever seen an overreaction like this but I can imagine this is exactly how City fans reacted when Stones first played for them.
Time will tell.
Bold of you to assume Saliba will be with us next season. You don't spend Ā£50m on a CB and then bench him for someone younger and cheaper. Saliba won't be happy being a bench player when he knows he is superior to White in almost every aspect. Unless White moves into midfield or we switch to a back permanently, Saliba will be the sacrificial lamb.Glad others thought his ball playing was ordinary.
Defensively he was shocking. Went missing on more than one occasion in the box. I think his instruction must have been to man mark Hollow Man.
He definitely needs a larger sample size. The problem we will have, is that with Saliba back next season, with his superior physical attributes and Gabriel being a far better defender, suddenly you have a Ā£50m CB as a reserve. That won't reflect well on MA. Then it's political.
Ultimately that's the biggest issue with White, we've binned a superior defender and a far superior talent in favour of White. On top of his massive 50mil price tag, he is being compared to one of the biggest CB talent in Europe. Being decent is not gonna cut it.Remember when Saliba was sent out on loan for 3 years because club was afraid he would play exactly like this?
If I speak...
Yeah mate, I'm delusional.Here's the thing, you're a delusional weirdo and I don't want to continue engaging with you so I'm not going to. For the normal people who want to give Ben White a bit more time before coming to terms with his level, if he turns it around, you can refer back to anything I said and indeed I will acknowledge that I was too quick to judge him just as I have acknowledged when I've been wrong on a myriad of things on this forum.
Given Whiteās price tag, and the affinity Saliba has garnered (even without playing), I can understand why people expected a centre-back that was going to hit the ground running with no material for improvement. But that isnāt Ben White.
We bought White because he is a good player now with potential to be a great player in the near, medium and long term future.
On the ball, Ben is exceptional. Whether that is ball carrying, distributing or evading pressure. I havenāt seen an Arsenal defender as good as him at that in many years. That quality is necessary under Artetaās positional play scheme. Just consider this:
Defensively he reminds me a young Koscielny. Solid one v one, good pace, capable defending wide and high and is very comfortable on the front foot. Where he has to make serious advances is aerially. White is not bad there but he is far from dominant. Being surrounded by Gabriel and Tomiyasu will certainly help mitigate his current area for development short term too.
Give White time. We have a potentially outstanding modern CB on our hands.
I don't want to jump all over him but he has to come good very quickly. One thing I forgot to mention is his lack of awareness. A couple of times he's just stood still in the box, frozen. He doesn't "smell danger". It's not just Saliba either. Mavro is quietly having a good season so far. He also has to learn how to play in a back 4. Per might have to dip in to help him.Glad others thought his ball playing was ordinary.
Defensively he was shocking. Went missing on more than one occasion in the box. I think his instruction must have been to man mark Hollow Man.
He definitely needs a larger sample size. The problem we will have, is that with Saliba back next season, with his superior physical attributes and Gabriel being a far better defender, suddenly you have a Ā£50m CB as a reserve. That won't reflect well on MA. Then it's political.
Yeah mate, I'm delusional.
Would love to see a reel of Ben White's involvements on the ball against Burnley. Some class stuff in there.
Feels like a massive agenda against him right now since he was our big signing and people want a stick to beat Arteta with (that + needing him to be bad to continue using the Saliba stick to beat him with + some people just failing to understand the importance of a CB with that kind of quality on the ball, and you have a lot of the reaction on this forum explained, IMO). Since he made a mistake (the kind all the top defenders have made a few times) it is the perfect opportunity for people to push their agenda and miss the details of the game.
The way he resists pressure from the attacker with calm, is able to step on the ball and dribble it when an attacker comes close to him and keep possession moving, those nice little passes between lines to Lokonga to break pressure...he's a huge addition to our team, I'm sorry if people can't see it through their agendas and anger and desire to rant and rave.
Very nice post. I remembered that exact same quote when we signed him, too. It also happened that in that same game Holding was a hoof machine, and couldn't withstand the littlest of pressures from the back, making it incredibly difficult for us to get out playing from the back.