Raphinha

[Gunner D]

He’s similar to Pepe in ways people aren’t really ready to discuss. Even in that original tweet you have people burying their head under the sand when being presented with stats.

I’d rather Pepe over Raphinha personally.

 

[Macho]

I’d rather Pepe over Raphinha personally.

Explain?

They both came from French football and both balled out under Bielsa at one stage or another. I feel like Raphinha is easier on the eye and has a bit more hustle but for me in terms of potential output there's not much difference.

Arteta wants one here though, so do the fans which makes a huge difference.

 

[Riou]

I'm sure this has been posted already, but man Henry's influence was crazy. I probably wouldn't have been an Arsenal fan without him. How many players in the last 10-15 years have talked about watching Henry? I think he's probably a tad underrated in the grand scheme of things which is crazy, but he could arguably considered one of the top 10 forwards of all time if your really think about it.

ESPN did a "start, bench, drop" debate...about Henry, Benzema and Mbappe.

Honestly, the way the panel just immediately all dropped Thierry, was disgusting... he's a better all-round player than Mbappe.

 

[Macho]

ESPN did a "start, bench, drop" debate...about Henry, Benzema and Mbappe.

Honestly, the way the panel just immediately all dropped Thierry, was disgusting... he's a better all-round player than Mbappe.

That's just recency bias tbh wouldn't read into it.

 

[Mitch]

ESPN did a "start, bench, drop" debate...about Henry, Benzema and Mbappe.

Honestly, the way the panel just immediately all dropped Thierry, was disgusting... he's a better all-round player than Mbappe.

Absolutely laughable, how old were panel? In their teens and early 20s?

In the past 30 years it's a two horse race for the best CF and that's Henry and the original Ronaldo.

Mbappe and Benezeman wouldn't get into top 20nCFs in the past 30 years.

 

[Barry]

What? I’m talking about Saka getting moved to the left for Raphinha to play on his favoured side. Stop trying to force your opinion on what my opinion on Saka is.


An 11 goal 7 assist season isn’t elite though, behave. Sounds like you’re talking about potential vs actual ability. As for the rest of the stuff I’m not sure why you’re mentioning team accomplishments to compare player ability? Saka didn’t even start the FA cup final that we won. What’s the relevance? You’re countering a point I haven’t made with some weird points. I don’t understand why.



Pepe got that and nobody gave a sh*t.

I wasn't trying to bait you out on Saka, you responded to a Twitter link with some stats comparing Saka unfavorably to Raphinha. Unless I read it wrong there wasn't anything mentioning left vs right sided play so the comment about "AM being in for some hard truths" seemed logically about the comparison between the two.

I see Raphinha and Saka as very similar players stylistically so whether one plays left or right doesn't seem like much of a hard truth either. Both give you better crossing from one side (left) and better productivity / shooting from the other. Considering they are both putting up similar numbers I don't think there's much in it either way.

On the rest of your post - yes, elite potential that's right. 11 goals & 7 assists from the wing for a 20 year old is elite potential. I thought that was obvious?

Pepe - agree with you, he's been hard done by here. Chaotic player but never really given a chance and has put up good numbers when he's been played.

 

[Mitch]

ESPN did a "start, bench, drop" debate...about Henry, Benzema and Mbappe.

Honestly, the way the panel just immediately all dropped Thierry, was disgusting... he's a better all-round player than Mbappe.

Absolutely laughable, how old were panel? In their teens and early 20s?

In the past 30 years it's a two horse race for the best CF and that's Henry and the original Ronaldo.

Mbappe and Benezeman wouldn't get into top 30 CFs in the past 30 years.

 

[Bloodbather]

ESPN did a "start, bench, drop" debate...about Henry, Benzema and Mbappe.

Honestly, the way the panel just immediately all dropped Thierry, was disgusting... he's a better all-round player than Mbappe.

That's obviously recency bias. Benzema is more arguable, though I'd still have Henry ahead comfortably, Mbappé especially has zero argument over Henry and taking him over Henry is downright disrespectful.

 

[Riou]

That's just recency bias tbh wouldn't read into it.

Still annoyed me, tbh.

You look at the general level of defenders that Henry played against, in the Prem/Europe/Internationally...easily better than today, but he still put up mad numbers and with incredible style.

 

[bastun]

Comparing pepe and raphinha is a blasphemy. Fantastic transfer if it happens.

 

[Red London]

ESPN did a "start, bench, drop" debate...about Henry, Benzema and Mbappe.

Honestly, the way the panel just immediately all dropped Thierry, was disgusting... he's a better all-round player than Mbappe.

That's obviously recency bias. Benzema is more arguable, though I'd still have Henry ahead comfortably, Mbappé especially has zero argument over Henry and taking him over Henry is downright disrespectful.

The panel seem to have a large bias against Arsenal. It may be a coincidence but we get close to signing Jesus and having a good summer and they start just ****ting on us, I listen every day and they went from chatting crap about Thierry Henry as a human being, to chatting crap about Pires as being too arrogant, to chatting crap about Bergkamp basically being an asshole because he used to give it back to defenders and step on their toes etc. This wasn't just one panelist per player by the way, literally 3 people had ****ty stuff to say about Bergkamp lmao (Steve Nicol, Gab Marcotti and Frank Labeouf).

There were geniunely multiple people chatting crud about the invincibles on multiple occasions over the course of 2-3 episodes in the last few days, very strange.

Would caveat all this by saying there are 0 Arsenal based pundits in the panel rotation and the producer is a Sp**s fan....

 

[Riou]

Absolutely laughable, how old were panel? In their teens and early 20s?

Steve Nicol, Shaka Hislop and Frank Leboeuf...what a line up of football knowledge!

The weirdest one was Gab Marcotti (who I rate) saying he would have Van Nistelrooy and Van Persie over Bergkamp, as he didn't like the way Dennis walked around the pitch like he owned it

 

[Batman]

Absolutely laughable, how old were panel? In their teens and early 20s?

In the past 30 years it's a two horse race for the best CF and that's Henry and the original Ronaldo.

Mbappe and Benezeman wouldn't get into top 20nCFs in the past 30 years.

It's not a race. R9 was clear by a lot, even after all the injuries. Thierry is a comfortable 2nd though.

 

[Riou]

The panel seem to have a large bias against Arsenal. It may be a coincidence but we get close to signing Jesus and having a good summer and they start just ****ting on us, I listen every day and they went from chatting crap about Thierry Henry as a human being, to chatting crap about Pires as being too arrogant, to chatting crap about Bergkamp basically being an asshole because he used to give it back to defenders and step on their toes etc. This wasn't just one panelist per player by the way, literally 3 people had ****ty stuff to say about Bergkamp lmao (Steve Nicol, Gab Marcotti and Frank Labeouf).

There were geniunely multiple people chatting crud about the invincibles on multiple occasions over the course of 2-3 episodes in the last few days, very strange.

Would caveat all this by saying there are 0 Arsenal based pundits in the panel rotation and the producer is a Sp**s fan....

Stewart "bald by 9 years old" Robson, questioning Thierry's work rate in our Champions League run, when he ran himself into the ground every match.

All football shows on tv/internet are pretty awful now...Sky, BT, ESPN...all ****.

Too much emphasis on being a "character" and playing up to that, rather than actually discussing the actual football.

 

[Mitch]

Steve Nicol, Shaka Hislop and Frank Leboeuf...what a line up of football knowledge!

The weirdest one was Gab Marcotti (who I rate) saying he would have Van Nistelrooy and Van Persie over Bergkamp, as he didn't like the way Dennis walked around the pitch like he owned it

It gets worse! RVN was brilliant pure goal poacher, but a very limited player aside from movement off the ball and finishing. Over Bergkamp? No way.

I still remeber Ashley Cole picking Drogba over Bergkamp in his all time teammate 11. To Which the presenter Jamie Carragher couldn't believe and gave him stick " Drogba over Bergkamp? Are you serious" to which Cole said he didn't play long with Bergkamp (which was BS) and Carragher replied "If I played 20 minutes with Bergkamp he would get into my team".

 

[Tell.]

I see Raphinha and Saka as very similar players stylistically so whether one plays left or right doesn't seem like much of a hard truth either. Both give you better crossing from one side (left) and better productivity / shooting from the other. Considering they are both putting up similar numbers I don't think there's much in it either way.

Not to jump into the discussion but I've watched quite a few Leeds youtubers throughout the season (was my mums team). Raph is described a lot like how we talk about Pepe.
He needs a lot of the ball & can be very wasteful. Capable of a very high end but the type of player who allows his base level to fluctuate depending on his mood.

 

[Bloodbather]

The panel seem to have a large bias against Arsenal. It may be a coincidence but we get close to signing Jesus and having a good summer and they start just ****ting on us, I listen every day and they went from chatting crap about Thierry Henry as a human being, to chatting crap about Pires as being too arrogant, to chatting crap about Bergkamp basically being an asshole because he used to give it back to defenders and step on their toes etc. This wasn't just one panelist per player by the way, literally 3 people had ****ty stuff to say about Bergkamp lmao (Steve Nicol, Gab Marcotti and Frank Labeouf).

There were geniunely multiple people chatting crud about the invincibles on multiple occasions over the course of 2-3 episodes in the last few days, very strange.

Would caveat all this by saying there are 0 Arsenal based pundits in the panel rotation and the producer is a Sp**s fan....

Ah, it's the US-based ESPN crew, then? Yeah, they speak a load of ****e most of the time. Steve Nicol especially. Knows jack squat about the modern game and has a personal disdain towards Arsenal.

 

[SA Gunner]

Explain?

They both came from French football and both balled out under Bielsa at one stage or another. I feel like Raphinha is easier on the eye and has a bit more hustle but for me in terms of potential output there's not much difference.

Arteta wants one here though, so do the fans which makes a huge difference.

They are basically are the same player IMO, I wouldnt be surprised if their career stats are close as well. Both super ball progressors who are difficult to defend against and can create space and opportunities for team mates. What's interesting is that Raphinha, like Pepe, can be poor in holding onto the ball as well.

The difference is probably their work off the ball, and Raphinha is a machine there. Im not saying Pepe is lazy off it, but this is where Arteta puts a lot of value and thus the move.

Whether that's worth paying 60m on top of 72m, for something I believe Pepe can adopt as part of his game... is a discussion to be had.

 

[Red London]

Stewart "bald by 9 years old" Robson, questioning Thierry's work rate in our Champions League run, when he ran himself into the ground every match.

All football shows on tv/internet are pretty awful now...Sky, BT, ESPN...all ****.

Too much emphasis on being a "character" and playing up to that, rather than actually discussing the actual football.

I forgot about Robson wow. The fact I forgot Stewart Robson when I thought whether there are any Arsenal based pundits was spot on, he is the most biased one there against Arsenal. Hates Wenger, hates our legends, etc.

He is actually a decent pundit when judging other leagues like Serie A but is a pile of utter trash when it comes to Arsenal. Doesn't even bother doing his job properly and being unbiased.

The only guy who actually likes Arsenal there is Julien Laurens. And is usually balanced out by Gab Marcotti in the Gab and Juls show who I like as a human being but clearly prefers Sp**s and Chelsea to us.

 

[The_Playmaker]

It's not a race. R9 was clear by a lot, even after all the injuries. Thierry is a comfortable 2nd though.

When evaluating who was better I always like to take the player at his peak. Ronaldo pre injury is a player that for those who never saw, they will simply never understand and comprehend how good he actually was.

Peak R9 is superior to Messi and Ronaldo in my opinion. It's the longevity of their careers careers the lack of injuries that seriously skew the opinion of them, but if you take all 3 at the highest point of their ability, R9 takes it quite easily.

If you were to add Ronaldinho into the mix it's a whole other conversation. If you take Ronaldinho at his peak, it is the closest you can get to R9. They are the two best players I have ever seen play football in my lifetime. Nobody comes close for me.