Amadou Onana

[Paperino]

If he was linked to United or Sp**s every single member here would say that he was very underwhelming against Slovakia.

 

[OnlyOne]

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

If he was linked to United or Sp**s every single member here would say that he was very underwhelming against Slovakia.

He'll be good signing for these teams because they don't have similar profiles in thier squad for us not sure we want him we already have Rice who do this job we want someone who try to offer more offensively unsure Onana can do this haven't seen him at Everton really carry the ball for a distance or create something.

 

[RunTheTrap]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1803136897029472325

We should sign him alone for his 10/10 Essex accent.

 

[Beany]

Why is this thread even open?

 

[StefanB]

This is why you look at the actual stats. This is 100% cherrypicking to make it seem like he had a great game. He literally had 1 dribbling attempt. Defensively he was solid winning a lot of tackles, but it wasn't 100%, it was 90%. He attempted 5 ground duels and won 5, and attempted 5 aerial duels and won 4.
Another thing worth noting: He lost the ball quite a bit, 11 times to be precise.

I could understand taking a punt on him a couple of years ago when he was rumored to cost around 20-30 million, but anything above that he's just not worth it. Decent player, but nothing more. He won't push anyone in the squad and raise the ceiling. Getting Fofana is by far the better deal.

 

[Riou]

He's not bad on the ball, in the same way Rice isn't bad on the ball...they are both more than serviceable.

The issue is when you put these two together I think you are just hurting your team more than anything, as we will have two primary ball winners rather than one and one playmaker...midfield is all about skillsets.

Why spend big money on a player (when you already have a player in Rice that's already the best version of that player) when you could just look for a younger Jorginho type from deep to help us build play and increase the weapons in our starting 11...getting both Rice and Onana just feels wasteful.

 

[MutableEarth]

He's not bad on the ball, in the same way Rice isn't bad on the ball...they are both more than serviceable.

The issue is when you put these two together I think you are just hurting your team more than anything, as we will have two primary ball winners rather than one and one playmaker...midfield is all about skillsets.

Why spend big money on a player (when you already have a player in Rice that's already the best version of that player) when you could just look for a younger Jorginho type from deep to help us build play and increase the weapons in our starting 11...getting both Rice and Onana just feels wasteful.

Because then you'd have 2 Jorginhos and only one Rice/Onana type. And as I've gone through great pains to reiterate - it's not that he's the perfect Rice partner or even the ideal signing but he has qualities that we don't exactly have an abundance of and if Rice (GOD FORBID) ever gets even a small injury, our midfield suddenly looks a lot weaker. And as I've also said, unless we're willing to blood an untested Myles Lewis-Skelly next season - arguably the exact profile we need as a 6/8 albeit not at the right profile - we're still gonna need to sign some more athleticism/power/duel-winning capability in midfield and Onana fits that bill better than almost anyone. Even if we do sign the DLP 6 everyone wants, he can't be a little b!tch. If we're smart we sign Onana and another midfielder/use Lewis-Skelly.

Has to be said that I'm not crazy about spending 100m on Neves, and I definitely don't want Zubimendi. The deeper lying DLP profile isn't exactly high in stock right now, and the only interesting profiles are the Wharton types. Boro have a nice little player, Hayden Hackney. Reckon he's got mega potential as a 6/8 type, although he's a bit more attacking for them.

 

[Blankety Blank]

There is at least one great reason we should consider signing this guy.

He comes from Senegal...

Perhaps It's written

 

[Fallout]

If he is being signed as an alternative to Rice then I have no issues

If he plays together with Rice against big teams away then also no issues

The big takeaway from last season, in my opinion, is we need a deep lying playmaker next to a duel machine to have a balanced midfield

Hopefully Arteta sees that and doesn't deviate ... if so then this signing makes a lot of sense given how much football Rice has played and how much energy he gives

 

[Jasard]

Why is this thread even open?

@A_G

 

[DanDare]

Sign him up just for this

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1803097733378580685

 

[Sapient Hawk]

Sign him up just for this

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1803097733378580685

He went from Amadou Onana to Sol from Snatch in an instant

 

[Bloodbather]

I hoped that people wanting Onana watched his Belgium game today and saw that he is a taller lokonga....

He's absolutely nothing like Lokonga. He's built like an absolute tank and wins duels all over the place for starters, Lokonga is a stick figure.

I thought he was pretty impressive against Slovakia. It was his partner in midfield, Mangala, and the CBs that sucked.

As I said previously, he's tailor made to be an alternative to Rice. Not someone to play alongside Rice, though. Might be a bit too expensive to be a backup.

 

[lomekian]

As has been said, as an alternative to rice who can occasionally double pivot in certain testing fixtures, Onana is a fine option - depending on the fee. We ran Rice into the ground last year, and its no coincidence that in our 2 defeats after Xmas he was absolutely gassed - Rice at 100% would have been very useful vs Villa or Bayern.

It also ould be incredibly useful in certain game states. Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Onana is a pretty formidible block to break through. I'm comfortable with 30-40m, start to wince after that. Anything above 50 is an absolute non starter for me, unless heavily dependent on conditional payments.

 

[MikelHadADream]

As has been said, as an alternative to rice who can occasionally double pivot in certain testing fixtures, Onana is a fine option - depending on the fee. We ran Rice into the ground last year, and its no coincidence that in our 2 defeats after Xmas he was absolutely gassed - Rice at 100% would have been very useful vs Villa or Bayern.

It also ould be incredibly useful in certain game states. Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Onana is a pretty formidible block to break through. I'm comfortable with 30-40m, start to wince after that. Anything above 50 is an absolute non starter for me, unless heavily dependent on conditional payments.

Signing him would also be dependent on Partey going.

We critically need a progressive CM on the ball which takes priority, but for the reasons you mention Onana would also be a super useful player to have.

 

[DuBB]

Because then you'd have 2 Jorginhos and only one Rice/Onana type. And as I've gone through great pains to reiterate - it's not that he's the perfect Rice partner or even the ideal signing but he has qualities that we don't exactly have an abundance of and if Rice (GOD FORBID) ever gets even a small injury, our midfield suddenly looks a lot weaker. And as I've also said, unless we're willing to blood an untested Myles Lewis-Skelly next season - arguably the exact profile we need as a 6/8 albeit not at the right profile - we're still gonna need to sign some more athleticism/power/duel-winning capability in midfield and Onana fits that bill better than almost anyone. Even if we do sign the DLP 6 everyone wants, he can't be a little b!tch. If we're smart we sign Onana and another midfielder/use Lewis-Skelly.

Has to be said that I'm not crazy about spending 100m on Neves, and I definitely don't want Zubimendi. The deeper lying DLP profile isn't exactly high in stock right now, and the only interesting profiles are the Wharton types. Boro have a nice little player, Hayden Hackney. Reckon he's got mega potential as a 6/8 type, although he's a bit more attacking for them.

This (possible) Onana signing is one of, if not the clearest case of squad building and contingency I've ever seen. Especially if you factor into it that he might be slightly underpriced because of PSR. (Slightly)

So it's no wonder that a lot of fans don't understand. It requires holding more than one footballing thought in the head at one time

I think I saw a Tweet that said we'll have a game every 3 to 4 days for literally 4 months straight if we make it beyond 3rd round of the League Cup.

Yet, some people are confused as to why we would want to sign someone who mirrors (stylistically, not quality-wise) what Rice brings us as a presser, and out-of-possession in our defensive 4-4-2 block.

A 22 (twenty freaking two) year old, international midfielder with 3 full seasons (2 PL, one Ligue 1) of experience under his belt, raw physical tools that can't be replicated easily, and massive room to grow as a footballer under elite coaching might be available for under market price...

Yeah, Edu and Arteta are idiots if they do this

 

[El Duderino]

@A_G is too preoccupied with me beating him on superbru by just letting it auto select the results to lock this.