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Benjamin The White šŸ“

jato

Active Member
Move him as Partey's partner in CM and bring back Saliba as the RCB. Arteta will still get the passing and technicality of White with defensive qualities unlike Xhaka. Saliba will bring in physicality, ball playing and heading ability where we need it and keep Holding as backup. Sambi/AMN (who was great coming on a sub but rubbish against Norwich) as the two backups and sell Eleney.

White struggled early but got better as the game went on. I think he will get better as the season progresses.
 

IstraBalagina

Active Member
This club and it's fans :lol: honestly. He's played 3 games for us. Two of which we've won with clean sheets.

Let's be honest, people had made their minds up before he'd even kicked a ball for us.
They paid Ā£50m for him not Ā£5m so it's understandable
 

Vanpayslip

Active Member
To be fair to the guy he has been given a lot more responsibility than he would have had at his previous club. He is now the main ball player out of the two central defenders and is also now playing in a two rather than a three. It will probably take time for him to settle into what is already a chaotic situation at the club.
 

Tir Na Nog

Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes

Country: Ireland
Never 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.

Elite posting, what did people expect up against the two gigachads in Barnes and Wood? His numbers were still pretty decent in terms of aerial duels despite this. People need to relax a bit.
 

OnlyOne

ā€˜Donkeys donā€™t have a peak, they remain uselessā€™
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Country: England
Elite posting, what did people expect up against the two gigachads in Barnes and Wood? His numbers were still pretty decent in terms of aerial duels despite this. People need to relax a bit.

I posted the stats showing he had more headed clearances and won a higher % of headers out his attempted than Gabriel did but AM ignored it because his back pass nearly cost us.

I donā€™t mind people not being happy but itā€™s weirdly going way OTT to the point where itā€™s personal.
 

Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.
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Country: England

Player:Rice
Think White is going to get a bit of a tough time from the fanbase at least in the short term. Any mistake from him and it's going to be ' We parked the golden boy in ligue 1 for this?'

3 games isn't a great sample size to be making sweeping judgements of him really. Let's give him a chance to settle in first.
 

Jae

Well-Known Member
They paid Ā£50m for him not Ā£5m so it's understandable

Hardly uncommon...

Eliaquim Mangala to Man City | Ā£40.50m
Nicolas Otamendi to Man City | Ā£40.00m
Nathan Ake to Man City | Ā£41.00m
John Stones to Man City | Ā£50.04m

You won't see Man United fans using Harry Maguire's Ā£78m price tag to club him over the head with week in week out. Just saying.
 

IstraBalagina

Active Member
I posted the stats showing he had more headed clearances and won a higher % of headers out his attempted than Gabriel did but AM ignored it because his back pass nearly cost us.

I donā€™t mind people not being happy but itā€™s weirdly going way OTT to the point where itā€™s personal.
Stats won't help if you make crucial mistakes, if you go by stats Mustafi was a great defender for Arsenal
 

IstraBalagina

Active Member
Hardly uncommon...

Eliaquim Mangala to Man City | Ā£40.50m
Nicolas Otamendi to Man City | Ā£40.00m
Nathan Ake to Man City | Ā£41.00m
John Stones to Man City | Ā£50.04m

You won't see Man United fans using Harry Maguire's Ā£78m price tag to club him over the head with week in week out. Just saying.
Arsenal are not Man City
 

Impact

Established Member
Given Whiteā€™s 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 isnā€™t 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 havenā€™t seen an Arsenal defender as good as him at that in many years. That quality is necessary under Artetaā€™s 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.
 
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OnlyOne

ā€˜Donkeys donā€™t have a peak, they remain uselessā€™
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Country: England
Stats won't help if you make crucial mistakes, if you go by stats Mustafi was a great defender for Arsenal

Ben White never made a pass that led to a shot last season. Letā€™s not sit here and pretend itā€™s a common theme with him. Over this season if he does stuff like this consistently, then we can worry.
 

IstraBalagina

Active Member
Ben White never made a pass that led to a shot last season. Letā€™s not sit here and pretend itā€™s a common theme with him. Over this season if he does stuff like this consistently, then we can worry.
I'm not judging him, just saying.
He needs time of course, he's a long term investment after all.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
On the ball, Ben is exceptional. Whether that is ball carrying, distributing or evading pressure. I havenā€™t seen an Arsenal defender as good as him at that in many years. That quality is necessary under Artetaā€™s positional play scheme.
That's all good but our back four should play a high line with the pace and technical quality they have. Arteta wants his defence deep and closer to Ramsdale, and that's a plan that will invite pressure and a lot of crosses/ high balls against us, something we really struggle against.

He is similar in a way to Koscienly, but Wenger was much smarter than Arteta and he pushed Koscienly as far as possible from our box while Arteta does the exact opposite.
 

Haphazard

Active Member
Think White is going to get a bit of a tough time from the fanbase at least in the short term. Any mistake from him and it's going to be ' We parked the golden boy in ligue 1 for this?'

3 games isn't a great sample size to be making sweeping judgements of him really. Let's give him a chance to settle in first.
3 games vs relegation level fodder and he's made multiple mistakes against them. Why have we spent 50m on a cb who can't manage against relegation fodder let alone the likes of Chelsea/City/Utd etc?

Saliba has been doing well for Marsielle, yes it's a different league but this seems like a complete waste of money to satisfy an incompetent manager's desire to play out from the back, given superior cbs like Konate and Romero went for less money.
 

Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.
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Country: England

Player:Rice
3 games vs relegation level fodder and he's made multiple mistakes against them. Why have we spent 50m on a cb who can't manage against relegation fodder let alone the likes of Chelsea/City/Utd etc?

Saliba has been doing well for Marsielle, yes it's a different league but this seems like a complete waste of money to satisfy an incompetent manager's desire to play out from the back, given superior cbs like Konate and Romero went for less money.

I mean it's not Ben Whites fault we bought him.

If your issue is White shouldn't have been a priority signing given we already had Saliba on the books, then I agree with you. That's on Arteta though.

You've got to allow a new player a bit of a settling in period I think. New teammates, new tactics, new manager etc. A few mistakes are to be expected I think.
 

Impact

Established Member
That's all good but our back four should play a high line with the pace and technical quality they have. Arteta wants his defence deep and closer to Ramsdale, and that's a plan that will invite pressure and a lot of crosses/ high balls against us, something we really struggle against.

He is similar in a way to Koscienly, but Wenger was much smarter than Arteta and he pushed Koscienly as far as possible from our box while Arteta does the exact opposite.

I actually think this is wrong analysis. Arteta wants the team as high up the pitch as possible pinning back the opposition e.g. what we saw for the first 30 minutes against Norwich last week.

The defenders only start deep from short goal kicks to support good buildup into the final third which helps to sustain quality possession further up the pitch.

The problem has been that we havenā€™t had enough technical quality in the defence until our recent signings (Ramsdale, White and Tomiyasu) or control in midfield (with Partey often unavailable and the replacements being dire) to consistently build play the desired way. So we have made mistakes that have led us to us having to regularly start again / defend transitions / inviting unnecessary pressure.

Arteta will want that to stop. Think how City pin teams back all game. Thatā€™s the model Arteta has in mind for us.
 
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Maybe

You're wrong, no?
I actually think this is wrong analysis. Arteta wants the team as high up the position as possible pinning back the opposition e.g. what we saw for the first 30 minutes against Norwich last week.

The defenders are only start deep from short goal kicks to support good buildup into the final third which helps to sustain quality possession further up the pitch.
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.
 

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