gunner4lyfe
Established Member
He has been poor lately and has been drifting too far to the right instead of staying in the middle. Still think with a better partner he can do better though. I'd try him again with Elneny.
Against Wolves he was playing RCB when we were on the ball, and against Leicester he was a right sided midfielder, closer to the throw in line than the centre of the pitch. I have no idea what Arteta's trying to do.That right sided thing is clearly instruction though. We did the same on the other side with Xhaka and Tierney and it worked last season.
I honestly don't get it either. I understood why it was done with Xhaka to hide him from the press but when you ask Ceballos to drift to the right it leaves Xhaka in the middle which is the same as having no one there as he's always closer to the CBs pointing all over the place.That right sided thing is clearly instruction though. We did the same on the other side with Xhaka and Tierney and it worked last season.
I have to admit, he was pretty good during project lockdown and I'd even go as far to say this guy not kicking on is partially why we look so poor this season.
I disagree with him not being arsed. If nothing else, he needs to play well to get into Spain's euro squad and possible Madrid contention.
Here lies the issue. You can be what he is physically and still thrive in the PL but you have to have tremendous intelligence to do so. I wouldn't say he's any weaker than Özil or David Silva for example but those two are masterful at moving in such a way that they always have that extra moment to do something with the ball and they've already figured out exactly what that something is before they even receive it. Dani is decent at using little feints semi consistently to buy himself a bit of time but both as a flaw of his own(hence why he's not in Zidane's plans in spite of how weak their squad appears) and as a flaw of our tactics, he never has either the intelligence or to be fair, the option to make that next key action as our attack is disjointed and illogical in its progressions.I'm so happy we didn't sign him permanently. For me he's not up to the physical level of the premier league plus his doesn't seem to have a football brain
You are right if the player has the intelligence they can play in a more advanced midfield role, but unfortunately ceballos doesn't, plus in the deeper role he's playing I believe you do have to have some pace and strength or you just get run past.Here lies the issue. You can be what he is physically and still thrive in the PL but you have to have tremendous intelligence to do so. I wouldn't say he's any weaker than Özil or David Silva for example but those two are masterful at moving in such a way that they always have that extra moment to do something with the ball and they've already figured out exactly what that something is before they even receive it. Dani is decent at using little feints semi consistently to buy himself a bit of time but both as a flaw of his own(hence why he's not in Zidane's plans in spite of how weak their squad appears) and as a flaw of our tactics, he never has either the intelligence or to be fair, the option to make that next key action as our attack is disjointed and illogical in its progressions.
If you ever want to see an absolute masterclass on what a player that isn't the strongest can do if they're incredibly intelligent and technically excellent, you go back to around 2008 and watch Hleb and Fabregas and how impossible they were to dispossess even against good, physical opposition who they could never outmuscle. You don't even need to pick a specific match. Any will do because they were like that 100% of the time which is what separates real ballers from those who flatter to deceive. For Dani to get there would mean increasing his football IQ by a magnitude that just isn't possible at this stage in his development.
He's very very slow with the ball.Nice cameo today, can be very creative higher up the pitch... we're still not a very fluent team though very little chemistry
easy to play today cause by the time he came on they were not even contending the midfield
This has always been Dani. He looks amazing when he's got the midfield all to himself but once it's actually competitive and 2 (or more) players are closing him down, contesting balls with him etc.. he folds.easy to play today cause by the time he came on they were not even contending the midfield
That right sided thing is clearly instruction though.