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✍️ OFFICIAL Gabriel Jesus

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Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
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Country: England
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You didn't slag of Lacazette everyday for years though, Jesus is a good player. So was Lacazette at his age.

You've had a hard on for Arteta's culture whoring recently though so who knows with you.
 

Big Poppa

Established Member
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Country: USA

Player:Saliba
He's 25 so there is always a chance he will step up, but if you spent everyday slagging off Lacazette and you're gassed over Jesus coming in.. you're an idiot I'm afraid.
I've spent most of this thread expressing my concern that we're putting so much stock in a player who isn't exactly a goal machine, but my concern was based more on pursuing him at the expense of more important players in more important areas. I still think he's a gigantic improvement on Lacazette and it's kinda strange to suggest otherwise - in goals, in terms of his skill, agility, stamina, and movement.
 

TheKippaxYears

Sheikh City
City fan here who drops in from time to time.
If I can just say this. This is a good deal for us. What with the incomings, we really didn't have the place for him that he merits. This is a good deal for you. You'll see that this is a scrupulously honest player, with a great deal of skill – you don't get to play up front alongside Neymar for Brazil if you don't have that – who'll work his socks off for the whole of your front line. Does he score enough goals? No. I'd just like to point out that he hasn't been played in a classic 9 position by Pep all that much. We haven't played with a classic target player since the decline of Aguero. And what with injuries that goes back to well before he left. Very curious to see if Gabriel Jesus doesn't up his goals scored rate for you. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. But he'll surprise you with the quality of his assists and his pressing, which bothers the hell out of opposing defences, and so creates room for his team mates. He'll create goals for you.
Above all, this is a good move for him, and I'm certain that his career will kick on. At 25, with a coach who knows his game inside out, he's still got room to develop. He goes with the respect and good wishes of all City fans.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
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Country: England
City fan here who drops in from time to time.
If I can just say this. This is a good deal for us. What with the incomings, we really didn't have the place for him that he merits. This is a good deal for you. You'll see that this is a scrupulously honest player, with a great deal of skill – you don't get to play up front alongside Neymar for Brazil if you don't have that – who'll work his socks off for the whole of your front line. Does he score enough goals? No. I'd just like to point out that he hasn't been played in a classic 9 position by Pep all that much. We haven't played with a classic target player since the decline of Aguero. And what with injuries that goes back to well before he left. Very curious to see if Gabriel Jesus doesn't up his goals scored rate for you. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. But he'll surprise you with his the quality of his assists and his pressing, which bothers the hell out of opposing defences, and so creates room for his team mates. He'll create goals for you.
Above all, this is a good move for him, and I'm certain that his career will kick on. At 25, with a coach who knows his game inside out, he's still got room to develop. He goes with the respect and good wishes of all City fans.

Paragraphs with no new info that absolutely nobody asked for

 

tap-in

Nothing Wrong With Me
I fully expected Jesus to explode last season at City. If Pep had played him more I think he would have. I'm excited by this signing, will he play CF or from wide? Personally I think he'll be part of a dynamic attack with the front 3 of Martinelli Jesus Saka interchanging, or maybe Saka Jesus Raphinha.
 

Entropics

Established Member

Country: Colombia

Player:Saka
I fully expected Jesus to explode last season at City. If Pep had played him more I think he would have. I'm excited by this signing, will he play CF or from wide? Personally I think he'll be part of a dynamic attack with the front 3 of Martinelli Jesus Saka interchanging, or maybe Saka Jesus Raphinha.

There's a reason City decided to do a strikerless formation instead of making Jesus the main man. And it was a painful transition, they almost get a trophyless season as a result.

All this chat about versatility in attack is fairly empty, that's why people just call it a day writing he's a clear improvement on Lacazette (and that statement might be an unpleasant surprise tbh). It's not like we didn't operate this way before, and what usually happens is that the striker has to drop deep and try to create chances while Ødegaard watches him.
 

lomekian

Essays are my thing
How is it that these "Arteta key" bits are always added to tweets, don't think I remember too many of those coming back in the day or at other clubs.

Some exceptions in special cases like when Wenger would visit someone in their home or have them flown in, but this PR bollocks is annoying. Of course the manager and DoF will have been important in the negotiations, but they're making it out to look like Jesus wouldn't have signed for lowly Arsenal if it weren't for them.
While that may be the case with the overall trend, its hard to think that he wasn't influenced by having worked with both before with a degree of success. If they said it about, say, Ramsdale, it would be a load of old cobblers, but word on the street is Jesus turned down some other big clubs, and its hard not to think that previous relationships with both Edu & Arteta may have played its part.
 

jones

Captain Serious
Trusted ⭐
While that may be the case with the overall trend, its hard to think that he wasn't influenced by having worked with both before with a degree of success. If they said it about, say, Ramsdale, it would be a load of old cobblers, but word on the street is Jesus turned down some other big clubs, and its hard not to think that previous relationships with both Edu & Arteta may have played its part.
I don't think it would've been nonsense in Ramsdales case at all. Anyone whose decision to move to a new workplace, let alone a new football club in a multi million pound transfer, isn't guided by the manager and DoF shouldn't be allowed to make that kind of decision. It's extremely obvious they'd be "key" and doesn't merit mentioning.

You'd also have to wonder who gave these journalists that tidbit. Can't see Jesus or his camp going out of their way to tell Ornstein or Romano their motives for the move.
 

lomekian

Essays are my thing


For the stats nerds out there.
Funny Orbinho is negative, when his own stats show that while Jesus misses more chances than he should, he gets a decent amount and assists more than twice as much as one would expect.

I don't think anyone thinks this guy is a dead eyed killer, but his overall game is where his strength is. With Eddie stepping up and looking like a real EPL goal threat :fcrossed:any other striker needed to be something other than poacher type (unless they were mega elite at it). Of course, ideally we'd be bringing in a tall, fast, physical scorer, but the £££ for them at the mo is implausible for a club still filling as many squad holes
 

Macho

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Country: England

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By Michael Cox

Whereas Manchester City and Liverpool have signed centre-forwards unfamiliar with the Premier League, Arsenal’s impending new signing Gabriel Jesus is well accustomed to the English top flight.

Jesus has played for five and a half years in the Premier League with City. He’s played more Premier League games than Eric Cantona did. He’s got as many assists as Freddie Ljungberg and scored more goals than Tim Cahill.

We know his strengths and his weaknesses inside out. What we don’t truly know is his optimum position.

We were introduced to Jesus upon his arrival from Palmeiras in Brazil in 2017 as a pure striker, a speedy No 9 who ran in behind, and while not necessarily the most formidable aerial threat, possessing a decent leap, and also a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

In the formative days of expected goals — at least in media terms — Jesus was often highlighted as a player who would come good on the basis of his xG numbers (rather than his actual goals return).

But statistics since suggest he’s not the most clinical finisher, underperforming his xG number in four of his five complete Premier League seasons — and in the other, overperforming by just 0.2, essentially “par”. Jesus puts himself in the right positions to get on the end of chances, as you might hope of an attacker playing ahead of the most creative midfield in Europe. He has sometimes been wasteful, however.

It would be easy to suggest that this is why Jesus increasingly started to be considered a wide forward rather than a centre-forward by City manager Pep Guardiola, although that would slightly misunderstand the way goalscorers operate these days.

Manchester City


Gabriel Jesus never really had a defined role in over five years at Manchester City (Photo: Rich Linley – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min have just shared the Premier League’s 2021-22 Golden Boot by operating from wide, generally facilitated by a centre-forward capable of dropping deeper to create. Jesus’ link-up play is good but he’s more of a wide runner than he is a forward moving into midfield areas.

And all of that makes his expected move to Arsenal, who have agreed personal terms with the forward, particularly intriguing.

Mikel Arteta has worked with Jesus before, spending over three years on the City staff before taking the Arsenal job in December 2019, and since becoming a manager, has broadly followed Guardiola’s template of wanting a centre-forward who boasts good link play above all else. He was never convinced by Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang because of that shortcoming in his game, initially electing to play him wide and later finding that Arsenal played better without him.

The debate between Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah was, broadly speaking, link play versus finishing ability, with Arsenal’s other attacking options looking better with Lacazette until his lack of goal contribution became almost unavoidable.

Perhaps in an ideal world, Arsenal would have signed a world-class No 9, a reliable goalscorer to spearhead the attack, but signing a player like that comes with problems — sometimes a manager simply doesn’t want to use a No 9.

Cristiano Ronaldo did all that could have been expected last season in terms of scoring goals for Manchester United but his side went backwards. Romelu Lukaku’s first year back with Chelsea was a bizarre period, with the Belgium striker complaining about being played out of position and at one point, setting a record for the fewest touches in a Premier League game.

It’s even possible to make a case that Erling Haaland, who arrives at City from Borussia Dortmund with an astonishing goalscoring record, might not necessarily be what that team requires.

But Jesus is not an inflexible No 9 — at the start of 2021-22, we had all seemingly decided he was more of a winger.

“I spoke with Gabriel and he likes to play sometimes more in wider positions than the central one,” Guardiola said after using him down the right for a 5-0 win over Norwich City last August.

“Ferran (Torres) has a big sense for the goal, I would say a little bit higher than Gabriel when he plays in central positions… (Torres’) movements are more towards the goal. Gabriel comes more to drop a little bit, Ferran makes movements more to the goal. With our lack of goals lately, we need a guy who can make a movement there.”

In typically unpredictable fashion, Guardiola used a traditional winger as a forward and a traditional forward as a winger.

In 24 league and European starts last season, Jesus began the game playing through the middle 10 times and started down the right, where he has featured regularly for Brazil, in all the others.

It means that when Arteta approaches a game and decides he doesn’t want to play a conventional centre-forward, he can use Jesus elsewhere and not have a £45 million player sitting on the bench. Arsenal cannot afford to waste resources in that fashion. Gabriel Martinelli can do the same from the opposite side.


That leaves Nketiah as the more typical No 9, although in certain games — particularly against stronger sides — it wouldn’t be surprising to see Emile Smith Rowe or Martin Ødegaard as the most advanced central attacking player, with two players breaking in behind from wide. Bukayo Saka can play almost anywhere.

Which means Arteta has by far the biggest range of attacking options since he took charge of the club. Perhaps, in terms of star quality, this Arsenal squad’s strongest attacking trio cannot compete with Lacazette, Aubemayeng and Mesut Özil, but those three players all had obvious weaknesses that constrained Arteta tactically.

Increasingly, Arteta’s squad is packed full of “his” players, and there are fewer excuses now if Arsenal fail to play “his” style of football to a high standard.

Arteta will probably only get one opportunity to bring in a striker of Jesus’ cost and calibre. His success or failure may define Arteta’s tenure at Arsenal.
 

yorch44

Commander of the Pelotudo Brigade
City fan here who drops in from time to time.
If I can just say this. This is a good deal for us. What with the incomings, we really didn't have the place for him that he merits. This is a good deal for you. You'll see that this is a scrupulously honest player, with a great deal of skill – you don't get to play up front alongside Neymar for Brazil if you don't have that – who'll work his socks off for the whole of your front line. Does he score enough goals? No. I'd just like to point out that he hasn't been played in a classic 9 position by Pep all that much. We haven't played with a classic target player since the decline of Aguero. And what with injuries that goes back to well before he left. Very curious to see if Gabriel Jesus doesn't up his goals scored rate for you. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. But he'll surprise you with the quality of his assists and his pressing, which bothers the hell out of opposing defences, and so creates room for his team mates. He'll create goals for you.
Above all, this is a good move for him, and I'm certain that his career will kick on. At 25, with a coach who knows his game inside out, he's still got room to develop. He goes with the respect and good wishes of all City fans.
Thank you brother! I send my good wishes to you and the other 9 fans City have around the world.
 
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