Football Manager
Copy & Paste Merchant
1) If we keep Arteta, he should improve our playing style. In terms of tactics, stop the useless crosses, play through the middle...In terms of our squad, we should sell limited/one dimensional players, and buy players with more creativity.Firstly we don't have a style. The football under Mikel is poor boring and slow. And you don't sell an asset today based on the manager as we all know in a couple of years there will be a new manager.
Secondly while I agree Willock won't score 7/7 and a rate of 1 goal a game every week but he doesn't need to. If he is able to get you 10 goals a season and 6-7 assists both from starts and the bench then that's not so bad for a player who is developing and won't hit his ceiling for about another 3 years.
People would say before. Until we see what Willock can do week in week out we don't know how good he is.
So he went on loan, had an excellent loan, saved Newcastle season, fitted like a glove there and took to the club while maintaining respect for us.
Hes done all he can to prove he is worth considering for the Arsenal squad.
He doesn't need to start for us now. But being one of the first subs, while playing cup games and learning and developing in training could serve him well.
People said Emi had proven nothing. He had his 3-4 month spell with us and was excellent. People said oh purple patch. Yet this season he was one of the keepers in the league and was very good.
Would we swap Leno for Emi today. Course we would. Maybe we can use that as a lesson learned.
If we could sell Willock and sign a world class player of similar age and profile I would accept it. But if we are selling Willock to throw 40m at a 28 year old or 6 loans no.
If we hire a new manager, we are the Arsenal football club, we will not hire managers that love shxt, boring, relegation style football.
So either way, we will never play like Newcastle in the future.
2) Willock would be a huge liability in the general play. We need players that make our team plays better. So our team will score more. Willock adds some goals but our team will score less as a whole with him playing.
3) Imagine if you have 11 inzaghi, or 11 aubameyang in the team. Would you expect 30*11=330 goals/season just because they are a “30 goals/season player”? No because this team has no creativity. Each time you add one limited/one dimensional goal scorer into the team, the less creative your team will become. If you create less as a team, you will have less goal scoring chances.
4) I have already explained in the below post, that how it might work for willock if we keep him, and why I don’t think he is good enough.
If I have to pick someone playing this box to box goal scorer DM/CM/AM/CF hybrid role. I would pick a player with the skill set of an AM and transform his game into a more box to box role. Rather than picking a player with the skill set of a DM/CM and transform them, because they lack the creativity/passing/football skills to operate in the half space creating for the team.
You can’t coach Song and turn him into Cazorla. That’s why you have to pick the right player to develop his game.
We need a very specific system to get this type of player to play well.
Willock can work in a double pivot. For example, in a 3-4-3.
However, there are several weaknesses in him. When he make forward runs, he will leave a huge space in the midfield area.
This can be fixed with having the wide midfielder tuck inside, occupying the original space willock has left. Now willock is occupying the half space (which the wide forward was occupying, so the wide forward can run wide to keep the width for the team.
Here below, is how it looks like after the movements are made. Willock can use his strengths to attack the box in the half space (Note that his starting position was as a central midfield in a double pivot.)
(And of course, this is only one possible solution if we want to play good/attacking/entertaining football. We can fill up the space he left with other kind of movements. However, if we want to play shxt/boring/defensive/relegation football, then the solution would just be having everyone else staying at the back to fill in the gaps he has left.)
Without a clear tactical plan, we will be at picture 2 (as above), which the opponent team will rape us with counter attacks.
However, there are other weaknesses that stops willock from playing well in this midfielder/attacking midfielder/striker hybrid position.
When he is occupying the half space, his role there is mainly to be an attacking midfielder. The problem is that he is not a creative player, he is not a skillful dribbler, and he is not a great passer to occupy in that critical half space. He is not going to create much in this area which we need creativity the most. You can see how many through balls/amazing passes that KDB had made in this position, that willock are just not capable of.
I get that his strength is to pick the right time, to make runs into the box, become the striker and score. However, how many times will the right time exist in a match? If there are so few of these, it means most of his time, he would have to try creating for the team in the half space outside the box as an attacking midfielder. Willock just doesn’t have the close control/through passing ability to operate in this small pocket of spaces.
And that is where he is lacking. If he could improve on this, then great, I would loved to watch him play week in week out. But for now, I don’t think he is good enough for this role. ESR would be a good fit.
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