Martin Ødegaard: El Capitanø

[RunTheTrap]

I was never in favour of this transfer but I’m gonna hold out on criticising him because Arteta sucks at attacking play.

 

[bakaboo]

Ode is good, just that he is not been used properly or the system do not fit his style. The matches that he started, he was behind the striker, as a 10. But he was moving around too much, pressing unneccessary, often drifting to the flanks or went too far back. Thus there was a gap in the centre when we tried to attack

Think Arteta realised that and swapped in Laca. Laca pressing is more intelligent, as he mostly stayed in the centre, providing linkup and focus point of attack.

 

[samspade]

Too many excuses made for the player imo, to me it's simple and always has been, he is not a versatile or varied enough package and we have almost never seen him contribute significantly when the game state is difficult. I didn't like most of what he did against West Ham accept for the 2-3 superb balls he played out to the left hand side.

To my eyes every aspect of his play is limited, range and type of short pass/long pass, situations where he has a physical superiority (basically 0), situations he's comfortable striking the ball in (although he can connect very sweetly where he is comfortable), situations he looks to receive the ball in. He has one real strength and that is the ability to find a cutting delayed timing but even here, there are only a few areas of the pitch he'll deliver the killer ball too (RW, over the top occasionally, cross from the RW occasionally). Really good players earn the right to surprise the opposition with a delayed option by first showing them that pressing them isn't going to work and if you allow them the fast option they are going to take full advantage. He is a Goldilocks player.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

I hope this guy can step it up abd actually have a real effect on our games.

 

[samspade]

Too many excuses made for the player imo, to me it's simple and always has been, he is not a versatile or varied enough package and we have almost never seen him contribute significantly when the game state is difficult. I didn't like most of what he did against West Ham accept for the 2-3 superb balls he played out to the left hand side.

To my eyes every aspect of his play is limited, range and type of short pass/long pass, situations where he has a physical superiority (basically 0), situations he's comfortable striking the ball in (although he can connect very sweetly where he is comfortable), situations he looks to receive the ball in. He has one real strength and that is the ability to find a cutting delayed timing but even here, there are only a few areas of the pitch he'll deliver the killer ball too (RW, over the top occasionally, cross from the RW occasionally). Really good players earn the right to surprise the opposition with a delayed option by first showing them that pressing them isn't going to work and if you allow them the fast option they are going to take full advantage. He is a Goldilocks player.

*balls out to the right hand side.

 

[Riou]

Masterclass v Newcastle tomorrow, imo.

Gonna keep saying this until he actually plays well again!

 

[Sanchez11]

Discuss!!

 

[Paperino]

Not much happened.

 

[samspade]

Awful first half, functional second, nothing of real quality.

 

[AberGooner]

Very disappointed by him today. I had hoped he'd come in and really claim his position back in the side but did nowhere near enough. Given he's going to be here long term over Laca, maybe a run of games will help him but I think you have to put Laca back in again.

 

[Riou]

When the team is playing well, he keeps us moving very well, thought he was decent in the second half.

But he puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team to carry him.

 

[Trilly]

Just blonde.

 

[mirrorstares]

His highlight was running around a lot on throw ins from the right side ffs.

We're in trouble.

 

[balthazar]

Better than ESR today

 

[baccy_man]

I feel that he needs to practise on how he receives the ball too many times today he just had no control of the ball it was like it just bounced of him.

 

[samshere]

Played a couple of through balls, which was encouraging to see at least.

 

[samspade]

The copium in the Ødegaard and Auba threads is reaching new levels.

 

[RunTheTrap]

Better than ESR today

Lol, at least ESR had a shot today. Ødegaard offers zero shots most games. Even in his most heralded game against West Ham he got no goals or assists.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

Better than ESR today

Yep. Nothing special but the very nice points boonthegoon made on the last page--

What is interesting is that there is a narrative that we have improved in attack as well as not improved in attack(Because we have scored goals in set pieces). They come out in different contexts here.
I don`t think we improved our buildup play at all with Laca up front. We did improve the way we hassled the opposition and set up quick attacking moves more by winning the ball from the opposition because that`s the game Laca facilitates. While that in itself may not be a bad thing, I don`t think we should become a team which can`t play a slow buildup game in the long run.
Having more attacking players on the pitch actually makes us more defensive because once we get the ball in the midfield, we can`t keep the ball and push up as a team because we don`t have players good enough to keep the ball. The best attacking teams in EPL play without classic strikers these days(City and Liverpool). Chelsea is another team which keep complete control of the game by having more "defensive" players on the pitch. We have 2 strikers and Saka who for some reason is playing like a "direct" winger always running at the FB these days. I feel the balance in the team is off in attack at the moment.

Well, I think Ødegaard is the best option we have to play any kind of possession game. He is not a prime Cesc/Özil for sure but Chelsea keep control of the game with Mason Mount there who is not Cesc/Özil level either. My point is that we need more passing between midfielders. I am not suggesting that Ødegaard will turn us into title contenders here but he is definitely good enough to improve us IMO. Play enough games with ESR, Saka and Ødegaard and I think we will improve in attack.

--very much stand.

 

[Rex Stone]

Really poor again.

He never was a 10 but thought he’d be able to contribute something.