Myles Lewis-Skelly: Spooky Scary Skelly

[Yousif Arsenal]

look at the reaction from his parents yesterday they were extremely proud. and people think we'll sell him lol

him Ethan and Dowman are the next step for Arsenal they will take over from the guys like ode Zubi and Noni when the time is right they going nowhere and also people need to realize these 3 footballers age 19 18 and 17 you can't expect a regular starts for team that expectation is extremely high.

 

[HollandGooner]

No ****ing way we gonna sell him.

 

[ThisFather]

Gave that energy, power and progression in midfield that's been missing since Partey

 

[GunnerBP]

O'Reilly is available as a midfielder option too, honestly England does not need MLS right now. Already it seems likely they will leave out Mainoo and it is difficult to put MLS ahead of Mainoo. At least right now.

I think the fact that MLS can play LB and CM should increase his chances. If O'Reilly gets injured or has a dip in form, it is a good idea to have a player on the bench who can perform a similar role tactically.

Mainoo is playing well, but he's competing for a spot in midfield, and England have a lot of midfield options.

MLS is competing against Lewis Hall and Djed Spence to be O'Reilly's backup. I think he has already shown that he's better than both of them at LB, plus neither of them can invert into midfield and they definitely can't play midfield either.

MLS potentially making the squad should have very little to do with Mainoo.

 

[Trilly]

There's your man for midfield and he should be Zubi's deputy (who was also immense when he came on), it's extremely simple.

He should be in constant, fair competition with Zubi. Body of work to body of work I don't see any reason why Zubi should be ahead of him by default.

If MLS came through at Barca he'd have 200 apps by now

 

[HattoriHanzo]

Why Arteta waited so long to give him chance?
He was benched from January to April, 3 months.
And now he gave him chance in 2 most important games.

 

[Big Poppa]

O'Reilly is available as a midfielder option too, honestly England does not need MLS right now. Already it seems likely they will leave out Mainoo and it is difficult to put MLS ahead of Mainoo. At least right now.

It’s not a question of putting him ahead. He provides unique solutions. Out of the 3 you’ve mentioned, he’s the only one that’s bossed it against Europe’s very best in a knockout. He’s shown he has the minerals for it. It wasn’t that long ago Mainoo was completely frozen out so being so deterministic seems premature.

There’s definitely room for him in the squad.

 

[Tnegs]

This kid has solved the midfield puzzle in the last 2 games what a comeback story this has been for him. Might well have saved our season too.

 

[outlawz]

Why Arteta waited so long to give him chance?
He was benched from January to April, 3 months.
And now he gave him chance in 2 most important games.

It's impossible to say without being seeing MLS daily like the manager and his teammates do. We can only speculate on what might have happened.

@Clrnc and HOA mentioned in pre-season that he broke curfew on tour and it pissed Arteta off, and recently both Arteta and Rice commented on Mikel being tough on the lad to push him to doing more.

Maybe Arteta was afraid to play him in midfield as he didn't think he was ready yet.

He did seem off the pace during the first half of the season and looked noticeably sharper since the turn of the year. Maybe, he's much sharper and fitter now and is getting rewarded for it?

I do think he probably could have played sooner - but I'm not going to spend much time second guessing the manager without being involved in the club. He's brought him in at crunch time and MLS has played so incredibly well - he has become a genuine first team midfielder option now. I'm seriously chuffed for the kid.

I think what I like the most is that he offers us the left foot balance that we have lacked for a long time since Xhaka left.

 

[Rasmi]

The truth is if Merino was fit his Arsenal career would be over. Now he’s starting CL semi finals. But it’s bit like Eze signing. The circumstances saves Arteta from himself

He may never reach nailed on starter for the club. But when you have a player this good from the academy. Even if he’s just good enough for squad place, you keep him around as a squad player as you need players truly connected to the club. You also give the academy players some hope that they too can get a place if they good enough

 

[Red London]

I think there’s not much debate that MLS should have had more opportunities at CM than he has. But I’m glad we finally reached this moment.

Arteta seems to learn things slowly (and sometimes by chance, or through his hands being forced) but I think for the most part he learns from the mistakes more so than other managers who you feel could be oblivious to things.

The approach to MLS should have been to try him at CM as much as possible in the dead rubber / easy CL group games, as well as the FA cup and League Cup games, earlier in the season. It woulda given Rice and Zubi more rest but also an investment in having another CM option for later in the season along with less tired legs.

Arteta’s precautionary approach, an approach which has gotten us this far, needs some tweaking as sometimes he’s too far on the caution side which prevent progress.

I hope this makes them rethink having to buy a Tonali for £80m on £225k a week.

The beautiful thing about MLS is he is a massive contrast to what we currently have, and he is a left footed CM unlike Rice and Zubi. He perfectly compliments the squad in that deep CM area.

We also have Merino who was quietly becoming a leader here before the injury. Save that money and spend it on the attack.

 

[Bagels]

Wow, this is absolutely fantastic. Right in the feels.

GOOD VIBES ARE BACK

 

[HollandGooner]

The truth is if Merino was fit his Arsenal career would be over. Now he’s starting CL semi finals. But it’s bit like Eze signing. The circumstances saves Arteta from himself

He may never reach nailed on starter for the club. But when you have a player this good from the academy. Even if he’s just good enough for squad place, you keep him around as a squad player as you need players truly connected to the club. You also give the academy players some hope that they too can get a place if they good enough

He should not be a squad player but a starter in my opinion.

 

[Dokaka]

It's a shame Ødegaard fell off completely because on paper, just going by their style of play and attributes, a Rice/MLS/Øde midfield would've been pretty ****ing well balanced. All 3 on form with MLS getting close to his ceiling would also arguably be the best midfield in the world, but that's obviously a lot of if's.

 

[El Duderino]

I think there’s not much debate that MLS should have had more opportunities at CM than he has. But I’m glad we finally reached this moment.

Arteta seems to learn things slowly (and sometimes by chance, or through his hands being forced) but I think for the most part he learns from the mistakes more so than other managers who you feel could be oblivious to things.

The approach to MLS should have been to try him at CM as much as possible in the dead rubber / easy CL group games, as well as the FA cup and League Cup games, earlier in the season. It woulda given Rice and Zubi more rest but also an investment in having another CM option for later in the season along with less tired legs.

Arteta’s precautionary approach, an approach which has gotten us this far, needs some tweaking as sometimes he’s too far on the caution side which prevent progress.

I hope this makes them rethink having to buy a Tonali for £80m on £225k a week.

The beautiful thing about MLS is he is a massive contrast to what we currently have, and he is a left footed CM unlike Rice and Zubi. He perfectly compliments the squad in that deep CM area.

We also have Merino who was quietly becoming a leader here before the injury. Save that money and spend it on the attack.

The articles about us needing to sell one or both of him and Ethan were already doing the rounds.

We got lucky that the perfect storm happened and it's sort of not the first time.

And listen, this kind of thing happens at every club, but just like you, I wished we were a bit more proactive about it and it's also part of the club's DNA.

Merino has been out for a long time and Nørgaard is clearly not trusted, so there has been room for him to feature.

At the very least it would've put him on the shop window or just let Mikel and co. draw a better conclusion of keeping him here or not.

Hopefully he learns from this as Ethan/Max continue developing.

 

[Barry]

Don't want to be a kill joy, but is there a danger of going overboard on MLS after a couple of promising performances?

It's absolutely right that he got his shot, and it probably should have happened earlier but his form was terrible at the start of the season after an amazing break out last year.

I think we should keep him next year but it's going to be hard for him; Zubimendi has also had a really strong debut season, with some all action, dominant performances despite dropping off recently. Nørgaard hasn't made the grade, but best case really is that MLS is 4th choice in midfield with Merino back and third choice LB unless he can displace Hincapie... He's going to have to be brilliant to get enough minutes. Wish him all the best, and he may well end up displacing Zubi but it won't be next season.

The worry for him is that Arteta goes for another proven midfield starter like Tonali rather than gambling on MLS sustaining his form. And it would be a gamble. Tough call to make for the club tbf

 

[Halend]

Don't want to be a kill joy, but is there a danger of going overboard on MLS after a couple of promising performances?

It's absolutely right that he got his shot, and it probably should have happened earlier but his form was terrible at the start of the season after an amazing break out last year.

I think we should keep him next year but it's going to be hard for him; Zubimendi has also had a really strong debut season, with some all action, dominant performances despite dropping off recently. Nørgaard hasn't made the grade, but best case really is that MLS is 4th choice in midfield with Merino back and third choice LB unless he can displace Hincapie... He's going to have to be brilliant to get enough minutes. Wish him all the best, and he may well end up displacing Zubi but it won't be next season.

The worry for him is that Arteta goes for another proven midfield starter like Tonali rather than gambling on MLS sustaining his form. And it would be a gamble. Tough call to make for the club tbf

There are mitigating circumstances to the start of the season, after how he played last season he probably thought his role was secured only to have a player signed in his position and essentially dropped. He didn't start a league game until the 27th of December.

As for going forward MLS has a skill set that doesn't really overlap with Rice and Zubimendi so there will be matches that will be suited to him that will give him game time. Also rice and Zubimendi have both started over 50 games this year which is not ideal, If you take away 7-8 games from each and give them to Myles plus Arteta doing better with his subs that could easily be 30 midfield appearances right there to go along with another 10-15 starts at LB potentially.

Regarding another midfield signing you are right that could cause an issue which is why i don't think a 80m outlay on someone like tonali makes sense to me, i'd be looking at another young CM signing that is not going to demand tons of minutes right away but can come in and be relied upon to play like Mosquera.

 

[El Duderino]

Don't want to be a kill joy, but is there a danger of going overboard on MLS after a couple of promising performances?

It's absolutely right that he got his shot, and it probably should have happened earlier but his form was terrible at the start of the season after an amazing break out last year.

I think we should keep him next year but it's going to be hard for him; Zubimendi has also had a really strong debut season, with some all action, dominant performances despite dropping off recently. Nørgaard hasn't made the grade, but best case really is that MLS is 4th choice in midfield with Merino back and third choice LB unless he can displace Hincapie... He's going to have to be brilliant to get enough minutes. Wish him all the best, and he may well end up displacing Zubi but it won't be next season.

The worry for him is that Arteta goes for another proven midfield starter like Tonali rather than gambling on MLS sustaining his form. And it would be a gamble. Tough call to make for the club tbf

I mean, of course people will go a bit overboard. He's an academy player breaking through.

Most people agree he should be a rotational option and someone we can bring into games that require his skill set.

But at the very least, he's shown enough for us to focus our recruitment efforts elsewhere.

 

[StefanB]

Whats nice with Skelly getting midfield time is that he can basically play with whoever. We can play Rice, Skelly and Eze in one game, but we can also play Zubimendi, Skelly and Ødegaard for example with giving Rice and Zubimendi some rest in between.

The issue is that due to various reasons neither Skelly nor Nørgaard has gotten enough minutes of playing time and Zubimendi and Rice has played too many.

 

[Barry]

There are mitigating circumstances to the start of the season, after how he played last season he probably thought his role was secured only to have a player signed in his position and essentially dropped. He didn't start a league game until the 27th of December.

As for going forward MLS has a skill set that doesn't really overlap with Rice and Zubimendi so there will be matches that will be suited to him that will give him game time. Also rice and Zubimendi have both started over 50 games this year which is not ideal, If you take away 7-8 games from each and give them to Myles plus Arteta doing better with his subs that could easily be 30 midfield appearances right there to go along with another 10-15 starts at LB potentially.

Regarding another midfield signing you are right that could cause an issue which is why i don't think a 80m outlay on someone like tonali makes sense to me, i'd be looking at another young CM signing that is not going to demand tons of minutes right away but can come in and be relied upon to play like Mosquera.

Yeah I don't disagree, but with Merino back if everyone stays fit (huge "if" I know) then it's likely he struggles for minutes. Not sure that signing another young prospect really solves it because if they are a top talent like Bouaddi then you've got two inexperienced players fighting for the same development minutes as 4/5th choice.

The Nørgaard route probably makes the most sense again but someone who Arteta trusts to actually play if needed. I really want MLS to succeed here, but I do worry a bit that we leave ourselves short if it goes wrong. Anyway these are questions for the summer, hopefully he blasts away any doubt over the next four games