Rasmi
Negative Nancy
Country: England
People have accepted xhaka and has zero expectations on him. There are more expectations on Sambi than xhaka who did absolutely nothing. Sambi was actually better
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Sambi Lokonga: Sam Be the Man in Midfield?
- Thread starter Yousif Arsenal
- Start date
- Replies 2,295
- Views 163,100
Country: England
Rasmi
Negative Nancy
Country: England
There are many frauds at Arsenal and I would focus on them than him. The owner, the board, the football director and the manager. Then the captain, the former captain, the 80 million English cb and keeper who are not better than what we had
mpower2540
Well-Known Member
Sorry but Guendouzi worlds above Sambi when he first came I don’t agree with at all. I find the Guendouzi love in a bit irritating, probs cos I’ve never liked him.We payed more for an unexperienced player, that the money we're getting back for Guendouzi who's having an amazing season, who was worlds above Sambi when he started in the PL.
Amazing stuff.
Ofc it's not his fault. He might even turn out to be a good/very good player one day. But he wasn't what we needed at the time, and it's hard to justify the money invested in him since he's still so raw and far away from the premiership level.
20M for a guy who can't start a game in the PL, where you could have put some extra cash, a £30M could have brought us a very solid midfielder who would have contributed this season.
Or keeping Guendouzi
Guendouzi had some real poor games for us in his first two seasons. I remember a game against wolves, he was played as the lone 6, similar to Sambi, in a diamond and got eaten alive there.
Personality to get on the ball he had it in buckets but he could be so infuriating the way he’d go down looking for a free kick the minute he’d be touched. Off the ball he offered little to nothing (he actually improved in this a little) but he was so unbelievably weak, jogged back without any awareness of what was going on around him, aerially he would literally duck away from the ball. Put him with a player that masks his deficiencies he’ll probably look way better, from the sounds of it he’s been given way more freedom at Marseille and he’s excelling. Sambi had a period next to Partey where he was arguably the better performer and I was quietly impressed.
We all love to kill a player to big up another we like, Ive just done it, I barely ever criticise Partey because I love him as a player, I actually dread going in the thread when he’s had a tough game!
I don’t watch Marseille, sounds like he’s improved hugely so congratulations to him. If people wanna slag the club off for tanking his value then I’m cool with that but being honest if he was still here I think he’d be drowning along with all our other young players in this current run.
Maybe
You're wrong, no?
You are missing the point like many of you here, Douzi doesn't need to be great, it's Sambi who needs to show more than Douzi after Arteta and Edu invested 20M for no reason at all, and the boy is struggling to do that.
I don't think people here hate Sambi, it's a go at Arteta and his decisions after he was trusted with the biggest budget in our history. After 220M wasted, you think this team can't beat early Emery's team of 2018/2019, and our best players today are academy grads that were here before Arteta
Jae
Well-Known Member
Why are we slating a player that’s kicked a ball about 5 times all season? It’s Artetas fault if anything for not rotating him into the squad, how can we expect him to come in during the toughest part of the season and do a job? Same goes for a lot of our other players.
Don't even think it's an either or with Guendouzi and Sambi. Sambi is obviously the Partey back up, and the irony is that Guendouzi is probably the exact player Arteta would want for the Xhaka LCM role. We could have 100% had both this season, and we'd have been better off for it.
Country: England
Yeah I've got no issue with Lokonga himself tbh; he's not been rotated a lot this season so as a young player that's new to the league, inevitably he'll struggle in what's probably one of the most important roles in the team.
He's got lots of time to grow and I'm not worried about him. Also just imho I don't even think he was as bad as some are saying he was against Brighton and Southampton.....YMMV on that one though.
In terms of the whole Guendouzi thing, I'm pretty annoyed about it tbh. It's not even that I think Guendouzi would be so much better than Sambi, it's more that I think the whole situation was a waste of time and resources; it would've been much easier and cheaper to have just kept Guen.
Anyway, what is done is done and I'm confident that we've got a good player in Sambi atleast.
He's got lots of time to grow and I'm not worried about him. Also just imho I don't even think he was as bad as some are saying he was against Brighton and Southampton.....YMMV on that one though.
In terms of the whole Guendouzi thing, I'm pretty annoyed about it tbh. It's not even that I think Guendouzi would be so much better than Sambi, it's more that I think the whole situation was a waste of time and resources; it would've been much easier and cheaper to have just kept Guen.
Anyway, what is done is done and I'm confident that we've got a good player in Sambi atleast.
Symbia
Active Member
To be fair to Arteta he was defrauded by Vincent Kompany. I strongly suggest, the club should report Kompany to the police for the day light robbery.
Zaza
Active Member
I think he edges Guendouzi in terms of pure ability. He just lacks Guendouzi ability to try and grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Sambi wouldn't be able to do what Guendouzi did in his last North London derby against Spuds.
There's definitely something to work with and I'm confident he'll get better with time.
Mentality a bit disappointing considering the praise he got from Kompany.
There's definitely something to work with and I'm confident he'll get better with time.
Mentality a bit disappointing considering the praise he got from Kompany.
Riou
In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over
Country: Northern Ireland
Player:Gabriel
Going from Belgium to England, at his age, was always gonna be tough... especially with how important midfield is.
Still think he has shown enough to play a role here...his form earlier in the season with Partey, was very decent.
Wouldn't mind him getting a loan next year, get him a season as a starter in a good league.
Still think he has shown enough to play a role here...his form earlier in the season with Partey, was very decent.
Wouldn't mind him getting a loan next year, get him a season as a starter in a good league.
UpTheGunnerz
Vrei sa pleci dar una una iei
Player:Elneny
Pub quiz question 25 years down the line-type of player imo
avenellroad
John Radford’s son
He looks to have the skill set of a more attacking midfielder and not really a 6 in the mould of Partey.
Still needs a loan like what Saliba has had. Consistent games and we can judge properly.
Still needs a loan like what Saliba has had. Consistent games and we can judge properly.
Think we may have a bit if a dilemma with Sambi. I think for his own development he needs to be a starter somewhere, but that's obviously not here any time soon. Needs a loan, but then what do we do for the Partey back up? Signing a player in that position may block Sambi's pathway back into the squad. Maybe you extend ElNeny and loan Sambi?
Country: England
I'd sign two midfielders and loan him out. I think 4 midfielders are enough.
Agree, but what types of midfielder? I think we need a Xhaka upgrade and then competition for Ødegaard. I think bringing in another DM kills Sambi's route into the team, which I don't think the club want to do. I'd sign those two types of midfielder and maybe extend ElNeny (in two minds about this though).
Country: England
Someone like Tielemans/Aouar for 25M is okay to me. I have been really happy with Xhaka but I think we're suffering a bit of we haven't seen anyone else play there yet, and these two are much more suited to it creatively and I think Xhaka is going good, but it's clear it's not where his strengths lie. Both can fill for Ødegaard as well and take more of a creative burden, so what we play now but Aouar for Ødegaard.
I then think honestly we need Partey back up but also someone who can play with him. Neves and Bissouma I'd be really happy with, both can hold their own against any PL opposition. I don't know who's profile I like better though between the two, Bissouma and Partey would be a wall, but Neves is a guy who I think you can hang your hat on and his passing range is sublime.
Tir Na Nog
Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes
Country: Ireland
Tbf Partey wasn't a 6 either this time last year, but in general Sambi is far away from what's required for that role. If he plays he'll need a partner and we shouldn't be changing our current system for him so a loan makes most sense for next year.
Barry
Definitely Not An Old Poster
Did a little stats check on Lokonga - just for my interest really. The Bissouma news has been seriously disappointing for a lot of us, me very much included.
Yeah it's interesting - obviously a small sample size of around 1100 minutes last season, but he actually held his own better than you'd think numbers wise. Very strong in some areas like, carries, creative passing / forward passing & SCA's. Not so bad defensively as you'd think based off some of those performances. Looking at Sqawka comparison with Bissouma is interesting as well. Pretty much the same picture - he's a better creative passer and weaker defensively (but not in all areas).
I still think there's a player here. He's had something of an acclimatisation period and needs to get some decent minutes and kick on now. No guarantees but I wonder if we see a big jump in his performance level this season.
Yeah it's interesting - obviously a small sample size of around 1100 minutes last season, but he actually held his own better than you'd think numbers wise. Very strong in some areas like, carries, creative passing / forward passing & SCA's. Not so bad defensively as you'd think based off some of those performances. Looking at Sqawka comparison with Bissouma is interesting as well. Pretty much the same picture - he's a better creative passer and weaker defensively (but not in all areas).
I still think there's a player here. He's had something of an acclimatisation period and needs to get some decent minutes and kick on now. No guarantees but I wonder if we see a big jump in his performance level this season.
Country: Scotland
Player:Gabriel
I'd like to see him one of the more advanced midfield positions either RCM/LCM rather than as the deepest midfielder. I think if he's going to make it here that is where we'd make best use of him.
That's something we could maybe try in the Europa group games/early rounds of the League cup and see how he does.
That's something we could maybe try in the Europa group games/early rounds of the League cup and see how he does.
He's had the Pepe treatment so far, I don't think there was a single match we played to his strenghts and it's one thing to make you play deeper, another to leave you alone to die there when you don't have the skillset to do so.
If this continues he should leave the club ASAP, it's sheer mismanagement. With Pepe there was the excuse of being the most expensive transfer and an experienced player that needed to deliver results, with Lokonga we might just be ruining his development.
