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Sambi Lokonga: Sam Be the Man in Midfield?

Geofranco

Would let Saka date his daughter

Player:Saka
Gonna play Devil’s Advocate here. I don’t think Sambi is bad. Raw but not bad. People saying Elneny is better are full blown alcoholics or meth heads. I can’t tell. That’s for you to decide. I think he’s probably a couple years away from being a first teamer. I think there’s a lot of animosity thrown his direction because of the mishap of the Guendouzi situation. Personally, I think Guendouzi is overrated and only really excelled in chaotic games. In more structured environments I don’t think he’s much different to Sambi. People are forgetting he lost his place to Torreira and Cellabos.

Now when analysing yesterday’s game. I find it worrisome that our entire midfield was poor. Not just Partey and Sambi (who made the mistakes) but, Ødegaard was largely frustrating and ESR messed up on some simple decisions. When one person is poor that’s on him; if multiple players are poor, that tells me it’s a structure/managerial issue.

Guendouzi and Sambi are not top talents, just decent, but I def like the look of Sambi. Don't get what people expected of a guy coming from the Belgium league. That is such a big jump to make and now he is being relied upon at Arsenal lol. The decision-making of those in charge of this club is just hilarious. Sambi needs time and patience. Young players are meant to look up to the older veterans for guidance not the other way around. I would say 19 year old Wilshere was more gifted than Guendouzi and Sambi by far.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Gonna play Devil’s Advocate here. I don’t think Sambi is bad. Raw but not bad. People saying Elneny is better are full blown alcoholics or meth heads. I can’t tell. That’s for you to decide. I think he’s probably a couple years away from being a first teamer.
I think you’re mixing up potential vs current ability.

You said it yourself, he’s probably a couple years away from being a first teamer. Elneny is a first teamer, maybe that’s simply due to experience but he is.
 

RunTheTrap

Kai Havertz Offense League
Arteta based his entire strategy around fullback runs and then tells them to not make runs for no apparent reason. He then doesnt coach Lokonga how to position himself within his setup and expects him to just slot in. Lokonga has made enough passes to show he has the talent but is a bit raw and could really benefit from a manager who knows what theyre doing. Could say this about a few of our younger players.

What Lokonga has shown is something we badly need in midfield but he is being thrown to the dogs without any proper instructions. Reminds me a bit of Song but he seems to have a far better attitude and is happy to sit and dictate the game.
Yep, we had no consistent outlet. This is the furthest back I’ve seen Tierney play all season.
 

AbouCuéllar

Author of A-M essays 📚
Gonna play Devil’s Advocate here. I don’t think Sambi is bad. Raw but not bad. People saying Elneny is better are full blown alcoholics or meth heads. I can’t tell. That’s for you to decide. I think he’s probably a couple years away from being a first teamer. I think there’s a lot of animosity thrown his direction because of the mishap of the Guendouzi situation. Personally, I think Guendouzi is overrated and only really excelled in chaotic games. In more structured environments I don’t think he’s much different to Sambi. People are forgetting he lost his place to Torreira and Cellabos.

Now when analysing yesterday’s game. I find it worrisome that our entire midfield was poor. Not just Partey and Sambi (who made the mistakes) but, Ødegaard was largely frustrating and ESR messed up on some simple decisions. When one person is poor that’s on him; if multiple players are poor, that tells me it’s a structure/managerial issue.
Very nice post.

I didn't bother to post in any player threads (Thomas dire and pissing me the f*ck off, Ødegaard with another absolute stinker, ESR poor and should've played Pepe through) after the Palace game for this reason. There's a clear structural issue and our midfielders especially are suffering. Arteta just cannot coach a good and coherent scheme in possession atm.
 

RunTheTrap

Kai Havertz Offense League
Very nice post.

I didn't bother to post in any player threads (Thomas dire and pissing me the f*ck off, Ødegaard with another absolute stinker, ESR poor and should've played Pepe through) after the Palace game for this reason. There's a clear structural issue and our midfielders especially are suffering. Arteta just cannot coach a good and coherent scheme in possession atm.
We're a team that tries to be both a possession based and counter-attacking team but we are not able to fully commit to either style. The first 20 minutes we were okay in possession. After the Auba goal we became loose with our passing and our centre backs get hoofing the ball to non-existent runners. So I assumed we were trying to hit them on the transition because we no longer could play out from the back, but the decision making from our attackers were poor. We lost a lot of the midfield battle and was terrible at winning second balls. We just suck at everything.
 

scytheavatar

Established Member
@scytheavatar also do you think it was a good idea to prioritise this signing over a quality CM?

We had more pressing concerns in our actual starting eleven than bringing in another talent imo.

He was signed because he's cheap and we needed someone to replace Elneny, I think you would have struggled to find a clearly better midfielder at the same price. No Guendouzi isn't better.
 

2Smokeyy

5.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (49)
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
He was signed because he's cheap and we needed someone to replace Elneny, I think you would have struggled to find a clearly better midfielder at the same price. No Guendouzi isn't better.

I didn’t even mention Guendouzi but he’s arguably further in his development than Lokonga and would have provided us with more this season.

We signed Lokonga for 18m, right? Neves was apparently available for 30-35m earlier in the window which isn’t too far off that fee. Wolves were willing to let him go, so are you saying that he isn’t better than Lokonga? I could name other midfielders that would have improved us at a affordable price range. Actually it doesn’t even have to be affordable since we spent 50m on Ben White which could have been used for a CM.
 

Barry

Definitely Not An Old Poster
Gonna play Devil’s Advocate here. I don’t think Sambi is bad. Raw but not bad. People saying Elneny is better are full blown alcoholics or meth heads. I can’t tell. That’s for you to decide. I think he’s probably a couple years away from being a first teamer. I think there’s a lot of animosity thrown his direction because of the mishap of the Guendouzi situation. Personally, I think Guendouzi is overrated and only really excelled in chaotic games. In more structured environments I don’t think he’s much different to Sambi. People are forgetting he lost his place to Torreira and Cellabos.

Now when analysing yesterday’s game. I find it worrisome that our entire midfield was poor. Not just Partey and Sambi (who made the mistakes) but, Ødegaard was largely frustrating and ESR messed up on some simple decisions. When one person is poor that’s on him; if multiple players are poor, that tells me it’s a structure/managerial issue.

No one's saying Elneny is better than Sambi are they? Riou was saying that it might make sense to have a midfielder who can defend next to Partey against Villa and save Sambi for the cup game to give him a chance to regroup.
 

tap-in

Nothing Wrong With Me
Gonna play Devil’s Advocate here. I don’t think Sambi is bad. Raw but not bad. People saying Elneny is better are full blown alcoholics or meth heads. I can’t tell. That’s for you to decide. I think he’s probably a couple years away from being a first teamer. I think there’s a lot of animosity thrown his direction because of the mishap of the Guendouzi situation. Personally, I think Guendouzi is overrated and only really excelled in chaotic games. In more structured environments I don’t think he’s much different to Sambi. People are forgetting he lost his place to Torreira and Cellabos.

Now when analysing yesterday’s game. I find it worrisome that our entire midfield was poor. Not just Partey and Sambi (who made the mistakes) but, Ødegaard was largely frustrating and ESR messed up on some simple decisions. When one person is poor that’s on him; if multiple players are poor, that tells me it’s a structure/managerial issue.

If I hadnt seen a name at the top I would have assumed I wrote this :lol: Absolutely spot on in every way!
 

Monstar-Gunn4r

Established Member
We're a team that tries to be both a possession based and counter-attacking team but we are not able to fully commit to either style. The first 20 minutes we were okay in possession. After the Auba goal we became loose with our passing and our centre backs get hoofing the ball to non-existent runners. So I assumed we were trying to hit them on the transition because we no longer could play out from the back, but the decision making from our attackers were poor. We lost a lot of the midfield battle and was terrible at winning second balls. We just suck at everything.
Its like we try to hit quick on the counterattack but cant retain possession if we fail to make a quick successful transition from defence to attack that results in a goal.
 

gunner4lyfe

Established Member
Gonna play Devil’s Advocate here. I don’t think Sambi is bad. Raw but not bad. People saying Elneny is better are full blown alcoholics or meth heads. I can’t tell. That’s for you to decide. I think he’s probably a couple years away from being a first teamer. I think there’s a lot of animosity thrown his direction because of the mishap of the Guendouzi situation. Personally, I think Guendouzi is overrated and only really excelled in chaotic games. In more structured environments I don’t think he’s much different to Sambi. People are forgetting he lost his place to Torreira and Cellabos.

Now when analysing yesterday’s game. I find it worrisome that our entire midfield was poor. Not just Partey and Sambi (who made the mistakes) but, Ødegaard was largely frustrating and ESR messed up on some simple decisions. When one person is poor that’s on him; if multiple players are poor, that tells me it’s a structure/managerial issue.
People are really saying Elneny is better? This has to be some kind of stockholm syndrome. Lol
 

Monstar-Gunn4r

Established Member
Did I say he was raw, didnt look it today? Great game today, looked solid dfensively and some of the runs forward were very Fabregas-esque
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Easily better than that hair-***** over in Marsielle...
 

Yousif Arsenal

On Vinai's payroll & misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Trusted ⭐
Yes his best performance and responded well after the mistake against Crystal palace.

Let's remember he 21 made such big jump this is like Guendouzi there will be good performance and mistakes but he got amazing potential very good going forward
 

Heavy Duty Rom

Outdated Tweets Merchant
Very good performance. He's such a strange player to watch, looks so casual, he can be elusive with the ball, but never looks like sprinting.

He's not the answer to the CM issue yet, but it shows the kind of player we need to target. A more athletic box to box player. One who can defend well, pass the ball, but also run into space if given the time.
 

MartiSaka

Join my "Occupy A-M" movement here 🗳
Sambi was very good today; difficult to believe this was the same midfield that played in the 2nd half against Crystal Palace. Both Sambi and Partey lifted their level significantly.
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
I loved the way he turned and carried the ball tonight. His anticipation is a bit lacking- a few times the ball has been passed close to him and he seems to be watching. I think he can be coached to improve here. He'll be inconsistent but hopefully he can learn from Partey and even Wilshere and add to his game. There's a top player in there.
 
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