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Squad Analysis 2020/21

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
This is the thing, a couple of good games from these guys and we get gassed up so much thinking they're good enough but every so often reality smacks us in the face. There's so few guys in our squad that are actually both good enough and more importantly consistent enough to be playing for a top 4 side. Literally a handful of them currently. Also I feel like perhaps the system was doing well to hide the short-comings of a lot of our players. But yesterday it all fell apart really and all of a sudden we're reminded of how limited some of these players are.

It's only so long the system can cover the cracks, remember during Emery's win run we looked bad in pretty much every game and it came back to bite us. I don't see use finishing top 4 until we get a squad overhaul tbh, guys like Xhaka and Lacazette being mainstays in the team isn't gonna get us top 4. Bellerin is another one that can be so poor and a weak link at times.

Ask any Chelsea fan about Willian and they'll tell you he's massively inconsistent. He'll go from the best player on the pitch in one game to the worst in the next. Pepe seems to be a flop as well. Our signings aren't helping us get better in the long run so even new players are holding us back.
 

Yousif Arsenal

On Vinai's payroll & misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Trusted ⭐
Our attack is very capable of scoring 100 goals a season but not when you create few chances in game everything come from midfield defensively and offensively and at the moment our midfield is the weakest in top 6 even weakest than everton its the key if you want to build a very good team.

We have xhaka who very good passer but very limited with the ball. Ceballos is the best we got now. Guendouzi can run with ball he hold the ball well but little creativity Torreira is being sold Elneny is very limited and more defensive minded. Mesut is finished with this club. Willock still young but i love his ability going forward still got lot to improve.

So the summary is you have to add Aouar and Partey both will give you something we massively lack in midfield it won't fix it in a week but it'll improve us and we'll start to dominate teams
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
This is the thing, a couple of good games from these guys and we get gassed up so much thinking they're good enough but every so often reality smacks us in the face. There's so few guys in our squad that are actually both good enough and more importantly consistent enough to be playing for a top 4 side. Literally a handful of them currently. Also I feel like perhaps the system was doing well to hide the short-comings of a lot of our players. But yesterday it all fell apart really and all of a sudden we're reminded of how limited some of these players are.
A 'handful' of top 4 players, is probably an over estimation. There's Auba, Tierney and Pepe, as he was in the last couple of games of last season.

Martinez looked world class eventually, and much of that run at the end of the season was down to his outstanding keeping. Leno, I'm not so sure about.

Saliba and Gabriel are big unknowns but the rest of our 8 CBs are a waste of money.

The midfield is sparse. Imagine an injury to Xhaka and Ceballos, apart from Elneny the rest are very inexperienced. Remember 2015 and the fan base we're up in arms for not buying a midfielder when we had Wilshere, Santi, Coq, Ramsey, Arteta, Flamini, Ox and prime Özil to choose from. :lol: Still they were mightily sick of just top 4 in those days.
 

DanDare

Emoji Merchant and Believer-In-Chief
Trusted ⭐

Player:Saliba
Going to post this here as well:

Think 3/5 ATB for us relies on having good passers as CB (Tierney and Luiz). This makes mitigates the absence of as many passers in CM/AM spaces.

Makes me wonder when we'll switch away because Luiz will probably start getting injured more and perform worse given his age. Think this is why we want Partey and Aouar. We will be able to play 4 at the back and not rely so much on CB passig
 

dashsnow17

Doesn’t Rate Any Of Our Attackers
Trusted ⭐
Auba's our only great player, then there are a bunch of good players around him, and a share of bad players clogging up the place obviously. It's fine to have just good players, but you need one or two more great players to really get a team going. Ideally we'd have one more great attacker, which is what we hoped Pepe would be, but I guess that'll have to wait. Absolutely need one or two great midfielders.
 

AD1998

Member
Our midfield needs serious improvement, as everyone knows. I wonder if a cheeky bid for Puig could go through, with news that Koeman oddly told him he's not needed. He's an incredibly technical and press resistant player with world class vision.
 

Zaza

Active Member
We need two midfielders and Zaha. Partey, Aouar and Zaha would make this the perfect window.
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
I think both Partey and Aouar are needed in midfield. We are attacking out wide but our main tactic fails if Tierney is injured. The right side is decent defensively but less productive offensively. We need to be able to create through the middle and build from there as well. There's just too much pressure on the defence and the forwards to create as the midfield sits in position and waits for time and space.
 

Tomb Bombadil

Active Member
It's crazy but I just saw that we only have Özil (7 years), Bellerin (6), Chambers (6) and Macey (5) for more than five years in the first team.

  • This point out our bad recruiting
  • That we didn't produce good youngsters in the past
  • I hope Arteta will keep the team together / give us a core of players
 

RandomHero84

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saka
If everything pans out as its looking now, this is an 8th place squad, if that. A cold spell from Auba and we are 10th to 12th. Midfield is very weak and lacking in so many attributes.
 

Sniper Mik

Not a Closet Sp**s Fan
55-60 games with just 4 midfielders

giphy.gif
 

Yousif Arsenal

On Vinai's payroll & misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Trusted ⭐
Yes quite worrying how the f**k we going to play a season with 4 midfielders. Club putting themselves in big trouble something should be done next 48 hours
 

Makavelii

Active Member
If everything pans out as its looking now, this is an 8th place squad, if that. A cold spell from Auba and we are 10th to 12th. Midfield is very weak and lacking in so many attributes.
I think the Arteta factor will have us higher than 8th.
But once we lose him, yeah we’re a mid table club and we seem happy to be.
 

Kav

Established Member
Someone may have to swallow their pride and play a few players on the naughty list.
 

MartiSaka

Join my "Occupy A-M" movement here 🗳
I can see the Arsenal media articles coming out saying Özil and Guendouzi have successfully integrated themselves back into Arteta's plans with quotes from Arteta mentioning about the change in attitude he has seen from the players and how hard they are now working in training.

The non negotiables might become a little more negotiable
 
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lufere7

Active Member

Player:Martinelli
With no Aouar or alternative in sight I think it's probably time to look for internal options. I think what we did today was a step in the right direction. This is what I feel is the most important to squeeze the most creativity out of the side:
  • Play Saka, always. He's our most creative player and his decision making ensures he creates even when he or the team are doing bad, I think he's ready to play in a midfield 3 consistently.
  • Back 4, Gabriel has shown he can give us the stability for the back 4 and we really need that extra man in midfield.
  • Ceballos, he's had a creative streak this season, some very good through passes and while there's only one or two per match they're inevitably going to become assists, specially if Auba is on the receiving end.
  • Tierney, he's a good LCB but an even better LB IMO, amazing delivery which is a stark contrast to playing AMN there. There's hardly a LB game of him I can remember where he didn't create a dangerous opportunity, was inches from finding Auba today.
  • Pepe, a bit more controversial and I'm probably biased towards him but I think he has to be playing on the RW. We are so left biased that it's very hard for our RW to shine as we've seen with Willian so I think a player like Pepe that can create something out of nothing is probably better for the side and I firmly believe he'll get better the more games he starts, it's not like Willian is setting the world alight lately too, so investing in him is probably the smart decision.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
Think we can now go back where we left when Cazorla got injured, it's about the same squad quality, 3rd-4th place.
Some fans will be able to understand now the difference between a top 4 midfielder and Xhaka, and how hard it was to play with him over the last couple of years.

With Ceballos and Partey taking control of our midfield, I expect other players like Pepe to explode, and some others like Laca and Bellerin will potentially play better with our more attacking approach.

This is probably the strongest central midfield of Emirates era, and for me, it's the best CM pair in the PL
 
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