Furious
Emery Gone, Telly Back On
Lol. Torreira ****s the bed whenever Xhaka doesn't play. His passing range is rubbish as well.
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The Unpopular Opinion Thread
- Thread starter Aevi
- Start date
- Replies 1,601
- Views 144,404
Lol. Torreira ****s the bed whenever Xhaka doesn't play. His passing range is rubbish as well.
BigPoppaPump
Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
Every CB pairing we've had with Koscielny part from Mertesacker was trash and he's another one of those limited players that need to be carried you were writing about.
Monreal and Mertesacker have been our best defenders since Sol and Kolo.
squallman
Still Pining for Wenger
I don't agree with your last statement but its all about opinions.
The pairings might have been bad to average but Koscielny himself wasn't the problem. That criticism can also be applied to Mertesacker by the way, who was vastly overrated and was another limited player whose flaws we had to cover up.
To give an example, Fabregas played in some awful midfields during his time here but he always performed to his usual high standard. Its the same for Koscielny.
Jury
A-M's drunk uncle
As opposed to Xhaka just ****ting the bed regardless who he plays beside?
Furious
Emery Gone, Telly Back On
Best player yesterday, and in almost everyone's top 5 for the season. Unlucks, G.
Jury
A-M's drunk uncle
But that's what he does though, isn't it? He's easily our most consistent flat track bully. You can more or less bank on him looking decent without pulling up trees, against fodder at the Emirates. We all know it. Not worth denying it.
squallman
Still Pining for Wenger
Our league position and points differential from the leaders do not match up with how fans rate our squad.
Apparently, our midfield is great, our front two is great. Iwobi is a bright young talent, Sokratis and Holding are great. Guendouzi is going to be a world beater. Kolasinac is a beast and Bellerin is our RB for the next ten years.
Yet we sit 13 points behind Liverpool. I grant you that we have to carry Mustafi and Lichsteiner but still. Either our players aren't as great as we think they are or we're the unluckiest team in football.
Apparently, our midfield is great, our front two is great. Iwobi is a bright young talent, Sokratis and Holding are great. Guendouzi is going to be a world beater. Kolasinac is a beast and Bellerin is our RB for the next ten years.
Yet we sit 13 points behind Liverpool. I grant you that we have to carry Mustafi and Lichsteiner but still. Either our players aren't as great as we think they are or we're the unluckiest team in football.
Mark Tobias
Mr. Agreeable
Actually that does stack up seeing as half those players have been injured at some point in the season. So I am going with unluckiest team in football, although I'd never claim we can't upgrade several positions.
BigPoppaPump
Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
What's in bold, Arsenal fans always have to overrate our team. It's annoying cos if I say I don't think a player is good enough then I get 101 excuses as to why I'm wrong and why they're great.
When Ox was here I was saying how I don't think he's good enough and how we're giving lots of minutes to a sub-par player, now that he's gone everyone acknowledges he wasn't good enough.
Even guys like Iwobi and Bellerin, I don't think they're very talented compared to the top of the end guys at their age. But they're only 22/23 whatever and very young, but I think you can tell how good a player is by that age.
When they were all fit, we were only 8 points behind.
Also not everyone rates all those players as you described.
squallman
Still Pining for Wenger
I usually don't agree with you but this is a somewhat fair statement.
I agree, to be fair on Chamberlain, injuries ruined him. He's been out for almost a year at this point as well. I think some of you first paragraph has to do with the notion of supporting our own.
They're Arsenal players so people get behind them and support them to the hilt. Whereas I think if a player isn't good enough then he should just be sold. If every member of our squad was playing for another premier league club and showed the same form that they do for us. Which of them would you want us to buy?
We were? Who have we missed this season? Bellerin, Holding and Welbeck. The rest more or less play every week or have had short injury layoffs.
You will never find 100% consensus on anything but you can't tell me that the opinion on Xhaka hasn't shifted towards positive territory and Iwobi has more supporters than detractors.
8 points off the top after beating Huddersfield. That was a few days after losing Holding for the season. Bellerin got injured the next week against Southampton, and with Sokratis being suspended at the time it caused a big disruption at the back. That's when we started to lose our way a bit and results took a turn for the worse.
Xhaka has had some standout performances against Sp**s and Liverpool, that's bound to get praise. His partnership with Torreira was thriving earlier on in the season. As for Iwobi, I'm sure the majority opinion is against him and I imagine most would happily get rid in the summer.
Mark Tobias
Mr. Agreeable
Wow, is it? Disappointing that. I like Iwobi. I liked his form in the early stages of the season. Think there is more to come too. Hit a bad patch recently but seems to be turning it around. We will see tonight.
Also, @squallman, go look in the Özil, Ramsey, Lacazette and PEA threads. It is quite clear this forum (and likely the fanbase as a whole) are very split on who is actually worthy of the shirt in terms of ability and desire. I think if you are talking about posters who think we have a great squad, you're referring to one or two posters here, not a majority.
squallman
Still Pining for Wenger
Do you always have to be the voice of reason?
Two good performances don't warrant the level of praise Xhaka has been getting. Overall its been the same old, same old from him. Giving the ball away in key positions and lapses in concentration. He's not as bad as he was, but he still isn't good enough week in week out. I view his partnership with Torreira like I viewed Santi-Coq. A flawed partnership with one player carrying his limited partner. We would have been better off then with finding a better partner for Santi and we would be better off now if we found Torreira another partner.
Mark Tobias
Mr. Agreeable
Weird how I actually agree with all of these player evaluations bar your one on Lacazette. Any chance you could be wrong, even just once, Mr Infallible?
Mark Tobias
Mr. Agreeable
See, we agree on loads, man!
Vantastico
Active Member
If we had signed Hazard instead of Gervinho that one summer, we would have won the league and made the UCL semi-finals at least once by now. (The domino-effect being: Van Persie never would have left, because Gervinho never missed those horrible chances, and in turn our main striker wouldn't have missed all of his chances against Monaco nor had a 14 game scoring drought the year that Leicester won the league title).
Second, Iwobi is a mix of Gervinho and Xhaka. Truly, no offense and I hope he figures it out, but at this point I would sell or loan him (w/ obligation to buy), as opposed to sticking with our deadwood beyond their experation date once more. Obviously, a buy-back clause would be nice if our transfer department could work that out in his deal.
Third: Wenger should have stayed. The disappointment in his frowny face brings more to me as an Arsenal fan after a loss than Emery's painfully bitter look. Regardless of losing out on the phrase "Good Ebening", I'd much rather watch Wenger b*tch at the 4th official.
Second, Iwobi is a mix of Gervinho and Xhaka. Truly, no offense and I hope he figures it out, but at this point I would sell or loan him (w/ obligation to buy), as opposed to sticking with our deadwood beyond their experation date once more. Obviously, a buy-back clause would be nice if our transfer department could work that out in his deal.
Third: Wenger should have stayed. The disappointment in his frowny face brings more to me as an Arsenal fan after a loss than Emery's painfully bitter look. Regardless of losing out on the phrase "Good Ebening", I'd much rather watch Wenger b*tch at the 4th official.
TornadoTed
Established Member
I think we do have some good players, that only tells half the story though, we also have very obvious flaws in the team as a whole, no commanding leader in defence, no quick wingers who can beat a man in the squad etc.
You could have XI superb players but if the balance isn't right then they could still be a fairly average team. Squad depth is so important too, Liverpool looked unbeatable with their first XI but the squad depth isn't good enough and they haven't coped that great with injuries and a loss of form to a couple of players in the starting XI.
I maintain that if we could have put out an XI of Leno, Bellerin, Sokratis, Holding, Monreal, Xhaka, Torreira, Özil, Auba, Laca and Mkhi most weeks we would be higher in the league. Modern football is a squad game and some our backup players just aren't good enough, losing Bellerin for AMN and Lich for example is a massive downgrade.
squallman
Still Pining for Wenger
I seriously disagree. Mkhi, Monreal and Xhak are the obvious weak links in that line up. Liverpool have a superb first XI, we don't. Forget lambasting our back ups, some of our starters are only good enough to be back ups.
AMN also isn't a RB and I hope Emery doesn't ruin his development by continuously playing him there.
TornadoTed
Established Member
I don't disagree, those 3 are definitely positions I would look to upgrade on. The point I was trying to make mostly was that team balance is as important as the players. Say you upgrade Mkhi with a better but very similar player I don't think you would see the elevation in our overall game that say a fast, dribbler who offers natural width and something we don't currently have in the squad could bring.
I am a big believer in partnerships, two top drawer 6', quick, front foot central defenders may well be a poorer partnership than one top drawer, quick, front foot defender and an unexciting but decent, tall, commanding defender who reads the game well. We saw it with Merts and Kos, a far more balanced partnership than Mustafi and Kos although at the time of signing Mustafi looked to most an upgrade on Merts.
I'm definitely not saying that we don't have players that need improving on or that we would be challenging for the title without injuries, just that we would be doing a bit better. You can't tell me that injuries to Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Kos, Holding, Monreal, Mav, AMN, some of them for very long periods haven't played a part in out woeful defence this season.
I don't see what choice Emery has had with AMN, Bellerin is out and Lich has been terrible. I would like to see him get a chance in midfield too but we don't have many options at right back and AMN is the best of a bad lot.
