SpeedTouch wrote:
Klaus wrote:
Sagna is undoubtedly top tier. The idea that he would enter some heavy decline next season is nothing but pure conjecture as far as I'm concerned. He's consistently been one of the best defenders in Europe, never mind Premier League, for the past five or six years. Show me a player who guarantees something similar and would be sold for anything less than £20 million and I'll bite your hand off.
Most teams require their fullbacks to overlap the wings and attack with width. Sagna is one of the best defensive RB's in the world, but is poor going forward. At his age, he's not worth 20 million
There's a reason generally NOBODY rates Sagna outside of Arsenal. Not even France, they start Debuchy as first choice for 3 years now.
I don't think Sagna is as poor as last season, this season he has been one of our best players though consistently. I ain't entirely convinced by his attitude when the going gets tough, just take a look at the goals we concede and how he defended, but he is still our best fullback this season. But the way some is talking about Sagna like bloody Cafu is hilarious. Yes, we all love him, yes he has been a great servant, yes he generally puts in more than 100% for us in the last 8 years, but that shouldn't be allowed to hide his poor performances and MAJOR deficiencies in his game.
When he was utter dogshite last year, people mostly either excuse him because of his past contributions or just attempt to ignore. When he put in some great balls this season, that was counted as a huge improvement in his attacking input and most blame was on Giroud. Fact is he is technically very limited and doesn't add much to our attacking patterns. Just go take a look at how much Zabaleta/Coleman adds another dimension to their team's game, while not losing any defensive capabilities. Even bloody Ivanovic is more efficient in getting into dangerous areas and have a more intelligent movement rather than constantly stopping the ball and passing back. It seriously hurts us to have such a technically limited player as a rightback when we depend so much on fullbacks overlapping and cutting back.
The only instance this season I remember Sagna ever getting into dangerous position and got away a good assist was the 3rd goal against Everton in the FA Cup. He should be doing that much more often and only then he will be remembered in the world as a top class fullback. I am with qs here, it won't be difficult to replace Sagna absolutely if we done our homework properly in the transfer window. A team like us shouldn't be starting a fullback who is over 30 week in week out in my opinion because he won't be getting up and down as fast. There is a reason why fullbacks generally have the youngest average age.
