The Angel Gabriel (Martinelli): Page 30 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

The Angel Gabriel (Martinelli)

goon

What positions do you think have massive chasms?

I'd have said midfield and CF before the summer and we've signed Jesus and Vieira. The latter might not be enough and I'd personally go for another, but you could make the same argument about allowing the potential (Sambi, Vieira and maybe even Patino at a stretch) to fill them out.

jones

Obviously the manager position but if we're talking the squad then CM and RB, possibly LB too depending on where Zinchenko is supposed to play. Xhaka is still a liability and Vieira is blatantly not a CM, he's even more lightweight than Odegaard. The latter + Xhaka and Zinchenko is not a midfield I want to see, Partey is for various reasons not reliable either at this point.

Tomiyasu to Cedric is possibly the biggest drop off in the entire squad.

Sambi is the only one who might have a shout but I can't see Arteta trusting him, would take some growing pains or good coaching in training and neither is likely to happen. Elneny will probably get more minutes again. Either way all of the above are much more urgent than signing another left winger.

Qwiss

I think White is going to take a lot of Cedrics minutes at right back this season. Cedric really is a nothing player for us. His normal level is pretty low and he's not even got youth as an excuse. At least with Tavares he's got potential and some obvious strengths even if he's still very raw.

KingslandBarge

Slightly worried about that, he's an improvement on Cedric possibly, but a forward like Zaha is going to cross him up and breeze by. Easier for him to eat bookings out there and he walks that line too.

Qwiss

Possibly, I'm not hugely worried about that though. I'd be more concerned about how much he brings to the table going forward. He's alright in a pinch but he'd have to learn a lot to work properly as a fullback. I'm not fond of overly defensive full backs, especially not with our fairly conservative midfield.

JazzG

KingslandBarge wrote:
Slightly worried about that, he's an improvement on Cedric possibly, but a forward like Zaha is going to cross him up and breeze by. Easier for him to eat bookings out there and he walks that line too.

Maybe so but we won't come against the likes of Zaha often, Zaha will twist most top RBs inside out! Palace game is a couple weeks away so hopefully Tomi will be fit.

flobaba

KingslandBarge wrote:
Slightly worried about that, he's an improvement on Cedric possibly, but a forward like Zaha is going to cross him up and breeze by. Easier for him to eat bookings out there and he walks that line too.

Not worried about Zaha. Saliba is right alongside White with bags and bags of pace to cover.

goon

Yup, White next to Holding is a potential problem, but Saliba is not only quick but is seemingly very good on the cover. Either way White is definitely an upgrade on Cedric.

KingslandBarge

Yeah fair, and can't expect us to be perfect and free of all issues (yet).

MistaT

White over Cedric makes sense if we have an aggressive left wing, and we learn to shift to a back 3 when our LB gets forward.

Not sure I'm excited by White on the overlap, or getting upfield on the right. He'll do fine finding Saka though, so I think he'll be ok at RB as long as he plays a little deeper and leaves Odegaard/Saka to make the most of our right wing.

Clrnc

Qwiss! wrote:
I think White is going to take a lot of Cedrics minutes at right back this season. Cedric really is a nothing player for us. His normal level is pretty low and he's not even got youth as an excuse. At least with Tavares he's got potential and some obvious strengths even if he's still very raw.

You will be surprised again, especially with Arteta. We also thought Elneny will be a nothing player but ended up playing an important role for us.

I am not worried about White at RB, long term wise it might even be best for him and us out there. Like others said, if he gets beaten by someone like Zaha, Saliba and Gabriel can cover easily. At CB he is always beaten by strikers too and that's it. Inverted RB with his ball playing ability will suit us great.

jones

White has decent pace and is not horrible on the ball but this inverted full back bollocks doesn't work when you don't have a winger in front of you, especially if you're playing 433. Saka is a playmaker on the wing for us more or less, if we had someone like Theo ahead of White it could work but not like this.

goon

It's less about the winger and more about the 8. It should in theory allow Odegaard to be much more aggressive when it comes to getting forward and into the box.

jones

Odegaard isn't going to provide overlapping runs, he has neither form for it nor the pace. You need to use the full width of the pitch which isn't happening with a CM and CB as your full backs

goon

He doesn't need to overlap. If there's one thing you can't say about our set up is that it lacks width. Against Chelsea you had Martinelli and Zinchenko providing width on the left taking turns to go inside/outside with support from Xhaka. On the right you had Saka with Odegaard and Jesus as infield passing options with the occasional overlap. It's a different way of playing to overlapping full backs but I think it works well. Saka and Martinelli get plenty of the ball and don't exactly look like they're struggling to impact the game.

Doc

I doubt we will be playing with 2 fullbacks coming inside, seems like way over kill.. Zinchenko can play/drift in midfield but he does stick out wide when played as a fullback... heatmaps out there show that, maybe not making runs to the by-line but still gives good width.. Think it is important to have a least one full back doing that.

jones

Saka and Martinelli getting plenty of the ball has nothing to do with using the full width of the pitch or not, if anything you could say it means the opposite. We're not Man City, it's not like we always have triangles of decent avenues everywhere on the pitch.

Not going to take a preseason game vs Chelsea who looked atrocious as reference for how the season pans out. Last season we most definitely were lacking width even during our decent patches, absolutely no idea how you could see anything else. White at RB would be less shit than Cedric but even more conservative than Tomiyasu, hope it's not something we will see regularly.

Clrnc

I don't necessarily think White is more Conservative than Tomi at RB. For starters he played there and as a DM quite abit in his career.

That said, you have a point so let's see how it pans out

Gazza M

white and zinchenko are both really good long passers. that's at least a bit of a value add at fullback

Ray

White would have to improve his movement in attack and crossing ability, but when Tomi is out he is the best option to cover there.

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