William Saliba: Page 93 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

William Saliba

Meatwad

Clrnc
it's not a coincidence that he comes in to start this season and we're title challengers.

Claudius

I think Jesus has had a bigger impact.
But our attack is so fundamentally dependent on the ability of our defenders to beat the press, and then control possession high up the field. The alternatives we are throwing in don’t have Saliba’s ball playing ability. This is a Sol level player for us the longer I see us

Clrnc

Claudius We were good without Jesus too. But we certainly ain't good with Saliba.

The stats are damning. Goals conceded, shots allowed etc more than doubled with just these few matches he is out.

We would certainly have lost many matches at the start of the season without his last gasp defending

Meatwad

Claudius
how could he have a bigger impact when we've played without him for 3 months and did just fine. saliba gets hurt and we're the gang who can't shoot straight. if i had the choice between us having a healthy saliba and trossard as a false nine, i'm choosing that every time.

Sicario2

tazmania

Disagree. Holding is our biggest problem. He’s a fucking liability. He makes our whole team from front to end nervous and also changes how we play as we are effectively protecting him. He knows he’s shit too based on his nerves today.

The biggest question mark on Arteta is why the fuck did he spend £20m on a CB in Jan when he doesn’t use him and still plays Holding as back up?

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Sicario2 honestly our squad player signings so far in this new era have been questionable at best.

RowJimmy

Sicario2 Because the CB we bought in Jan is clearly not ready, and Holding is much better at the moment.

Claudius

Clrnc I don’t know. It took us a long time to figure out how to play with Jesus. And you’ve seen him since he’s come back - his ability to beat a man and 1-2 is unparalleled on this team. We need movement and we need to be on the front foot. Both of these players allow us to destabilise defenses in a way guys like Xhaka, Holding, Tierney, Nketiah etc cannot. All these things add up.

Also part of why I’m so focused on just playing our best players where possible. Our best players are several levels better than the squad folks

Claudius

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert
I’m not so worried. We have in 2 years fixed the top of the squad, which is the only reason we are top of the table. You don’t construct peak performance with squad players. But you then have to bring them in to secure the low end performance.

This is our issue. Our stars allow us to beat the best, but we don’t have enough depth yet to ensure we don’t do mid table shit when we have injuries or days off. So I think they’ve built the squad correctly thus far, but this summer is important for creating depth. And you create that depth by continuing to invest at the top, ie you need players as good or better than our best 8, to relegate a Xhaka to the bench.

Sicario2

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

How will we cope next year with CL?

We can rest big players in EL but def not CL.

Arteta has shown he cannot manage both.

Seriously next year is a massive season for him as a manager.

lorddulaarsenal

Have to put that right in the summer and get real depth.

Saliba is key for us. Get him to sign a new contract

Claudius

Sicario2 that’s seriously an unfair criticism of Arteta. He’s got us top of the table. It’s like wanting a shag and breakfast on the first date

Kel Varnsen

Missed Saliba today. His focus and awareness gives us a very solid foundation. Without him we look much more porous.

lorddulaarsenal

Kel Varnsen huge concern that - especially if he leaves

Sicario2

Claudius

3 years without a trophy is not good enough for a manager at Arsenal.

Don’t forget he sacrificed all our domestic cup competitions for the league so it’s on him if we go trophyless this season.

Kel Varnsen

lorddulaarsenal

Have I missed something? Why would Saliba leave?

Claudius

Sicario2 we did the right thing. What we failed to do for over half a decade as we decayed under Wenger. We cleaned up the squad. We are now top of the table with the second youngest squad in England. The fact that people like Klopp are hailing this rebuild speaks volumes.

Before Arteta for most of the 2010s I thought this club’s management was a joke. I’ve never been happier.

Burnwinter

Sicario2 Absurd. We're currently having one of the best seasons in Arsenal's entire history. It's a worry those amazing results now seem to be collapsing, but it's more than ridiculous you should pop up now to question Arteta's future in the role.

Sicario2

Claudius

Football is not linear my friend. Also the mental toll of not winning the league this year could be huge. Look at Liverpool this year, old age has caught up on few of their players but they are still experiencing a hangover from losing CL final and the league on last day imo.

There is no guarantee we will be better next year or even been in this same position again.

Look what happened in 2008/2009 after we fucked the title the year before - we had a shit season.

15 year later i still regret the missed chances of 2007/2008 and I suspect it will be the same with this season unfortunately. What could have been.

lorddulaarsenal

Kel Varnsen yet to sign his contract extension.

Claudius

Meatwad not an argument I am invested in TBH. I love both deeply.

Clrnc

RowJimmy And he is not ready because? Same thing, most of our fringe players are rusty due to not enough game time.

Like @Gunner89 said, we either rotate the entire team in Europa like what WHU did, or we play to win. We did neither of both, half half of each.

« Previous Page Next Page »