Who is on the bus?: Page 5 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Who is on the bus?

Qwiss

Torreira, Douzi, Ceballos, Xhaka, Willock pick 3 and just leave Ozil out of it. At least some of those players are young and have potential. Ozil is a waste of a player at the moment, a number 10 who doesn't get goals and assists. I can't imagine any one of the players above would play as much as he has as the CAM and not be involved in more goals. Plus they'd be better when we don't have the ball.

goon

Ozil had a good game against Newcaslte and was ok against Everton too. Douzi was diabolical in his last game, Xhaka has been awful in his last three games including yesterday, Ceballos was average against Everton and awful yesterday while Willock was dire in the first leg. He's in there on merit, these guys don't add anything.

There is an argument to just give time to a younger player like Willock as you say but let's be honest, it wouldn't improve us.

Qwiss

goon wrote:
Ozil had a good game against Newcaslte and was ok against Everton too. Douzi was diabolical in his last game, Xhaka has been awful in his last three games including yesterday, Ceballos was average against Everton and awful yesterday while Willock was dire in the first leg. He's in there on merit, these guys don't add anything.

There is an argument to just give time to a younger player like Willock as you say but let's be honest, it wouldn't improve us.

Ozil was good against Newcastle but Ceballos was better in that game and has been since. Xhaka has been better since too. Xhaka and Ceballos were pretty good last night too, it was the attack that ruined us, we dominated midfield for most of it. Pepe was the only one doing anything at all in attack, even Auba just showed up with his moment of inspiration. Laca and Ozil were a burden. Taking Ceballos off instead of Ozil was one of Artetas key mistakes last night. Against Everton the attack was humming with the exception of Ozil, he was playing safe sideways passes and created nothing.

Players like Douzi and Willock will blow hot and cold and they will give the ball away more but they'll contribute more overall too. If you like safe passing 3 yards from goal Ozil is your man, if you want to push forward and actually give it a go he is not.

goon

I've genuinely no idea how anyone can think Granit was anything other than abysmal last night or against Everton or in the first left for that matter. Ceballos was poor too.

I'm not saying Ozil is smashing it or has to start, I'd be open to seeing how the alternatives suggested pan out and maybe given the chance they'll excel, but I think the idea that there's obvious alternative that will improve the team is misguided.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Who's under the bus?

Qwiss

What did Xhaka do that was so bad last night? His passing was good, he controlled the game, he won a load of headers. They didn't really do much through our midfield. We lost the game because we were shit on set pieces and because we didn't do enough in the final 3rd. Neither of which I can really blame on Xhaka. Worst I can think of is he took a couple of stupid longer range shots that ended up in row Z.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

goon wrote:
I've genuinely no idea how anyone can think Granit was anything other than abysmal last night or against Everton or in the first left for that matter. Ceballos was poor too.

I'm not saying Ozil is smashing it or has to start, I'd be open to seeing how the alternatives suggested pan out and maybe given the chance they'll excel, but I think the idea that there's obvious alternative that will improve the team is misguided.

Ceballos was trash last night. He's really not good enough long term, in my opinion.

Xhaka always has been a curse on this club - get the fuck rid of him in July.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

A massive problem for us in games like yesterday's against stubborn opposition is we have no "third man" runner to help break lines nd pull players around.

Xhaka, Ceballos and Ozil. I'd imagine on FM they all have "Off the ball - 2" or something like that?

MistaT

Qwiss! wrote:
What did Xhaka do that was so bad last night? ..... Worst I can think of is he took a couple of stupid longer range shots that ended up in row Z.

I'm glad you were able to black out his 1 minute span, in which he:

Needlessly gave the ball away to their LB
Got completely bypassed when he went to ground, letting their team have a free 50 yard run at goal
Somehow got the ball back after good defending, and then forced a shit pass to Ozil

Plenty of other nonsense from him.

MistaT

I'm off the bus until next year.

Claudius

First we need to get a bus.

Clrnc

Don't think Xhaka was as bad as it was made out. Average at worst.

The point is we shouldn't be playing someone as pointless as Ozil these days. The rest is hit and miss but I reckon their hit rate will always be higher than our past it playmaker whose bar is now set so low it's worse than an academy player.

Anzac

Rather than who is on or off the bus at this point I think any decisions are on hold until we know if we regain CL or UEFA at all for next season. If not then we are likely to see a number of forced sales based upon reducing the wages AND generating revenues for transfers, and I suspect there will be players departing both senior and youngsters that we will not want to part with in terms of quality.

Claudius

I think missing both might be good in this regard. It would force focus. We’d have to quickly say what is the team we actually want to build around and then do a fire sale.

Ricky1985

I want Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Xhaka and Lacazette gone. To use Arteta's language: this is non-negotiable. I would also really like to see Torreira moved on and Özil effectively put out to pasture by making that move to Turkey a reality; as well as Elneny and Mkhitaryan's loan clubs stumping up some money for them. I'd add David Luiz but he has a few upsides and might be useful as a squad player for the last year of his contract, but I'd happily see him moved on too. Bellerin is on thin ice but I'm happy to give him this summer to put some muscle on and fully recover after his horrible injury.

Build around Leno, Saliba, Tierney, Saka, Smith Rowe, Nelson (although kid needs to step up and soon), Willock, Pépé, Martinelli, Nketiah and the main man Aubameyang.

I'd like to add Maitland-Niles because I think he could become a monster right back but frankly the way the guy has behaved he deserves to be playing on the right wing for Southampton next season.

Claudius

I think people are generally aligned on the core players they’d like to see moved on, give or take one or two figures. What Arteta needs to do is show Raul a team like Liverpool where the first 11 is perfectly constituted and say he wants that. Some power and control in midfield. Imagine vd Beek and Doucoure for a start. That just knits everything together. You can afford that with a fire sale. And can substantially upgrade both men’s wages.

In defence, a lot depends on the futures of Holding, Mari and Chambers. Ideally, we’d have the money for a solid signing here as well as we bring along Saliba.

Klaus

Ricky1985 wrote:
I'd like to add Maitland-Niles because I think he could become a monster right back but frankly the way the guy has behaved he deserves to be playing on the right wing for Southampton next season.

Curious what you mean by this. How has he behaved exactly? Do you know anything we don't? I've only seen him put in good performances since Arteta took over, and then he got mercilessly frozen out in favour of Bellerin who is exactly half the player on one of his good days.

If anyone have to play for Southampton next season I'd send them the guy who was the worst player on the pitch against Olympiakos the other day.

jones

His dumb interviews would be my first guess. Poor concentration second

Klaus

I mean he answered a question about how he sees himself and he said that he's not a fullback. Saka said the same thing the other week (and Freddie elaborated by saying that Saka wasn't happy with him at all when he first decided to play him there). I don't really see the issue. I think it's pretty disingenuous to use it as a stick to beat them with.

lorddulaarsenal

go for it with the attack til the end of the season

—Nelson—Pepe—-Martinelli
———-Aubameyang

« Previous Page Next Page »