This guy just looks like a superstar waiting to happen. Has the natural cockiness of a guy who knows how good he is.

Ray wrote:

People had the same question marks over Gabriel when he was being linked. One footed, slow, lacked experience etc, who knows if Mari was fit, he may not even be playing now, but a mixture of physical attributes makes a massive difference in the PL, and Szobo seems to have that as does Gabriel, which makes him tailor made for the role.

Who the hell said Gabriel is slow?

Kel Varnsen wrote:

Watched a few compilations. Not impressed at all.

I'd actually agree with this. He definitely has end product with his passing and mainly his goal scoring ability. But the rest of his game didn't really stand out if I'm being honest.

Looks like someone to play in attack than midfield from what I've seen.

I am getting very excited for this. 
I see us playing with a 4231, with Dominik as a 10. In a 343, we could have Saka as the wingback and Domnik as the wide left. In all formations, for the love of God, play Aubameyang at 9.  

Let's set expectations about this guy. What is he good/great at 

  • he is a set piece god. His shots on goal are rockets and his corners and indirect free kicks are curled in perfectly 

  • through ball wizard. on the counter can punch the ball right into the striker's path through heavy traffic. 

  • technically strong. Incredible footwork. Look at the video below for what he can do

Can work on 

  • can drift out of games. I've watched the Pool games and this years CL games + couple of full Austria games. For such a talented player, you'd wish more of the play went through him. He's a bit like Tonali in that regard 

  • sometimes can lose the ball in traffic - a bit like Aouar, not a train smash 

  • he's fast enough, but not lightning quick like a Pépé or even an Aouar. We aren't buying him to become like Run TMC 

He will remind you a bit of Ozil, a slightly languid playmaker with delectable skills. But he has this incredible physicality as well that creates real possibilities 

Get him in, play him at 10 as you say, play Partey and Ceballos at the base and then go for Aouar or not based on how that base works out.

Yeah. That would work nicely.
I just hope people haven't built up in their head that he's some kind of Ramsey who is going to be marauding all over our midfield. Ozil is the closest thing on our squad. He's a creative at heart. Will drift to the sides like Ozil and Henry, and come back in. Spots passes first. We might have to encourage him to shoot more. I can already hear some moaning about "he doesn't shoot enough"

Get him in, he's available for a decent price and we need goals from midfield. Those set pieces wouldn't go amiss either. somehow every player that comes here suddenly starts taking the shittest free kicks and corners of their career

I think it's more the instructions when it comes to set pieces. Pépé put in excellent corners last season, I don't believe that he suddenly only manages to hit them low at the first post.

Same goes for Wilian. They're clearly being asked to whip it hard just beyond the near post while the players crowd the keeper. It's a difficult technique and the margin for error is small though so it just looks pathetic most of the time.

It might be the players need time to learn to hit the ball the way they want.
Or that the FK specalist coach worked with players who can hit it the way he wants and our players can't and he needs to adjust.
Or simply arteta hired the wrong set piece coach and replaces him in the summer

Either way it's a teething issue thats likely to be resolved soon, arteta doesn't hang about.

Talking about set pieces and corners. I don’t know why clubs don’t use the near post flick on. Seemed like we score every week that way under George Graham with the likes of Adams, Bould and Linighan flicking it on

I suppose the trouble is these days we’d need someone to have Mustafi on their shoulders

On Aouar vs Szoboszlai, get both.
Retire Lacazette and bench Willian. And move to 4231

I can see Kel's, and other's, concerns with Szoboszlai's game outside of his phenomenal ball-striking. He doesn't look a playmaker to me, not at this stage of his career anyway. Perhaps in a City-style dual 10/playmaker system; De Bruyne and David Silva ahead of Fernandinho worked incredibly well, and masked the fact that neither De Bruyne (especially 3 or 4 years ago) or Silva on their own were quite Özil-like enough to run the play entirely through.

Szboszlai  Aouar
Partey

That midfield would a something special!

Very few players are Bergkamp, Riquelne or even Ozil though Ricky. Coaches are training them to be generalists, and managers are creating teams with more distributed chance creation patterns. So that risk is not massive. I’d worry more about goals in the run of play, even things like taking chances versus looking to make the play. In their recent Europa games, Willock and Nelson looked to shoot when they could’ve passed. He can have more of that.

Claudius wrote:

Very few players are Bergkamp, Riquelne or even Ozil though Ricky. Coaches are training them to be generalists, and managers are creating teams with more distributed chance creation patterns. So that risk is not massive. I’d worry more about goals in the run of play, even things like taking chances versus looking to make the play. In their recent Europa games, Willock and Nelson looked to shoot when they could’ve passed. He can have more of that.

Those were the days where we enjoyed clubs building the entire team around a artistic number 10. Ozil is not quite at that style where he is super influential and responsible enough to be built around, more of a luxury cog in a successful team. But there were so many those days that were super artistic like Riquelme, Zidane, Laudrup, Totti, Hagi, Francescoli and also some underwhelming but similarly stylish players like Ortega, Gourcuff, Micoud, Djorkaeff.

Nowadays the most effective number 10s are the functional ones rather than the stylish ones like KDB.

KDB has supreme vision and passing. Very similar to Bergkamp.

He does but KDB is very functional too to be honest. Pep doesn’t really allow for free spirits.

What’s his passing range like for those who’ve watched him?

Yep, he's another fantastic yet mechanical automaton. Doesn't have even 10% of dennis' artistry or aesthetics

I don't want artistry or aesthetics if they don't also come with direct goal threat = that is a description of Ozil.

What I want is an instigator in attack and a goal threat in the final 3rd, someone who's first instinct is to attack by whichever means is appropriate, pass, dribble, exploiting space on or off the ball,shooting or putting his foot in to regain possession. Someone not afraid to make a decision to make a difference.

As I said elsewhere I'd take Rambo as CAM/#10 for all those same reasons.

He has scored a lot of goals post lockdown but I’m always skeptical of the Austrian league. So he can score. He’s just creatively inclined. He scored a really good late winner vs Iceland recently where he just took charge. Got ball at center line, drove to top of penalty area and smashed it.

One thing he does really well when shooting is keep really fierce shots low. Consistently aims for low corners. Try watch Champs League this week

Claudius wrote:

He has scored a lot of goals post lockdown but I’m always skeptical of the Austrian league. So he can score. He’s just creatively inclined. He scored a really good late winner vs Iceland recently where he just took charge. Got ball at center line, drove to top of penalty area and smashed it.

One thing he does really well when shooting is keep really fierce shots low. Consistently aims for low corners. Try watch Champs League this week

Saw a vid of that goal & that entire sequence is the sort of mindset I'm talking about = his intent was to take the ball and drive at the opposition area and shoot unless they stopped him.  A passing play-maker would be looking to draw and pass in the area unless they had no options.

Good point re his point of aim when shooting.  I remember a graphic of our shooting map under AW which showed 50% of our shots on target were straight down the middle along the deck, and less than 50% were above waist height, let alone into any of the corners.  AW's philosophy/methodology of creating high quality chances via zone14 so that anyone on the ball in that position could shoot to score wasn't necessarily 'wrong', but our lack of decent shooting technique and placement meant our execution was often poor.  Likewise we also squandered plenty of opportunities by failing to make the opposition GK earn his keep by even taking a shot at goal, let alone on target.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Reminds me of Kroos in some ways

Szoboszlai doesn't look fast, but I don't recall Kroos looking all that quick - not that I've spent much time watching him.
That said he has said that he has been compared to him in terms of his style of play.

Claudius wrote:

He has scored a lot of goals post lockdown but I’m always skeptical of the Austrian league. So he can score. He’s just creatively inclined. He scored a really good late winner vs Iceland recently where he just took charge. Got ball at center line, drove to top of penalty area and smashed it.

One thing he does really well when shooting is keep really fierce shots low. Consistently aims for low corners. Try watch Champs League this week

Doesn't Daka play at CF for them?  He seems to be considered as an option to replace Laca at CF if we don't get Edouard.

5 days later
6 days later

is his all-round attacking game actually better than our best youngsters ESR, Nelson, Saka?

He’s probably level with Saka. He probably has better vision and creativity than Saka. But Saka has more explosiveness. Saka can beat his man and deliver nice crosses. And Saka plays off his man better, while Szoboszlai finds his man better. But Szoboszlai is aware in both directions. He links very well with other players, creates space for himself and others, always thinking a move ahead.
And then he’s far ahead on every kind of dead ball.

If he was African people would doubt his age. Doesn't look like someone who just turned 20

banduan wrote:

is his all-round attacking game actually better than our best youngsters ESR, Nelson, Saka?

On this note, if you're bringing in a 20yr old to play in that advanced midfielder position, I wonder if we really have room for him, ERS and Willock? Unless of course we switch to a 4-3-3 with a single pivot. 

Szob/ESR ------- Ceballos/Willock

Partey/Xhaka/Elneny

Any worries that he and Saka occupy very similar parts of the pitch?

60 million for Aouar or potentially the same amount to sign Dom and Buendia both ?

My choice would be the latter.

I don't think Aouar single handedly solves our lack of creativity/goals from the midfield.

Bell saying the player is definitely open, Romano hinting he has news too.

mentalvortex wrote:

60 million for Aouar or potentially the same amount to sign Dom and Buendia both ?

My choice would be the latter.

I don't think Aouar single handedly solves our lack of creativity/goals from the midfield.

Don’t see Aouar costing that with the player wanting to leave and Lyon seemingly needing money.

Lol. He’s had a shit time since that negotiation fell apart. We should tell them he’s only worth half.

mentalvortex wrote:

60 million for Aouar or potentially the same amount to sign Dom and Buendia both ?

My choice would be the latter.

I don't think Aouar single handedly solves our lack of creativity/goals from the midfield.

Even if Aouar costs 40m now, I actually agree with you