Claudius wrote:

Ray, that sounds good. My objection to Jorginho is not the quality of the man. It’s why do I want Jorginho when I have Xhaka? I’d you told me that Xhaka was going to sit and that this one legged Sangare guy was also going to come to join Ceballos, then I would sit up and listen. But I’m worried about squad construction.

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/106968/Show/Jorginho

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/89401/Show/Granit-Xhaka

Could mean we're open to selling Xhaka to raise funds needed elsewhere in the team?

Anzac wrote:

Claudius wrote:

Dani was our most influential player other than Aubameyang in the post lockdown period of last season. Arteta sweet talked him back to life. He’s a high quality player. We just need to make sure the combinations are right to get the most out of him.
I do worry how we are going to set up the starting line-up if we get just Aouar. Aouar, Xhaka and Ceballos does not feel powerful enough. It could be a City-style midfield with Gundogan deep but would really need to be able to dominate possession for the team to survive.

If so then I'd play Elneny as the #6 rather than Xhaka, and then have Ceballos as the #8 and Aouar as the #8/#10.
We could also use Willock/AMN if we wanted someone to play B2B and drive forward on the ball.

Elneny has been avaible for years and no prem or championship clubs what him he isn't the solution to any problem.

speedy wrote:

Anzac wrote:

If so then I'd play Elneny as the #6 rather than Xhaka, and then have Ceballos as the #8 and Aouar as the #8/#10.
We could also use Willock/AMN if we wanted someone to play B2B and drive forward on the ball.

Elneny has been avaible for years and no prem or championship clubs what him he isn't the solution to any problem.

I think he can be effective as a defensive shield playing alongside a DLP/B2B and a more advanced creative player.  The 'issue' is in giving him a role that he is not suited to as he is limited in what he can provide.  One thing he has done well enough so far this season is to keep the ball moving as opposed to slowing our transition or dwelling on the ball.

Gunner89 wrote:

Defensive shield?

People think he runs around so he's good defensively.

His statistics for tackling and interceptions are crap. His positioning is amateurish.

He must be doing something right as he actually leads the team for interceptions per game since his return - admittedly only a small sample size.

Gunner89 wrote:

Defensive shield?

People think he runs around so he's good defensively.

His statistics for tackling and interceptions are crap. His positioning is amateurish.

He's offers almost nothing defensively. He isn't combative, he doesn't have great instincts to shield the defence, etc He's a nothing player who offers too little going forward or in defence. He has good pass percentages because he's so risk averse. He's exactly the sort of player this team needs to be rid of. We've been laughing at Spurs playing Hojbjerg and Winks but both are comfortably better players than Elneny.

He doesnt get like the ball coming to him with any pace, his first touch can looks heavy when it does. The lads are happy to blast it at Tierney. For emleny they slowly roll it to him, he takes it on the turn and plays it backwards or sideways if were lucky. It slows the whole game down. He has some nice passing at times. HE was worth a punt as a player for the price we got him. But he really should have been moved on.

speedy wrote:

He doesnt get like the ball coming to him with any pace, his first touch can looks heavy when it does. The lads are happy to blast it at Tierney. For emleny they slowly roll it to him, he takes it on the turn and plays it backwards or sideways if were lucky. It slows the whole game down.

Elneny suits the 343, he is confident with short passes and under pressure, keeps the ball rolling. A good example is Auba's goal against Fulham, got a pass deep in his half under pressure, picked out Bellerin, then moved it forward to start the counter.

His weakness is his lack of pace, which isn't too much of a concern, but is when paired with Xhaka in a 433.

Ray wrote:

speedy wrote:

He doesnt get like the ball coming to him with any pace, his first touch can looks heavy when it does. The lads are happy to blast it at Tierney. For emleny they slowly roll it to him, he takes it on the turn and plays it backwards or sideways if were lucky. It slows the whole game down.

Elneny suits the 343, he is confident with short passes and under pressure, keeps the ball rolling. A good example is Auba's goal against Fulham, got a pass deep in his half under pressure, picked out Bellerin, then moved it forward to start the counter.

His weakness is his lack of pace, which isn't too much of a concern, but is when paired with Xhaka in a 433.

He's not a top four player, not even close. What would you say hes better at than denilson who was also terrible? Hes a little faster thats pretty much it.

El neny suits a turkish club. End of

Ray wrote:

speedy wrote:

He doesnt get like the ball coming to him with any pace, his first touch can looks heavy when it does. The lads are happy to blast it at Tierney. For emleny they slowly roll it to him, he takes it on the turn and plays it backwards or sideways if were lucky. It slows the whole game down.

Elneny suits the 343, he is confident with short passes and under pressure, keeps the ball rolling. A good example is Auba's goal against Fulham, got a pass deep in his half under pressure, picked out Bellerin, then moved it forward to start the counter.

His weakness is his lack of pace, which isn't too much of a concern, but is when paired with Xhaka in a 433.

I'd expect a bit more from our central mid in this formation against Fulham than the ability to pass to our wing back.

speedy wrote:

Ray wrote:

Elneny suits the 343, he is confident with short passes and under pressure, keeps the ball rolling. A good example is Auba's goal against Fulham, got a pass deep in his half under pressure, picked out Bellerin, then moved it forward to start the counter.

His weakness is his lack of pace, which isn't too much of a concern, but is when paired with Xhaka in a 433.

He's not a top four player, not even close. What would you say hes better at than denilson who was also terrible? Hes a little faster thats pretty much it.

He's exactly why you can not trust statdna to sign players.looks so good statistically in passing and shit but is a nothing player

Elneny's only redeeming quality is his constant movement in pockets of spaces to receive and quickly move the ball. Even then he needs someone very close to him because his passing is quite poor. He is a very average player who excels at nothing. I hope he isn't starting another game for us this season against a big club.

I felt Elneny started the season brightly. His performance on Monday was poor but so were most of the team including some of more reputable players.

I hope this doesn’t deter ppl’s views on his previous performances v Liverpool in the CS, Fulham away and second half v LCFC in the league cup where showed he could be a good back up option.

I don't even think he was that bad against Liverpool.

94% pass success. Admittedly a lot of those were back to Holding, but there were a few moments where he did well to keep the ball under pressure and passed it to someone else in space. Put it this way, there were many others, including a few favorites and his midfield partner Xhaka, who performed far worse. He's average and him and Xhaka make up a dire pairing, but he's a decent player to come in for EL and Cup games and as deep cover.

If all you're going to get for him is a couple of mil you're better off keeping him.

Talks back on apparently

I’m coming round to the idea of signing him. He’s able to collect the ball from the centrebacks and progress it and feed Auba

We should get him if we can't get both of Aouar and Partey. We need more midfielders.

Matt Law is clueless, used to make John Cross look reliable.

I'd take Aouar and Jorginho though.