Fuck no. Konate

lorddulaarsenal

Claudius

Excellent player but missed most of last season with muscle injury. And was also out early part of this season with more muscle injuries. So we need to really understand what's happening beneath the hood before we commit here

Ray

Would rather just play Saliba.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Saliba is scum, in Arteta's eyes. He'd rather the kid wasn't born.

lorddulaarsenal

I don’t think Saliba is ready.

Ray

We’ll never know unless he plays.

Claudius

What if he plays and you absolutely know he’s not ready? Maybe not knowing is better.
#MikelKnows

lorddulaarsenal

He hasn’t impressed in the U23s

mentalvortex

Saliba is a risk taker from what I little I saw in U23's.

He is good on the ball, a decent passer and he likes to make frequent forays with the ball forward.

Maybe that's what Arteta has reservations about coming off in premier league.

Ray

Depends what you mean by not ready. If you're expecting prime Rio Ferdinand then of course not. If you're looking for a guy who will make mistakes but has the right set of physical attributes and defensive awareness to turn into a good defender, then he is ready. The guy has played a number of games in Ligue1 and I refuse to believe Mustafi, Holding and Luiz are that much better options that he has to play meaningless U23 games.

Feels me to me like Arteta trying to overcomplicate things.

Don Pacifico

This appears to be a houseboat link judging by the sauce (sorry to be the poo in the pool).

Jed

Saliba is better. Play him.

JazzG

Konate is a massive talent, when reading up on Upamecano last year kept seeing people say Konate was the better player.

IF we are interested it does make me worry about Saliba. Would surely mean he has no future here, Konate is only a couple years older than him.

Gazza M

why would it mean no future? if we bin all the defenders we should be binning, he would have plenty of scope to win a place starting from next year, especially with our horrendous injury record on centre halves

Claudius

I’m with Gazza.
We should be keeping Gabriel and Saliba. And then you can probably save Holding and Mari if he ever heals. Then you throw in Konate and that gives you 3 righties and 2 lefties with enough bodies to play 2 or 3 at the back as needed.

You can also play 3ATB with these guys. Saliba and Konate have both regularly played that formation. And all 3 are fast guys who are comfortable on the ball and can play the high line. Allows you to be more compact. They eliminate the Xhaka role as well.

JazzG

Gazza M wrote:
why would it mean no future? if we bin all the defenders we should be binning, he would have plenty of scope to win a place starting from next year, especially with our horrendous injury record on centre halves

I agree we should bin all the other defenders but considering our other issues spending potentially £40m+ on another CB to me shows we don't have faith in Saliba.

If we had the money fuck yeah go for it but I think we need 2 CM + CF at minimum by next summer and they won't come cheap.

flobaba

Rumors recently of Saliba supposedly heading back to France on loan in January.

Anzac

Claudius wrote:
I’m with Gazza.
We should be keeping Gabriel and Saliba. And then you can probably save Holding and Mari if he ever heals. Then you throw in Konate and that gives you 3 righties and 2 lefties with enough bodies to play 2 or 3 at the back as needed.

You can also play 3ATB with these guys. Saliba and Konate have both regularly played that formation. And all 3 are fast guys who are comfortable on the ball and can play the high line. Allows you to be more compact. They eliminate the Xhaka role as well.

You had me with this.
;D

Anzac

flobaba wrote:
Rumors recently of Saliba supposedly heading back to France on loan in January.

If so then I suspect it is little to do with his prospects of becoming a starting player for us next season, and more about putting him in the shop window to sell.

IMO if he goes back to Ligue 1 he still needs that transitional/adaptation season, which in turn means we need to sign a starting CB to partner Gabriel.