You can keep him, the market doesn’t give us the flexibility we need just yet to purchase a replacement. It doesn’t mean he’s good enough for the first team. He is a squad option. A good one. And that’s how he’s being utilized. I’m good with that.

Flobaba. Everything is bad to you. What is your squad plan?

Claudius wrote:

flobaba wrote:

Really? You don’t know what the Ozil issue is about by now? Come on, man.

I don’t feel like getting into a long discussion about it, but it’s not clear how much of it is pure player performance versus the club regretting signing a massive contract plus later possible political pressure from China.

But his performances are the one thing you can’t argue. He was noticeably a liability on the field. Why are we rewriting history like this? Now am I saying Willian is better? Of course. But Ozil has made manager’s lives hard and their decisions become a double edged sword that is always used against them with his laziness and lack of commitment when he has been called upon.

Nobody has time for this.

The funniest thing about the Ozil story is that the other half of the fan base reckoned Arteta was showing him favourable treatment (buddies from playing together) by starting him every game. The whole thing is so boring.

FWIW, I called the fact that he wouldn’t play for us again before it became apparent, the moment news about him not taking a pay cut broke. It’s not rocket science. He immediately made himself unpick-able.

Claudius wrote:

Flobaba. Everything is bad to you. What is your squad plan?

Lol. Not really. It seems that way, but we are in a really bad place right now.

You know my squad plan. Auba would be gone by now, we’d have brought in a replacement who either plays CF better or a winger who is actually productive, as well as an Aouar type (emergence of ESR makes this less critical) and we’d be leaning in on the really good young players, while actively working on bringing in other young players who are ready from the academy. Balogun and co. And if those reinforcements aren’t available in house you best have Edu on his bike or plane to whatever remote continent to find the next Moukoko or whatever.

What we won’t be doing is talking about Willock or Nketiah or Ozil or AMN as if they’re long term solutions to anything.

This guy reminds me of Cazorla. On that basis alone, sign him up.

Klaus wrote:

ohboy!!! wrote:

Creatively he would help, although I'm not convinced that he would press and help out defensively, not that he would actually produce. 

We also have to way up whether it is worth it trying to integrate him back into the squad, only to know he will be gone again in a few months. Plus the message it sends to others in the group allowing him back in.

Yep, at this stage it's kinda moot, the damage is done, but there's no one who can convince me that we've been better off for the last few months while Özil has been sitting at home. We were creating the least chances in the whole league before Smith-Rowe came along.

I think it's an indictment on Arteta, and I dislike managers who feel the need to put their foot down even though it's to the overall detriment of the team. Which it's safe so say it has been, since we were 15th in the table as little as a week ago. There's no rhyme and reason to these arbitrary wars he's waging either. Luiz and him can have a fallout to the point where they're not talking for months and he still gets games. Willian can do whatever he wants; he can fuck off to Abu Dhabi on an off day when he's supposed to be at home and nothing happens, he can visit corona parties and he still gets included. He can play like an absolute sack of shit for half a season and the only consequence is more playing time. I have never seen Özil half as bad as that fraud, yet he and Guendouzi are the ones who get ostracised. Saliba doesn't even get registered, nor is he sent on loan, and Arteta comments on his 'professional issues' when he gets criticised for it. And then we end up with so many injuries in the central defence that we have to reinstate the likes of Mustafi again while Saliba is playing U23 matches. Brilliant management.

I'm kinda fed up talking about it too so I won't comment on it any further, but he's been a weak manager so far, constanty picking the wrong battles and backing the wrong horses. Which is basically why I want him to back Smith-Rowe now; actually back him instead of throwing money on a player that isn't one of his first choices anyway. We have a far better squad than people on OMIT seem to think we do. We have in-house solutions that are good and deserve playing time, and we constantly see how much better off we are for playing them. Part of Arteta's job when he took over was to bring these young players through, because it's the only way we're going to make up ground when our competition is the likes of Chelsea, who spend £250 million on players in a single summer. We're certainly not going to do it by signing their rejects.

Backing the youth is a commitment that is actually hugely important considering where we are right now. And that means you can't have more fucking Willians and Cedrics; and you can't chuck Nelson and Willock just to sign Buendia to put in front of Smith-Rowe right when he's coming along. I think I'm a bigger fan of Buendia than anyone around here and would love to have him, but he'll still be there in the summer if we need him, just like he was last summer when we were completely uninterested. Right now Smith-Rowe deserves time and we should hang onto the other two.

Great post, and agreed on most of the points.

Ozil may well be a decision from above, but Arteta should have used every player available whilst they are at he club.

He is not first manager to lay the law down, from Fergie, to Guardiola, to Mourinho have all down it. Obviously Arteta has achieved nothing, so he doesn't have the same weight to make those decisions.

The youth should be used primarily, but it is not a bad thing to buy players who can help if they stop playing well. They also need motivation, and we can't just give them starting places without them earning it.

flobaba wrote:

Claudius wrote:

I don’t feel like getting into a long discussion about it, but it’s not clear how much of it is pure player performance versus the club regretting signing a massive contract plus later possible political pressure from China.

But his performances are the one thing you can’t argue. He was noticeably a liability on the field. Why are we rewriting history like this? Now am I saying Willian is better? Of course. But Ozil has made manager’s lives hard and their decisions become a double edged sword that is always used against them with his laziness and lack of commitment when he has been called upon.

Nobody has time for this.

The whole performance thing is just narrative that Ozil haters have made up. We had much better ball progression and attacking stats with him in the team when we played the 5-5 offense with him. And then he was dropped and we started again. Our creativity dropped after he left. Our creativity is up again with ESR central and Saka right with about 15 shots per game. These are the facts.

I’m exhausted by the Ozil story but I don’t like it when journalists and twitter heads with agendas create alternate realities about him.

This is why I don’t discuss Ozil much anymore. I’m an Ozil hater. Do you remember when you tried to tell me Iwobi could be an alternative? I told you straight up that he wasn’t fit to lace Ozil’s boots. I loved Ozil, and I know what quality he brings to the table when he cares. Problem was he obviously didn’t care anymore. I don’t look at stats, i just watch football, and I could see clearly that this dude taking the mickey.

I’ll throw in Auba here too, recall that cross from Saka against west brom where he was just a bit late in connecting? The old Auba would’ve got there. What I’m saying is going to get dismissed of course, but That’s what an aggressive and competitive mindset does to you. You’re sharper when you need to be, and hungry, looking for scraps here and there and devouring when you find them.

Claud, there's no way you believe that. These aren't Ozil haters. The guy was my favorite player in world football, yet I can see very clearly how little he offers game after game. He's a luxury player in that he plays at his own leisure. You can't run a football team that way and he's rightly left out.

You were right on Iwobi. And I agree with you on the other kids. I strongly believe on really contracting the team and focusing on the highest potential players. We need to know who the 16 or so players we really care about are. And invest in having 5 or 6 superlative players who will get us out of trouble in every game. I see those qualities in guys like ESR, Saka and Martinelli. I don’t see them in Nketiah and co. And don’t see them in Bunendia. So I would rather not waste money in buying him.

As for Aubameyang. Despite his slump, he is one of the 10 fastest premier league strikers ever to 100 goals. One thing to note Flobaba is he has done this with no creativity behind him. In the last couple of games (when he is back from injury), he hasn’t scored. But, he has had chances and he has been really connecting with Xhaka, ESR and Tierney. He is finally linking up with the rest of the team, which was absent before. These are the kind of underlying conditions which will help create goals more consistently. The goals will look different from those In our cup run where he did a lot of heavy lifting. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

If we sign Buendia, it seems to me that we'll be stuck with Xhaka and El Neny fighting it out to play alongside Partey. Or, perhaps Partey and Buendia (playing deep) can work against worse off teams who sit deep.

But if we're looking out to next year - I think a mobile, defensively astute CM is more of a priority as we need to ensure we get the best out of Partey.

That's not Buendia, so the question then becomes do we think Partey can play as a DM with two CMs (Buendia and ?) ahead of him? And if so, do we think Buendia and ESR/Saka can play as those two CMs?

Claudius wrote:

flobaba wrote:

But his performances are the one thing you can’t argue. He was noticeably a liability on the field. Why are we rewriting history like this? Now am I saying Willian is better? Of course. But Ozil has made manager’s lives hard and their decisions become a double edged sword that is always used against them with his laziness and lack of commitment when he has been called upon.

Nobody has time for this.

The whole performance thing is just narrative that Ozil haters have made up. We had much better ball progression and attacking stats with him in the team when we played the 5-5 offense with him. And then he was dropped and we started again. Our creativity dropped after he left. Our creativity is up again with ESR central and Saka right with about 15 shots per game. These are the facts.

I’m exhausted by the Ozil story but I don’t like it when journalists and twitter heads with agendas create alternate realities about him.

Lol at the last part. Arsenal Twitter is literally just a giant heap of alternate realities saying that Özil is actually good but isn't allowed to play due to criticizing China etc.

Add to that your match the time before Özil was benched vs after) is way too simplistic, like everything other than Özil have been constants during that time.

Klaus wrote:

ohboy!!! wrote:

Creatively he would help, although I'm not convinced that he would press and help out defensively, not that he would actually produce. 

We also have to way up whether it is worth it trying to integrate him back into the squad, only to know he will be gone again in a few months. Plus the message it sends to others in the group allowing him back in.

Yep, at this stage it's kinda moot, the damage is done, but there's no one who can convince me that we've been better off for the last few months while Özil has been sitting at home. We were creating the least chances in the whole league before Smith-Rowe came along.

I mean, this is the problem. No one can convince you because you adamantly refuse to take in the full context. When it suits one opinion, we narrow the focus to what happens on the pitch, or even individual stats, and when it suits another we have to look at the big picture. Inevitably, these are ways to shit on whatever is happening now in favor of what might have happened, but the hypothetical reality is just that, and you have no idea how much better or worse off we would be.

I'm not even sure people are saying we were "better off" without Ozil anyway. The best would have been having our full squad available and our best and highest paid player tearing up the league. Considering what we've seen with our own eyes, the string of managers Ozil has made problems with, and the subsequent decision from Arteta and the technical team, I'm willing to bet this has nothing to do with any one man's personal beef with another, and it's clearly not solely Ozil's contribution on the pitch that's at issue either. The idea that Arteta dropped him because he doesn't track back is ludicrous at best. The idea that Arteta (and others) made this decision lightly, or that they're just being petty, is similarly so.

Claudius wrote:

As for Aubameyang. Despite his slump, he is one of the 10 fastest premier league strikers ever to 100 goals.

Shouldn't we wait until he reaches 100 goals to say stuff like that?

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Claudius wrote:

As for Aubameyang. Despite his slump, he is one of the 10 fastest premier league strikers ever to 100 goals.

Shouldn't we wait until he reaches 100 goals to say stuff like that?

Sorry. He has one of the 10 highest number of goals after 100 games. Despite a slump. If he hadn’t crashed hard he wouldn’t be top 6 or 7.
Thanks for the correction, Quincy.

Coombs wrote:

Klaus wrote:

Yep, at this stage it's kinda moot, the damage is done, but there's no one who can convince me that we've been better off for the last few months while Özil has been sitting at home. We were creating the least chances in the whole league before Smith-Rowe came along.

I mean, this is the problem. No one can convince you because you adamantly refuse to take in the full context. When it suits one opinion, we narrow the focus to what happens on the pitch, or even individual stats, and when it suits another we have to look at the big picture. Inevitably, these are ways to shit on whatever is happening now in favor of what might have happened, but the hypothetical reality is just that, and you have no idea how much better or worse off we would be.

I'm not even sure people are saying we were "better off" without Ozil anyway. The best would have been having our full squad available and our best and highest paid player tearing up the league. Considering what we've seen with our own eyes, the string of managers Ozil has made problems with, and the subsequent decision from Arteta and the technical team, I'm willing to bet this has nothing to do with any one man's personal beef with another, and it's clearly not solely Ozil's contribution on the pitch that's at issue either. The idea that Arteta dropped him because he doesn't track back is ludicrous at best. The idea that Arteta (and others) made this decision lightly, or that they're just being petty, is similarly so.

That's fair.

To be honest, every damn time when Ozil is dropped people will bring this argument up again. Then he plays like shit and his fans pretends he is the MOTM and one of the undroppable again in dream teams. They use to use stats to support the argument but when the past 2-3 years his stats are so bad the imaginary peak Ozil will come up these days.

Anyway FWIW, we are great with ESR in the side because ESR is a quality player, not because suddenly we are playing with a number 10. Like a young Ozil at Schalke and Madrid is a much more mobile player than the current lackluster one.

Back to the topic, I am a big fan of Buendia ever since Klaus name checked him in one of the wishlists last year. It's great news we are looking at him. I am a strong advocate of Aouar but Buendia will suit us more because he is a better dribbler and a stronger player physically for PL. I'm all for it, ship Willock opposite way if needed.

Norwich play some nice footy, I'd be happy with any of Nelson, Willock, Azeez, Nketiah getting a loan there

I'm big on Aouar as well, Clarence, but Klaus seems to be proven right more and more about Buendia. I just wish he were a bit bigger and a bit more of an option deeper in midfield, like Aouar. Maybe he is?