jones wrote:

He could well be the 2015 version of Dula's boy Dougie C, both ridiculous pace and good trickery on them. Costa didn't even look all that impressive in Ukraine then started tearing shit up in Germany, deep defences didn't bother him much either.

Martinelli is rapid but Mudryk is a full tier ahead when it comes to pace, don't see many if any players in the squad or league for that matter keeping up with him. Still think a CM is a bigger priority but wouldn't be against him at all

I actually feel that forward is most pressing. we play from the front. our team spends so much time in the attacking third. we often have 60-70% field tilt, with a similar advantage in shots taken. we outpress the opposition. all of this requires a supreme effort from Saka, Martinelli and Jesus - all of whom are constantly getting kicked into the air. you'll also see that we tend to drop around ₅₅ minutes in most games and cede control, probably because we are tiring. would be good to get a 4th player of similar quality who can come in for one of them every game on 60 minutes and turn the heat up on defenses. y

Have we actually got Mudryk's sprint stats? Not to be vulgar, but it's truly outstanding athleticism along with his evident ability on the ball that'll make him great on the Premier League ...

Claudius wrote:

jones wrote:

He could well be the 2015 version of Dula's boy Dougie C, both ridiculous pace and good trickery on them. Costa didn't even look all that impressive in Ukraine then started tearing shit up in Germany, deep defences didn't bother him much either.

Martinelli is rapid but Mudryk is a full tier ahead when it comes to pace, don't see many if any players in the squad or league for that matter keeping up with him. Still think a CM is a bigger priority but wouldn't be against him at all

I actually feel that forward is most pressing. we play from the front. our team spends so much time in the attacking third. we often have 60-70% field tilt, with a similar advantage in shots taken. we outpress the opposition. all of this requires a supreme effort from Saka, Martinelli and Jesus - all of whom are constantly getting kicked into the air. you'll also see that we tend to drop around ₅₅ minutes in most games and cede control, probably because we are tiring. would be good to get a 4th player of similar quality who can come in for one of them every game on 60 minutes and turn the heat up on defenses. y

All that's true but I don't think the dropoff to our forward subs is as pronounced as to our CM options. Nketiah looked really good just couple weeks ago, ESR was a starter not long ago and even Nelson and Marquinhos can play a role against bottom half table teams, we just need to start using them more often. We had someone with top tier talent in Pepe, not using him made him wither away to a non-option too no reason it wouldn't happen again.

On the other hand #5 has been a crock for us since signing yet we're relying on him every week and will rely on him twice a week if we go deep in the EL or FA Cup. Not even close between the two positions for me where we need to strengthen

Burnwinter wrote:

Have we actually got Mudryk's sprint stats? Not to be vulgar, but it's truly outstanding athleticism along with his evident ability on the ball that'll make him great on the Premier League ...

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/statistics/players/goals/

Look here. Lists all the top scorers etc. He has the highest top speed amongst all the top scorers. Higher than Mbappe, Nunez, Salah, Neymar, Haaland, etc. I heard he was fastest clocked in champions league. This suggests that

Damn, tied with Dembele. That's some pace.

Number 5 in that list of most rapid players looks interesting. Maybe we could try and sign him

He's certainly a physical specimen. Hopefully he'll have improved his decision-making during his loan.

That kind of Pace and dribbling is a weapon in itself, how did he do against R.Madrid this season?

£50m sounds a lot though.

Claudius wrote:

Burnwinter wrote:

Have we actually got Mudryk's sprint stats? Not to be vulgar, but it's truly outstanding athleticism along with his evident ability on the ball that'll make him great on the Premier League ...

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/statistics/players/goals/

Look here. Lists all the top scorers etc. He has the highest top speed amongst all the top scorers. Higher than Mbappe, Nunez, Salah, Neymar, Haaland, etc. I heard he was fastest clocked in champions league. This suggests that

:drool: Okay, I think I'm sold. If Mudryk really is the quickest forward in the Champions League, we can definitely use him, and over £50m is probably reasonable. He should still have that pace when his next big contract is up.

Knew Tavares was an athlete but I'm impressed to see him up there. He really does burn the opposition for speed, but he looks relaxed doing it.

Claudius wrote:

Burnwinter wrote:

Have we actually got Mudryk's sprint stats? Not to be vulgar, but it's truly outstanding athleticism along with his evident ability on the ball that'll make him great on the Premier League ...

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/statistics/players/goals/

Look here. Lists all the top scorers etc. He has the highest top speed amongst all the top scorers. Higher than Mbappe, Nunez, Salah, Neymar, Haaland, etc. I heard he was fastest clocked in champions league. This suggests that

That’s got some neat stats. Thanks for the link. He’s rapid. Top speed and average speed are serious outliers. Also looks like his work rate is pretty high (distance covered averages over 10km per match).

I’m on board.

JazzG wrote:

That kind of Pace and dribbling is a weapon in itself, how did he do against R.Madrid this season?

£50m sounds a lot though.

Benny Blanco money. Chump change.

If he turns out at White's level but as a Premier League winger, I'd advocate we coughed up £100m for this lad.

Erm, not sure if serious.

Pretty much. A guy durable enough to play week in, week out, take tactical instruction and contribute to the press at both ends of the pitch, and hold down a first XI place over a talent like Martinelli while also being the fastest forward in the Champions League … ?

That's the tier of player we need to improve us, not gonna come cheap. To put it another way, if Martinelli was put up for sale I'd want us to be getting a bare minimum of £70m out of it (couple of sites have him at €60m, but that seems low to me).

Mudryk will take Martinelli place, who in turn can play up front. Great

I don't know if top speed is a consideration unless you set up in a deep block and play on the counter such as TH. IMO acceleration on the ball is of more use closer to goal and with little room.

Eden Hazard wasn't quick in terms of top speed but he had good acceleration and technical ability on the ball, and would regularly score into double figures each season. Similarly I don't think Pires was fast but he had good pace on the ball, whereas Overmars was fast but we also used a deeper block.

I think the generational tactical shift underway in the Premier League is going to make the combination of speed and ability on the ball more decisive than it has been for a while. We've gone from a handful of clubs employing high-energy pressing with success, to a situation where any club that can manage it at all presses like crazy, even the new promotions from the Championship.

The change is already making certain kinds of players, for example more static or crafty forwards, or centre halves who are useless on the ball, far less desirable to top clubs.

This piece from the Athletic (paywall circumvented) was very interesting:

https://archive.ph/zF5l0

To be successful with old school counter-attacking tactics, the qualities you look for in players are precise and visionary distribution from the keeper or the deep-lying playmaker, and then strategic runs, offside trap awareness and pace to burn from the forwards. The forwards running onto a release pass rely on their composure, heads-up awareness, and finishing ability to score.

But in the case of one of these "direct attacks", though the accuracy and tempo of the release pass is still vital, the forwards are operating with less time and space having just jumped a well set high defensive press, and needing to work collectively to beat defenders, drag defenders way out of position, or use the yards between recovering defenders with speed and precision to score.

Given foot speed for defenders is also at a premium, none of these aspects is going to get any easier for forwards. They're going to need to be fast, smart and strong in all technical aspects. A player like Martinelli is the model, whereas things might get a bit tougher for forwards with amazing weapons but also certain technical limitations, like your Walcott or Agbonlahor who used to be able to prosper in a counter-attacking Premier League side.

In today's league, every top club is going to proactively seek out players that can gazump a high press in this way without first turning over the ball and then hoping for a productive counter-attack.

Thanks for sharing, Burns. Aligns with my belief that our priority is getting another Martinelli/Saka in the team.

Bit leftfield but I'd try to lure Sancho from United, they've clearly moved on while getting absolutely nothing out his talent. He's still just 22, would probably go at a 70%+ discount and is talented enough to have outperformed Haaland in their respective times at Dortmund.

Bring the boy home

You'd have to get him to halve his 300k+ wage packet too though.

Loved Sancho at Dortmund but I'm not convinced he has the burst to do it in the PL or the ability to deal better with tight spaces. Not convinced he'd ever be someone you can depend on to reliably/aggressively press too. There's better deals to be had.

goon wrote:

You'd have to get him to halve his 300k+ wage packet too though.

Loved Sancho at Dortmund but I'm not convinced he has the burst to do it in the PL or the ability to deal better with tight spaces.

There are loads of wingers in the PL who were successful without a burst or great pace. Even ignoring Pires and Hazard two of the greatest wingers ever in the league you currently have Mahrez Kulusevski Bowen etc, even Saka is not much faster than Sancho.

Lazy analysis to just assume it's because of the league, Haaland came from the same league and doubled his output in England right away. Valid point about his absurd wages actually forgot about that.

Not even sure if Saka is faster at all.

Would rather have someone untainted like Mudryk though. If we signed Sancho and he kept playing like he's done for them we'd be stuck with a flop who also happened to come from United.

However, the ability to deal with tight spaces is somewhat of an unknown for Mudryk as well, from what little I've seen.

This guy is the biggest talent out of the post-Soviet space since Shevchenko. Signing him is a no brainer really, though it raises some questions about Martinelli but mainly Smith-Rowe.

Maybe it does raise questions about Martinelli but also adds much needed options for wide areas. We are gonna burn our wide players the way we are going.

Can he play on the right as well?

he looks top but arteta hasnt shown so far he can manage rotation

Highly doubt we are bidding £52m for him. Some rumours going around NKunku is going for that kind of money.

frusciante wrote:

he looks top but arteta hasnt shown so far he can manage rotation

An alternative view…
… Arteta has shown that he can take the resources available to him to create a table topping team. His job is to win games. He is doing that better than anyone in the league right now. This rotation thing is another false flag.

Loadsa talk this is happening.

The guy hearts us, we need to add a quality winger and we’re the place to be right now.

Welcome to Arsenal Football Club Mykhailo

JazzG wrote:

Highly doubt we are bidding £52m for him. Some rumours going around NKunku is going for that kind of money.

Including players with release clauses making their price lower than it would've been is nonsensical. Same thing when people said that City were getting Haaland for just a little bit more than what Jesus cost. 

I think this guy looks brilliant from clips. Hope it happens.

Bit of a statement signing this

jones wrote:

Bit leftfield but I'd try to lure Sancho from United, they've clearly moved on while getting absolutely nothing out his talent. He's still just 22, would probably go at a 70%+ discount and is talented enough to have outperformed Haaland in their respective times at Dortmund.

Bring the boy home

How about Ansu Fati?

Rumours are Barca are looking to offload him in order to balance the books since De Jong  (other young player that is sure to raise substantial amount of money) is reluctant to go. I hope we at least test out the waters, anything below 60m could turn out to be a bargain as I believe he's a generational talent. The advantage of having him over someone like Murdyk is he's a natural goalscorer, he's going to score ridiculous amount of goals (at least Salah level IMO) if he fulfils his potential and he's quite versatile - can play across the front 3 and can also operate just behind Jesus.

The only concern I have about him is his injuries. He's been plagued by injuries over the past 2 years which has stalled his progress.

From about 00:45 onwards he talks about him, says Arsenal are interested but no bid. Saying they want €60m+ for him.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Including players with release clauses making their price lower than it would've been is nonsensical. Same thing when people said that City were getting Haaland for just a little bit more than what Jesus cost. 

I believe the rumours are they're paying over his release clause to get the deal done. In the clip above says he has a €60m clause but Chelsea will not trigger the clause, have agreed different payment terms. Very vague...

Tactics wrote:

How about Ansu Fati?

Incredible talent, for the right money someone I'd take a risk on.

JazzG wrote:

Tactics wrote:

How about Ansu Fati?

Incredible talent, for the right money someone I'd take a risk on.

I would too, hope the decision makers at the club think the same

There was talk he’s unhappy. If he’s unhappy and Barca are willing to sell, just give them £60m and call it a day

Not that keen on Fati

Gives me Bojan vibes