Expectations - 2023/2024 Season: Page 5 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Expectations - 2023/2024 Season

mdgoonah41

if we dont sign a legit striker before the end of the window, i dont think we'll have a realistic shot of winning the title or making a deep run in the CL. disappointing too, because the rest of the squad is in pretty good shape

Sicario2 - Tier 1

mdgoonah41

Agreed. Funny how we have that striker in Balogun but Arteta refuses to play him.

DiabyKungFu

mdgoonah41 if we dont sign a legit striker before the end of the window, i dont think we'll have a realistic shot of winning the title or making a deep run in the CL.

Yep. In an absolutely ideal world, we'd have a player like Player 1 as our starter and a player like Player 2 as our backup.

Ricky1985

We're an Mbappé loan signing away from being as good as anyone! 🙃🤣

lorddulaarsenal

Ricky1985 wouldn’t even take that. I’d say we’re only a Barella permanent signing away

flobaba

You're either being funny, or wilfully dumb if you think Balogun is that good, and Arteta just isn't playing him because no reason.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

flobaba

I think this is one of Arteta’s blind spots. I know Balogun may have broken some of his ‘non-negotiables’ and come across as petulant but every player is different and needs to be managed different.

Balogun hasn’t really been given a real chance at Arsenal and practically hasn’t even kicked a ball pre-season. He’s clear of Eddie so should be at least having his minutes.

If I told you we signed one of the best young strikers from the French league last year I’m sure you would accepted that as a back up striker

Asterix

More important question - who's doing the Forest OP - should be up soon. Lot of pressure on someone!! 😉

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Timber being out for a long period, does this change your expectations?

When you get opportunities (like last season) you have to take them as no guarantee you will be in a similar position again.

Pepe LeFrits

Depends on whether the club moves for another defender

Claudius

Pepe LeFrits we have so many defenders. And several ago can play left back. This os the one starter we could afford to lose. But I was quite excited by him.

USArsenal

It does not change my expectation. I was not counting on Timber to be the started before the season started, and now that he may out for a while, I am still not counting on him.

invisibleman18

It probably changes it for me given after only half a game we're now in a position where Tomiyasu is the starting left back as well as backup RB and backup RCB. Once he breaks down in the coming weeks as usual we're only one more injury or suspension away from Holding starting at CB again.

Qwiss

invisibleman18 are we though? Even if your hypothetical happened we could still play White, Saliba, Gabriel and Kiwior as a back 4. That's without counting Partey at RB or Zinky coming back. It's a blow but we're well stacked in defence at the moment, we can cope with this.

invisibleman18

True I was probably being a bit overly negative, but also expecting Partey and Zinchenko to have spells out which they usually have (where is Zinchenko by the way?). Just find it so frustrating how often we end up with players who can't last more than a handful of games. Should our doctors be picking up underlying issues in the pre-signing medical check, assuming we even do one at this point?
Maybe this injury was just bad luck but how can we keep being so unlucky? The knee going so quickly makes me wonder if there was an underlying issue and it was only a matter of time and should it have been something that was picked up? Obviously I'm no medical expert so maybe we do just keep being unlucky.

Mirth

invisibleman18 We actually had some the lowest number of injuries in the league last season: https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/premier-league-injury-table-22-23-liverpool-chelsea-arsenal-man-utd/

Yes, we do have players who have recurring injuries but that's not unusual. If you have a group of 25 players, there's bound to be some players who are plain unlucky or susceptible to injuries at all clubs - that number will never be zero.

invisibleman18

Thanks. Was referring more to players who come in and just repeatedly break down from pretty much day 1 and whether a medical could or should have picked up red flags. Should underlying issues have been picked up in medicals for cases like Tierney and Tomiyasu and steered us to alternative options? From memory Tierney was even injured at the time he was signed. Maybe Timber is not the same as them, but the knee going so quickly just makes me question if there was an underlying issue we missed.

Mirth

Pretty much impossible to say without a medical qualification and doing the tests on the players first hand. FWIW it's not a big deal that Tierney was injured when he was signed - most footballers are walking around with one knock or the other at any given time. I remember Henry saying he was in perpetual pain from 2003 to 2007 and you wouldn't have not signed him for your club during that time. The same is true of Suarez, Vincent Kompany etc.

The medics largely manage these injuries - in some instances they are successful e.g. no one comments on what an incredible job they did with recuperating Martinelli post injury and in other instances they aren't. Ultimately if our biggest injury problem is that we have a bunch of injury prone left backs - a position where we have 4 other options - I'll take that any day over Saka or Odegaard being injury prone.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Impressions so far this season?

Good news:
Early days but I think we will be Man City’s main title rivals. Liverpool look like they could be got at, Man Utd look dysfunctional. Others like Spurs/Chelsea are massive work in progress - won’t take them seriously this year. Newcastle look ok but think they won’t cope with CL.

Bad news:
We don’t look as fluid as last season. We seem to play good football in spells but not total domination (appreciate yesterday we went down to 10 men) like City.

I still think we are lacking a true striker and we also need to replace Timber in the short to medium term at least, could be a loan, whatever, but just need an extra body there for when the games come thick and fast.

City look like they could win the title on auto-pilot. Just the feeling I get but sample size still small - just initial gut feelings of what I’ve seen thus far.

Gazza M

autopilot is a good word to use. proper title challengers reach a certain level of imperiousness where all the vagaries and vicissitudes of football just seem to bounce off them. from preseason to now, we still have a overall laboured look about us. I have a feeling we're still pre-heating though, and will start to really cook in the 2nd half of the season. we just have to stay in touching distance of those blue fucks until then

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