Claudius would make sense to leave a defender out.

Qwiss would make sense to leave a defender out.

Arteta can never have too many defenders.

I liked his little cameo. I think he will break some ankles and unbalance teams that try to press us next season. slot him in at LB and use tomi as his utility back up.

Gazza M I liked his drive. We need more subs like that. Guys who come on and want to push the team forward.

Rival fans say we've had no injuries this season but this guy would have been a game changer. Watch him raise our game next season.

Claudius

100 percent. Show some damn intent. Hate players who come on and pussy foot about. Timber looks like he has something about him.

Gurgen Absolutely, I think he was essential for the progress of this team and so cruel that he missed the entire season.

Qwiss left back was our most volatile position this season, and partially responsible for the unsettled left side of the field. A lot of what-ifs. Big summer for Timber.

Claudius look I don't really go for those what-ifs, everyone had injuries I just hate the narrative that we didn't. At the end of the day I look at my United, Liverpool, etc mates using it as an excuse and I don't accept it from them so I don't accept it for us either. Top teams need to be adaptable and have depth. Its not like we were playing academy kids in defence.

Was gutted when he got injured. So happy they seem to have managed his recovery in the best way and he got to play a part in the last match.

Really hoping he can have a great pre-season and push on to be a real contributor next season

Qwiss no we weren’t playing academy kids in defense. But your team has to be a different level if you’re chasing 90 versus those teams chasing 70.
I have United fans laughing at us this morning, and I’m thinking do you guys realise that only Bruno Rat Face Fernandes is at the quality to get big minutes at City/Arsenal? They’re in for a rude shock.

Claudius United are terrible and I think they'll get worse. So little quality in that side.

That being said, remember playing him also included Partey as RB and Gabriel on the bench.

I wonder what Arteta will do next year on that front. Hard to look beyond what Saliba/Gabriel have produced. Easier to see how you can upgrade on White, not in terms of intrinsic quality, but in terms of versality going forward. Will be interesting to see what Tet's thinking is.

This guy is top tier

I wonder what his role will be, especially once Calafiori eventually integrates into the team. I guess he'll play multiple positions. He can be so dangerous on the overlap at RB, but Arteta doesn't seem keen to move White off of RB, ever. Like theoretically White should have gotten some RCB time in preseason to prepare him to spell Saliba, but Kiwior covered that position instead. He can play LB but that's a crowded position with Calafiori and Zinchenko.

Wouldn’t shock me to see him take Partey’s place

Burnwinter the good thing is a lot of these players are flexible. Calafiori can cover 3 positions. Timber can cover at least 4 positions. And then you have guys like Jesus who can cover the entire frontline. So we’ve actually expanded the squad with the flexible profile of player we have.

He's ridiculously good on the ball. If he didn't get that unfortunate injury last year I suspect he would have made the RB spot his own.

Will be interesting to see where he is deployed. I suspect we’ll see a lot more rotation this season

He will be amazing at RB. That kind of dribbling ability is immense.

Clrnc yeah, feels like that's probably where he's destined to play once Calafiori is up and running. I'd say that White, for all his output the last two seasons is most under threat.

Don Pacifico It's an extremely happy problem to have. Timber will have his fair shares of niggles this year because of his ACL previously, White needs a breather evidently as he often tires after 70th minute like yesterday. This year UCL schedule is brutal, a big squad will be kept happy as everyone gets enough game time.

Clrnc this high quality defensive rotation is what we need to execute elsewhere. Baby steps

White will be starting most games, no questions about it. Pretty much cemented in the first 11, like Lauren back in the day.

Yeah I don't see White getting dropped any time soon.

He, Odegaard, and Saka have a strong understanding, and I think he also helps simplify Saliba's job (in comparison to what Zinchenko does for Gabriel).

I dunno. White was bought as a CB and was then shunted to RB when Tomi got injured and Saliba returned from loan. I think that tells you that whilst he's been brilliant, he doesn't represent exactly what Arteta is looking for in that role.

We also thought Ramsdale was a dead cert and we brought in Raya. This is a manager who is always looking to upgrade and there are few loyalties in that regard.

Don Pacifico
Let’s hope the manager uses this same principal on the likes of Martinelli

Don Pacifico I dunno. White was bought as a CB and was then shunted to RB when Tomi got injured and Saliba returned from loan. I think that tells you that whilst he's been brilliant, he doesn't represent exactly what Arteta is looking for in that role.

We stumbled into his ability in that role, regardless what Mikel initially thought. He's gonna be there for a while I reckon. But whoever else is in RB will defo get game time as Benjamin looked fucked towards the end of last season and especially the end of the previous one.

banduan yeah that's my thought as well. I think White is too good to be dropped but he is still not a natural RB, certainly not as natural as Timber. First half of last season before Tomi was injured he was preferred in many games to White and I feel Timber will be rotated as much which will be beneficial for us. We need White as fresh and fit in the crucial run in as possible. Tomiyasu will also be back in October.

Our defensive depth is insane, rightly so since we have kept up the trend of signing one big defender every window

banduan We stumbled into his ability in that role

Not exactly ... I'm pretty sure we shelled out the £50m because of his calibre and versatility, and with a weather eye on Saliba's progress at Marseille despite all the protests at the time.

Burnwinter it's like we bought Havertz as a CM and have all the ideas of how he could succeed there, but when he turns out not as good as we thought that we moved him back to CF and the rest is history...

Sometimes plans do change, and stumbling into the right role for players despite all the scouting saying otherwise happens. White only played as a RB twice before he joined us, played alot in DM so I'm not sure our scouts we have seen him as a RB.

But then again... Timber has NEVER played as a LB and we immediately played him as a LB lol.

Clrnc it helps if you buy multi-positional players. Every single one of our players can handle different roles, sometime up to 3 or 4. That’s a clear recruiting requirement. You’ll notice that one dimensional players were quickly removed from the team.

It allows us to have a more resilient team with fewer players. It also allows us to do different formations on offense and defense and during different phases of the game.

Claudius @Clrnc Yeah it's not been so much about recruiting players across several roles as rarely recruiting players who are awful on the ball or athletically inferior.

It's funny that the MO on this guy was that he was an on-ball savant with question marks over his defending. So far, he looks like a lockdown defender but's he been absolutely fucking brutal on the ball. Hopefully it's just that he's playing on the wrong side but having a leftback that can pass the ball forward come on to the field was a relief.