Nwanners!: Page 26 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Nwanners!

samthegooner

Qwiss Would work even better if we could get a fullback overlapping- whether that be Calafiori on the left or White on the right... Not saying that MLS and Timber couldn't do it as well.

JazzG

Crazy talent, going right to the top this boy. Important for the other potential stars in Hale End, watching Saka, Nwaneri & MLS shows if you are good enough there is a pathway into the first team.

lorddulaarsenal

Qwiss exactly this. Nwaneri is better playing centrally. He is better going both ways than Saka, although that’s no slight on Saka.

Ethan is also very adept at dropping deep, collecting the ball and pulling strings with his range of passing or alternatively he can get the team going by making powerful defence bursting runs.

I’d play Nwaneri and Odegaard ahead of Rice.

Qwiss

lorddulaarsenal In 2 years time I expect this with Dowman as the sub and rotation option for the same role.

Claudius

Yup. That’s been my thinking as well. Nwaneri central. You want a guy in the centre who will go at players, and is comfortable making space for himself for the shot on both his left and right. The fact that in a couple months of playing, he’s already learned to go right, is fantastic. Lost young players don’t develop that ambidexterity so quickly.

There are models for how he could play that have been here - Sanchez, Gnabry, Jesus, etc., but with even more skill on the ball.

Tactics

daredevil Do you think Mikel sees him as a LB long-term? Thought he's only playing there due to injuries and the quality we have in midfield at the moment. Theo Hernandez could be available on the cheap this summer (contract runs out in 2026), Arteta may be be tempted since he loves buying LBs and he could transform our left hand side with his pace, dribbling and delivery.

Anyway, this is a non-issue. I remember there were a lot of question marks about Rooney and Tevez fitting into the same team since they both liked occupying the same space. Worked out well in the end. Same with Vinicius and Mbappe.

daredevil

Tactics

Maybe he didn't initially, but it looks like being one of those situations where MLS has more than made the position his own, and it makes little sense to have him compete for a midfield spot when we have guys like Rice and Partey/potentially Zubimendi who will start which would place him on the bench. Playing LB is a way of getting him on the pitch. Calafiori looks better going forward than MLS, but the latter's recovery speed and defensive awareness gives him the edge.

Claudius

Tactics he’s played like Rice basically at junior level. Tons of running power through the middle, excellent ball control.
Made sense to start him on the edge because it’s less complex than being a DM. But we are still able to get him in central spaces as he inverts.

I do wonder though if we can use him as a LW. The one thing you see about our kids when you watch them is that they can all create their own shots, they’re willing to shoot from distance, and very capable on the ball. And we saw the confidence with which he took his goal versus City. I would love him at LW until Martinelli returns. He and Cala would be a rampaging handful

Claudius

Qwiss per has saved us as much as £100m. It’s so hard to find players like Nwaneri and MLS, especially attackers.

Qwiss

Claudius Arteta would never sign them anyway. Too short.

banduan

If there's one of our youngster's I'd look at taking up the Odegaard role it's Myles, not Ethan. I do not see why we should suddenly be moving Ethan out of what's been a fortuitously found winger role that he's excelled at much more than his AM stint.

lorddulaarsenal

Because he’s better centrally and will show that and also because we have one of the best right wingers in the world who also has a perfect profile for us returning in a month or so’s time

Claudius

Odegaard delivers the best playmaking metrics in all of Europe in 2023-4. Saka has the most carries into the box and touches in the box in all of Europe in the same season. Bright new 17 year old appears - let’s move and replace Odegaard / Saka.
These kids are malleable. They’re trained to be flexible. It will be easier to move Nwaneri and slot him where we most need help. Which is everything left of Saka/Odegaard

samthegooner

I still feel like our ideal setup would be a more output focused midfielder (a #10 essentially) in the right 8 with Odegaard playing a bit deeper in the left 8 role focused more on buildup and playmaking, but with less box crashing than Arteta has Rice/Merino doing currently. My dream setup had always been someone like Wirtz coming in and playing the right 8 but now I'm starting to think Nwaneri would be a perfect fit there. The only issue with it is just when everyone is healthy (and assuming we bring in Zubimendi), where does everyone play? But personally, I think that's a problem we need to have and it will force more rotation by Arteta.

Tell me this wouldn't cook against a lot of teams:
Martinelli - Havertz - Saka
Odegaard - Nwaneri
Rice

Then add in a pacy winger like Nico Williams/Barcola/Semenyo, a striker like Sesko/Ekitike, a DM like Zubimendi and we have a lot of flexibility and lineup options for different games/gamestates.

Speedster

Really hoping this kid stops us destroying Saka. We grind him to dust every season.

Sicario2

Unreal player. Zero fear. Like how the club keeping him away from interviews etc - good idea protecting him.

Big Willie

He ain't new to this he true to this.

lorddulaarsenal

Glides when he dribbles. Feints and fakes - you can see why some are making those comparisons

Sicario2

Claudius

Love how much he shoots. This guy is going to be a goal machine. As in our leading scorer of players already at squad

Qwiss

Claudius its exactly what we need. He adds an unpredictability to the attack that makes defending us so much harder.

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