If there really isn't an elite 6 out there this summer—and it does seem there isn't—then adding a "Trossard" (could be Merino) to the Ethan Nwaneri Project™ and kicking the regista-DLP-conductor-pivot-destroyer can down the road looks like the solid play for the present and future of our midfield.
Also seeing plenty of Arsenal buzz about 22 year old Ezequiel Fernandez, who can apparently play a long pass and likes to play left 8. No idea what his level is.
Ship out Partey please.
Claudius I mentioned this in the calafiori thread, but having thought about it a bit more, i can concede that getting calafiori and merino running that left channel could potentially offset rice playing at the 6. calafiori and merino look like they'd cause chaos for opponents given how dynamic their movement and passing is, and alleviate the need for rice to provide line breaking passing and invite pressure from the opposition.
Rice can play 6 very well in most situations. I wouldn't love him doing that away in Europe maybe, but he is still excellent there. The pendulum has swung too far to the "Rice is an 8" direction, exacerbated a bit by his struggles to successfully be a one-man midfield in a disjointed England setup.
mdgoonah41 Arteta isn't obsessed with buying defensive players. People forget that we were all in on Sesko, and would have signed him if he hadn't elected to stay another year in Leipzig. He is particular about buying players for his style of football, which is exactly what you want in a manager. And unfortunately you can't write a check and make a "true DM" appear. If Zubimendi were available, you can guarantee we'd be desperate to get him, and have the funds to do so. You want to spend £100m on a tiny 19-year-old DM in Neves, like PSG? I'm glad we've stayed away.
What has tiny got to do with it? Vitinha is one of the best CMs in the world
CPM Rice can play 6 very well in most situations. I wouldn't love him doing that away in Europe maybe, but he is still excellent there. The pendulum has swung too far to the "Rice is an 8" direction
Sure, Rice can do the job at a very high level. The thing behind the "passing problem" at 6 is if Ødegaard continues to come back to lead the build-up while also leading the press a lot of the time. I'm not a fan of that, it'll burn him out and I'd rather free him up to create further forward.
Burnwinter Odegaard wil likely keep dropping back. Our game is based on small triangles. So Odegaard or the new left 8 would come back to help secure and advance the ball
If Rice gets injured, or Jorginho and Partey both get injured, who plays left 8 for us? Merino sounds like a sensible buy to me. What is the current pecking order at left 8? Rice, Havertz, Vieira? Zinchenko?
I'd love Zubimendi for 6 but I think the worry around that role is a bit exaggerated. We have 3 players who can play it plus maybe Lewis Skelly may come into the equation this year. There may be a couple of games a year where none of them are who you'd ideally want at 6, but they should leave us covered to knock down the vast majority of our opponents across a season.
Claudius I've never been on board with this. odegaard is most devastating when he's being fed between the lines, playing closer to the front 3, and free to make runs into the area. any system that results in him dropping deeper to assist with build up is a waste of time and should be binned as not fit for purpose. i saw enough of this when rice and havertz played in midfield and it was just dysfunctional
Gazza M @Claudius That's it. We need Ødegaard playing the forwards in or scoring, not the first ball. He's too good at working the right pass behind the defence to divert him to other tasks. He'll track back all day regardless but how deep and with what responsibilities? If he's often playing a pass he should be receiving, or he's deemed a necessity to evade the press, that hurts us.
I don't expect we'll be carrying the ball to break the lines often. Players who come to us with that reputation don't attempt it much at Premier League level. Rice is among those, I expect Calafiori will be next. We train the option out of them because it's inefficient nine times in ten.
So they are linking Sane to us by saying that he won't leave. Looool. They have no fucking clue what is going on.
Burnwinter Seems highly likely we bring in some medium to big fish later in the window, no matter what Arteta says.
That is my hope too. That they are just waiting to see what they can bring in first before they decide how much to splurge.
Agreed. We've a strong squad and it's clear we are sailing close to the wind with PSR, so finding players who will improve us that we can afford is going to be challenging. If I had to wager, I'd say we'll sign a fairly expensive wide player and more of a budget CM late in the window once Nketiah and Nelson have departed.
I just know we are going to try for ISAK at the end of the window. If Eddie leaves there is definite room for a striker.
Mik Merino is top notch by the way. Great physique, big range and uses the ball well. Reminds me of Edu in many ways
Low quality links, but there is just nothing out there for us lol. The league starts in 2 weeks and we are not ready.
Claudius Well any new signings that come in now will not be ready for the first few games? Add the guys from the Euro that will miss the first 1-2 games(like at this moment in time we have 0 keepers in the squad)? We are in a worse position then last year. Also, I think we all agreed we had 3-4 weakness in the squad that needed to be addressed, left back(maybe? some would have said we are ok), left wing, CM, striker and Saka sub. And we resolved 1.
HomeSteak In terms of transfers, if you look at Man City and Liverpool, they're in exactly the same position as us. Euros and World Cups push the transfer activity out till the end of the window and that's normal.
It's only Chelsea and Man United that have been particularly active in the market but they're not a model to follow
As for Euros - they can't really be helped but most should be back by this weekend except for the English/Spanish players.
We would likely not plan to resolve all our issues via the transfer window. Tactical reshuffles and internal promotions will also a part of our strategy. Nothing wrong with our left wing if Merino (or whoever our midfield signing will be) can bring the balance and help form a strong left side "pod". A striker of the sort of quality needed to elevate us significantly is a nice to have, not a must have based on the number of goals we scored last season. Sometimes it's more profitable to lean into your strengths than to put in much more effort (funds which we may not have) to improve your weaknesses. We were two points off the champions last year, and had the best defensive record in the league. Our main signing (Calafiori) and the player we are linked to (MM) look like they will tighten up the ship defensively even further and give us the ability to control games better. Martinelli is fit, Gabby J is fit.
I think we are ready, or very close.
