I thought he played ok - he’s clever on the ball.
Looks well out of shape mind you - much bulkier than he was in the summer with Spain - that’ll soon change I’m sure
I thought he played ok - he’s clever on the ball.
Looks well out of shape mind you - much bulkier than he was in the summer with Spain - that’ll soon change I’m sure
lorddulaarsenal I thought he seemed to under hit quite a few passes on Saturday eve.
Anyway, it's such early days for him - for every Patrick Vieira we've had who've come in and hit the ground running, there've been a litany of Pires, Bergkamps, Henrys and - dare I say - Havertz who've taken just a little bit longer to acclimatise.
Qwiss generally agree with this but given his time at Newcastle, I'd expect him to adjust to the league swiftly. Adjusting to an Arteta set-up may take a bit longer as imagine he'll need to get used to being quite positionally fluid. Might also still be lacking match sharpness.
Don Pacifico that was very early in his career though and he wasn't too impressive for them. He's been a very good La Liga player though and I expect he has a lot more in him I just hope it doesn't take him too long to get where we need him.
Merino will be fine but we need a more creative option in midfield too. Nwaneri is the long-term solution, but I'd love to also have a Rosicky who can fill in at left 8 or wide left, put in a shift, make some tackles, and make some things happen.
Honestly, he drove me crazy with his inability to play possession, but having someone like Theo as an option would be amazing in this squad. We waste so many transitions and we lack a pacey outlet who can finish.
Merino is not a player I had any insight of before we got him in. With how he was described I wasn't convinced that he was exactly what we needed but have to see how he slots in. He's looked a bit behind the pace so far but I guess not surprising for now.
We haven't seen enough of Merino, given the shoulder injury, to have a clear idea what he'll be about as an Arsenal player.
I like everything I know about the guy and I suspect he'll come through. I also think it could take till Christmas as it has been far from an ideal start for him.
Still not convinced we got the right guy from Reala. Obviously too early to tell.
Zubimendi really wasn't available, or did you mean someone else Coombs?
Burnwinter that's who I meant. Regardless of his availability, this still fees like a proximity buy.
Not nearly to this extent, but remember Eisfeld when we were all looking at Götze?
True, maybe there's a slight element of laziness or Merino's transfer being on a path of least resistance, but I reckon it's mostly that Arteta's in the Basque football mafia and Arsenal's been doing relatively trouble free business with Real Sociedad for decades now.
I felt encouraged we knew what we were doing on this front, and had the inside track after Liverpool went in so hard and late for Zubimendi and got comprehensively shut down. You still have to presume he's off to Madrid but it's better to know these things up front.
kamikaze Honestly, he drove me crazy with his inability to play possession, but having someone like Theo as an option would be amazing in this squad. We waste so many transitions and we lack a pacey outlet who can finish.
Arteta doesn't seem to want that though. He could easily deploy Sterling or Martinelli like that but he doesn't. Was a similar story with Auba. Seems to me if we had a peak Theo when Arteta arrived he'd have moved him on pretty quickly.
Hopefully Nwaneri kills this guy metaphorically and kills Trossard literally.
DiabyKungFu because he can get away with juvie only?
DiabyKungFu ithe guy had a broken shoulder a few weeks ago.
He's supposed to be a good pivot as well and ball playing mid but he is so invisible in every game he has played. It's like we are with 10 man
He has not played 200 minutes yet for us lol. And we are already writing him off
Yep I think it's pretty meaningless even thinking about how Merino fits in until we can play something like:
Raya
RB CB CB Calafiori / Timber
Partey / Rice
Ødegaard / Nwaneri Merino
Saka Havertz Martinelli / Trossard
Or at least something vaguely close to that.
Expecting Merino to come back from an injury that's fucked up his preseason, and swiftly fix the deficiencies we have with Øde and Saka out is naïve in my opinion.
Merino wasn't bought to do that, he was bought to be mobile and somewhat versatile, to win duels and headers and be a little bit of an added threat on Saka's inswingers, to play at 8 not 6 (read the Edu's BBQ analysis of his game if you believe otherwise) … and maybe to fix some of the issues we've had linking up the attack with Rice on the left.
Selecting Nwaneri would be more likely to address our current absences than selecting Merino, because Nwaneri can create a chance, and he's shown he can cut in sharply off the right and shoot with his left like Bukayo. Unfortunately he's 17 years old and lacks 90 minutes of endurance in his body, but I'd certainly like to see more of him till our stars return.