Lukas Podolski: Page 23 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Lukas Podolski

Klaus

For me it's a question of getting as many great players into the team as possible without compromising too much with the shape. Chamberlain has clear qualities that makes him more suitable for the playmaking role in the forward line than any other player at the club. He's so hard to dispossess. Just look at how he went through Milan when he earned that penalty. Gervinho would have lost the ball. Walcott wouldn't even have tried it.

y va marquer

Ricky1985 wrote:
Would there be anything wrong with having Wilshere, Chamberlain and Ramsey competing for two places? Pushing each other on. Even throw Arteta in there too, there are an awful lot of games in a season. It'd be flexible anyway, Chamberlain could move wide with ease when it's needed, as could Wilshere.

Cannot really see a downside to having players of that calibre competing for position.
It's exactly what we should be aiming for in terms of squad depth.
We've lived the consequences of having a starting XI that almost picks itself, in that there has been a considerable gap in quality between our first choice and who we have as an alternative.
Competition for places is a motivating factor that we've lacked for some time.

Klaus

You could still drop Chamberlain into midfield when someone gets injured, instead of pushing him forward to replace a lesser player. Strikes me as a much better option.

Ricky1985

I see what Klaus is saying though, Y. It would be crazy to have Chamberlain on the bench because he's primarily a centre midfielder and Walcott and/or Gervinho starting wide.

The problem is Gervinho and Walcott though, not using Chamberlain centrally.

FantasticMrFox

We have been extremely lucky Robin hasnt had any long term injuries this season, Podolski fits the bill perfectly as a backup. We have all been complaining about how shit Chamakh is. He will rotate with Gervinho on the wing and RVP upfront, I really dont see the downside to this.

Klaus

Ricky1985 wrote:
I see what Klaus is saying though, Y. It would be crazy to have Chamberlain on the bench because he's primarily a centre midfielder and Walcott and/or Gervinho starting wide.

Yes, exactly my point. Or having Ramsey on the bench for that matter so Chamberlain could start centrally, just because Gervinho and Walcott are already filling up the attacking positions. In my opinion that's a compromise to make room for more average players, not an attempt to try and fit the really good ones into the team.

Patters

The days of having a fixed XI that starts 90% of games are gone, I think. You can have an idea of your best line-up but you should adapt to exploit the weaknesses of the opposition (something I don't think Wenger does often enough). e.g. Against Tottenham, playing ball-carriers like Benayoun and Rosicky was the right choice because Tottenham went with 2 up top.

Everyone will get plenty of games. If Podolski comes, I don't imagine he'll have to spend too much time on the bench. We are never short of injuries.

mohan

We should not be stopping signing a quality player because he might not get games and hence will be unhappy. Everyone is going to get games here.

FantasticMrFox

"Honigstein: Podolski has lots of different weapons in his locker"- http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/hawksbee-and-jacobs/blog/2012-03-08/honigstein-podolski-has-lots-different-weapons-his-locker?

Ricky1985

Tim TJ Mackey wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:
Bottom line for me is I'd love Podolski as competition for Robin, and starting the occasional game out wide...

Seriously, mate? He's far, far better than that.

That doesn't ready how I meant it to. I see him as an 8 out of 10 signing out wide, and about as good as we could have signed as competition for Robin.

If he ends up playing 90% of his football for us out wide then I think we could have done a little better, but to have him in the squad as an option in both positions, especially for the money we've paid, is bloody fantastic.

The signing gets better the more you think about it. I've always respected the guy for Germany.

Ray

Am i the only one who thinks he looks like van persie and plays like him as well, add to that he has gone on a goalscoring spree for the past two seasons and is left footed and the similarities are scary. On top of that he was one of the germans greatest hope when he was a young player (robin was hollands).

lorddulaarsenal

SamDaGooner wrote:
Am i the only one who thinks he looks like van persie and plays like him as well, add to that he has gone on a goalscoring spree for the past two seasons and is left footed and the similarities are scary. On top of that he was one of the germans greatest hope when he was a young player (robin was hollands).

They are actually more similar than strikes the eye.

Both have a similar flat yet powerful shot.

As Gary Neville would say "It's bingo time!"

squallkid

If anyone can get the best out of this guy is Wenger.

Say what you want about Chamakh and Park but there's only so much you can do with crap forwards

Wenger has always been able to get the best out of strikers with talent (Henry, Eduardo, Van Persie, Adebayor (he hasn't hit the goalscoring heights he had here since he left), Wiltord, Anelka and Kanu.

The only manager who I would say is equal to Wenger in getting the best out of strikers is Ferguson.

Coombs

Klaus wrote:
Yes, exactly my point. Or having Ramsey on the bench for that matter so Chamberlain could start centrally, just because Gervinho and Walcott are already filling up the attacking positions. In my opinion that's a compromise to make room for more average players, not an attempt to try and fit the really good ones into the team.

Yea, get all the good ones in there and try to balance them as best as you can. Leave the less good ones on the bench. Makes sense.

tazmania

Hmm so this is actually happening. 10-11mil sounds like a steal but 100k for wages seems pretty steep.

Either way, he's a depth player and gives us a different option going forward. We're definitely going to be selling a forward though and hopefully it isn't Robin. Chamakh, Park and Arshavin can all leave. That would leave us with a spot for one final offensive player and hopefully it's someone top top top class but i doubt it.

This really isn't an outstanding signing but it's pretty good. I would've liked someone else but there's still lots of time for shit to happen.

y va marquer

100k is steep by our standards but, as has probably been mentioned already, I can't imagine he'd sign otherwise.

For the kind of money we spend this is a real coup.

USArsenal

honestly, the reason Van Persie plays so f*ing much this year is because we have no one (literally, no one) who can score goals in the striker position (Chamakh, Park, etc). Resting VP has not been an option. With someone like Podolski, who CAN score goals, we have the option of resting VP a bit more and keeping him fresh as the season wears on.

Rex

Klaus wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:
I see what Klaus is saying though, Y. It would be crazy to have Chamberlain on the bench because he's primarily a centre midfielder and Walcott and/or Gervinho starting wide.

Yes, exactly my point. Or having Ramsey on the bench for that matter so Chamberlain could start centrally, just because Gervinho and Walcott are already filling up the attacking positions. In my opinion that's a compromise to make room for more average players, not an attempt to try and fit the really good ones into the team.

No sane manager does that though. If you are good enough you force yourself into the starting XI and make yourself undroppable. Soon enough I imagine that all of AOC, Wilshere, Ramsey and Miyaichi will be in our best eleven, and that is regardless of whether we sign Podolski or not.

lorddulaarsenal

I don't get y's caution over chambo. The kid is a proper footballer

y va marquer

I think Chamberlain's superb. I'd start him every single time.
I think the point I'm trying to make is that his being as good as he is raises the bar and will force other players to lift their games too.
Ideally that is, it could also mean that whoever gets passed over sulks and sods off.
My caution is solely based on what happened with Fabregas but I guess Chamberlain is physically more robust.

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