I honestly believe that we will struggle to turn this around. If the second leg drags on at 0-0, can Arteta come up with a plan B? I personally am not sure.Originally Posted by IBK
I honestly believe that we will struggle to turn this around. If the second leg drags on at 0-0, can Arteta come up with a plan B? I personally am not sure.
Possibly not, but our squad is so thin I for once have some sympathy with him regarding lack of options, we need to clear out some crap and get better quality players in the summer
For various reasons (quite a few to do with being injured so often) ESR, Partey, Nelson, Suarez, Elneny, Zin, Tomi, Eddie all need to go, there's probably a few more I'm missing too
Who is Suarez?
I don’t think we want to go overboard. The problem is getting money for these players.
I got 25 million for Reiss Nelson from Real Madrid in FM but in the real world that’s not happening. Same with ESR who is constantly injured.
I think Elneny and Jorginho will go (his 18 month contract will be up and he will choose to go back to Italy) as will Partey. Zinchenko is only being in sold in your wet dreams. Eddie? Possible a team like Bournemouth or Palace will snaffle him up but we sure as hell aren’t getting our 40 million asking price.
I think we are likely to try to bring in Zubimendi, possibly Onana from Everton (depending on whether they avoid the drop), a right winger and a striker.
Nelson is talented and home-grown, there's no way a team like Palace or suchlike wouldn't pay at least £25 for him and also pay more than that for Eddie IMO.
On Zin, I'm giving my own opinion so whether or not Arteta would sell him is irrelevant - obvs i would have sold him even before it became clear he's only ever fit for half a season (tbh that's a blessing IMO) but that just takes away any (however debatable) benefit of having him in the squad
Jorg will stay IMO, he brings a lot to the team and has another season at least in him, it would be very difficult to find a repalcemnt with that kind of quality and experience
I hope Jorginho stays. He is an important asset to the team in games where we need control in MF, and is an experienced on pitch 'manager' in a callow team.
Aside from fitness issues, I have been surprised by the antipathy to Zinchenko. IMO he is an important weapon for us when we need to face teams who will not come out and play against us. We could sorely have done with him on Wednesday night, as we struggled badly to break down Porto's organised shape. The thing is that he is not suited to every game - both because of his unavailability and his defensive lapses (albeit that I think the latter have been overblown).
I think what Arteta needs to look at going forwards is using both Jesus and Zin as part time players rather than nailed on starters. This is how Pep used both of them. Arteta's problem has been relying on both as ever presents, but he has had success in adapting to their unavaliablity, and we need to build on this, rather than getting rid. Timber was meant to address the LB position. I am certain that we will sign a number 9 in the Summer - the intention to provide more reliable goal scoring than Jesus, who can then be used to play accross the front 3 when needed.
So neither should be sold if we are going to progress.
If we do bring in a striker, then there's not much point in keeping Eddie. Trossard and Havertz can provide alternative 2/3rd choice options that fit into the team better than Eddie does.
Nelson is a conundrum. He doesn't look up to the level of our team, but he hasn't really been given the opportunity. But if the manager doesn't fancy him, then I agree with you that there will be a market for him (as well as Nketiah).
Of the 3 (includign ESR) I would be inclined to keep Emile rather than the other 2 to deal with the home grown talent issue - as I think at this stage his star has fallen lower that his Hale End counterparts.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
I agree with most of this although unsurprisingly i disagree Zin's defensive lapses are overblown - he's a disaster as an LB, admittedly partly because the largely-unnecessary inverted role means he basically abandons the position anyway, but at least once a game he gives the ball away in very dangerous positions and it hsa cost us on numerious occasions - e.g. the home Fulham game this season - imagine how the table would look if he hadn't dropped us those two points
in general he also slows our game down by too often putting his foot on the ball and/or passing sideways - IMO he gets too much praise for the one or two times he actually remembers to pass the ball forward in any given game
I genuinely think one of the reasons we have - prior to Porto - been doing so well lately is the abseince of the way Zin slows things down - we're much quicker in transition without him, plus i think Kiwior is growing into the team really well and proving positive in both defence and attack
I'd love to see an analysis of how many points we've got with him as opposed to without him - i did one last season at some point so might try to do that again - I'm willing to bet that we've gained more points when he's not played
With Nelson I think you might have had a point 3-4 years ago but even with Joe Willock we only got 20 odd million after he’d been Newcastle’s star performer on loan there
The likelihood is to get what you think we should be getting for him will necessitate a similar scenario. Now I see no reason why that wouldn’t happen, but given what has happened already to Everton, what could happen to Forest etc….clubs are just not going to spend beyond their means.
I’m well aware of the issue you have with Zinchenko, my feeling is I don’t feel as strongly as I did a year ago especially as he’s become more of a squad option….and I think of all our left back options he’s the one that operates the best with Martinelli in my view.
I’m also not keen to spend any more money on defenders. Long term Timber, Zinchenko, White, Tomi, Kiwior, Saliba and Gabriel is more than adequate.
Agree with IBK that buying a striker means we have no further use for Eddie.
Jorginho has done well since he’s been with us, but I’m not keen on keeping any outfield player past the age he is now especially not in central midfield. Plus I’d actually like to have a midfielder who is more comfortable in possession when not given time on the ball - neither he nor Rice nor Partey fit that description. This is why I wanted Caicedo so much
Although that comes with the Caveat that Caicedo has been notorious for giving the ball away this season
That plus its academic anyway we won’t be signing him unless my dream comes true and Chelsea go into liquidation (which isn’t going to happen either)
I’d like to see Charlie Patino make the squad next season too
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