Mustafi plays like he's 5'4, 135 lbs. Lets players easily past him without the slightest of trouble. Always has his arm up in the air asking for offsides. He is allergic to any type of battle, any type of contact. Dude just defend!!
Its sad that we haven't been able to play our 3 best cbs together. Papa, Koz and Holding are so reliable in the game. I get UE gambling on Mustafi being a "vet" but I would have left the kid on and let Koz run the back four. Iwobi doing Iwobi things, I don't think he can be the primary creative force but he is definitely grown into a mature member of the team. Wish he had a little more confidence in his finishing though.
Is Xhaka injured? Why didn’t he dress if LT was nursing something or even start. He didn’t play as much as LT in TH.
Yes. He played our previous match @NAPOLI, but came off after 60'. Now he's listed with a hip injury in Arsenal Team News.
Me too but in addition to the "vet" factor, I think Mavropanos sitting on a yellow probably factored in as well. With Ramsey leaving, do you think Iwobi could be transformed in to more of an 8? I've heard various Arsenal Twitterati speculate about it.
I see Arseblog now wrote about that as well and Xhaka injured But I agree with their analysis that in which case a midfielder like Mhki or Iwobi was needed
I don't mind Ramsey leaving. Him being injured again just when we need him is typical, and he hasn't solved Arsenal's away issues
And Blogs also noted that he guessed Emery was gambling that he could get away with the hair-boy-midfield at home. But yeah, the gamble failed. He remedied it at halftime, the remedy immediately worked, and then Mustafi decided it was a great time to audition for some sort of improv comedy troupe.
His statsbomb radars scream that he is a #8. But we gonna have to be honest, Emery isn't an adventurous manager. He is risk-averse unless his back is against the wall. We wont see AMN nor Iwobi as a CM unless there is a serious crisis.
Iwobi's best position is probably on the left in a 4-2-3-1, or on the left in a 3-4-2-1. Mustafi's best position is ammunition for the cannon.
Emery is absolutely risk-averse, and I agree there's little chance we'll see Iwobi as an 8 this season. But I'm curious as to whether it's something they toy with over the off-season. I like him a lot and I think he has improved this season, but all the "Sterling-only-recently-became-a-good-finisher" examples aside, I'm not convinced he's ever going to develop the end-product that his current position really requires.
Unless someone else is about to create the new match thread, I will do it shortly. PM me if you're already doing it and I'll skip it. Edit: I just wrote it. I'll post it after I eat dinner.
This is essentially the same point I was trying to make about Arsenal's performance at Napoli and Aiden Gibson at the Short Fuse looks like he agrees. https://theshortfuse.sbnation.com/2019/4/22/18511642/arsenal-crystal-palace-premier-league-analysis