Or Torreira, Guendouzi, Pepe, Saliba, and Sokratis. There seems to be a common theme here, with the exceptions of Tierney, Luiz, and Ceballos, at least initially, he doesn’t seem to rate signings made under the Emery regime.
In addition to being a greater offensive threat than Cedric, I’m pretty sure Saka is a better defender too.
Could be. Saka wasn't half bad at LB a year or two ago. But I always thought we were wasting him there. And Cedric isn't too shabby at LB, i.e. when he became emergency deputy when Tierney went down. Don't you think that Saka provides a net greater offensive force playing in the front line rather the back line? I do.
I thought Mari was really poor yesterday. I posted my question after he and Holding left Moreno with that wide open shot that Leno saved. I feel like a lot of the "Mari is good" talk, not unlike the "Cedric is good" talk, has been built on good performances against bad opponents. It's not that hard to look good against Sheff United. And the larger point is like you said, I'd rather see the guy who is 5 years younger working through his issues. Maybe, if like @NorthBank said, Arteta likes the Gabriel/Luiz pairing, we could see that duo next week if Luiz is healthy.
But as far as we know, Emery had very little involvement in the transfer side of things. It's been widely reported he wanted Zaha and club chose Pepe instead. So it's really the Sven/Raul regime. And I think that is in the back of Arteta's mind. I don't think he has any intention of being just the "head coach" and he wants to have as much input as possible on transfers. Favoring his signings while implying that the Sven/Raul signings were bad bolsters his argument. I don't think it dictates all his decisions, like Tierney is so good he would be dumb not to play him. But I think it matters when it comes to his giving Willian as many appearances as possible.
If you're right, isn't Arteta being a bit immature or spoiled about which players he's willing to invest time into? You don't always get to work with players that you got to choose yourself. Not to mention that sometimes the player you did get to choose, doesn't work out. And you need to cut your losses somehow. We all know who I'm thinking of.
But Torreira and Guendouzi aren’t really any good, and Sokratis is understandable for various reasons between playing style, strengths and weaknesses, and career phase. The Pepe thing is weird, and the handling of Saliba is an absolute fiasco. But I really don’t think there’s any evidence of a pattern with regards to ‘Emery signings’.
It’s a question not between Saka at left back or at right wing, but of Saka at left back plus Pepe at right wing versus Cedric and Saka. Saka is a giant upgrade at left back both offensively and defensively, and Pepe is much less of a downgrade at right wing than Cedric is at left back.
He did score 10 first team goals in all competitions last season as an 18 year old. He may already be near his ceiling or his ceiling may be much higher. I suspect the latter is the case, but we won’t really know unless he plays more, I’d rather Arteta play him than Nketiah or Willian.
honestly, that is good news. almost every single positive/good personnel decisions arteta has made have been forced on him, whether it's keeping holding instead of loaning him or actually playing smith-rowe instead of trudging out willian repeatedly and hoping for a different result.
re: guendouzi . . . i mean, that narrative keeps getting trotted out as the magic bullet for the case that arteta has something against people was acquired under emery/sanllehi regime. per transfermarkt: he was not used on matchday 19 right after arteta started. he then participated in 3 consecutive games before picking up a DNP CD against sheffield united. he then returns for the next 2 league game and FA cup game. he was left out of the squad entirely against newcastle after being a douchenozzle and fighting with sokratis in dubai. he then plays in the next 3 of 4 league games, 1 of 2 europa league game, and the 1 FA cup game we had, the last being That One Brighton Game. that's a pretty damn busy schedule for someone "arteta does not rate because he was acquired by sanllehi under emery". torreira, on the other hand, never had a chance to prove himself.
they wanted zaha but he'd sign his new deal so crystal palace had zero pressure to sell and was not budging off 9-figures.
he would not be "wasted" there because he would not be sitting back and just defend. if xhaka was back in midfield while saka is at left-back, xhaka would be able to do the same thing he did last year and slot back to protect that space while saka operates closer to a wingback and provided overlap on the attack. if smith-rowe was on the left: they have amazing chemistry and smith-rowe knows how to create space for saka to overlap. if aubameyang was on the left: saka provides us with actual width left the left because aubameyang cuts inside 99% of the time. if mercury was in retrograde and martinelli was actually allowed to sniff the pitch: see above. if, heaven forfend, willian was on the left: saka would provide the actual running while willian stays stationary. if pepe was on the left: the only one out left who *might* cause an actual clash in style is pepe. and, frankly (without insulting pepe), saka is such a damn intelligent player that he would find the space where pepe was not. and i would fully trust partey to slide over to protect the back 4 in place of xhaka because, from what i've seen, that dude is an intelligent player in addition to having the physical capability of doing it.
Maria would be fine with a quicker cb as is has height and good reading as well as a good passing range Gabriel is better, so I see the future as gab and sal (hopefully)
Are you saying that fullbacks don't just sit back and defend all the time? Really? Seriously, I still think that overall we benefit more from having Saka stationed at forward RW rather than at LB. Which is why I wrote "net greater offensive force". But we can agree to disagree. And it'll certainly be interesting to see if Arteta is thinking more like you or me. Or something else entirely.
One more in our corner, Martin Keown wants Saka at left back. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...-Arteta-lucky-job-gamble-Villarreal-loss.html
i sure am. because, apparently, playing saka at left-back would be "wasting him" there according to some people. or do you have a different definition of "wasting" than i do? right. and, as @Tonerl said above, it is not simply question of saka @ LB vs saka @ RW in a vacuum. if it were, then, duh, i would prefer saka @ RW. it is whether saka @ LB + pepe @ RW is better or worse - oh, sorry: "net greater offensive force" - than cedric @ LB + saka @ RW. in fact, i would even add onto THAT: cedric @ LB + whoever is @ LW. of the options there, aubameyang, martinelli, and willian @ LW + cedric @ LB means we have zero width wide left and LW + LB fight for the same space cutting in. smith-rowe *could* do it in a pinch but he's better at finding gaps and spaces which, again, does not necessarily give us width. and that's just the "net greater offensive force". arteta's thinking is closer to, say, "david luiz and willian have been really good for us. i need to see how they fit into my 2021-22 plan. how can i be rid of these martinelli and saliba problems."
Considering how much Tierney makes our offense tick, there's a decent chance Saka at LB would work well. He'd get a lot of time on the ball, perhaps impact like TAA does (I guess, more like did).
It was a joke in case you didn't notice. Thus the winkie emoji employed. Look we're not going to agree. I think we get more out of Saka offensively if we play him in the front line and he doesn't have to do any rear guard action. And yes that means I think we're wasting some of his offensive contribution by playing him at LB. I'm not saying he won't be an offensive factor at LB, just less so. Enough has been written about this already. Let's see what happens Thursday.