I don't think this is his first interview, I remember seeing him once before and thinking that he's learning English well. You can tell he's very quick on the uptake. And loved his last line! "Yeah I'm alright. Alright to play Thursday". That's the way to take away Willian's oxygen! Even if we all know Mikel most likely has other plans.
Nicely said. Nice positivity. Not dissing Laca for being only good but not elite. Not dissing Arteta for making a surprising perhaps risky call to give Xhaka his debut start as a LB. Not dissing Partey for his occasionally sloppiness. p.s. I'll conveniently gloss over the fact that Sheffield are quite sub-standard opposition. But frankly it was nowhere near a foregone conclusion that we could beat them 3-0.
It takes a lot for me to get hyper critical. As far as Laca goes I think I like the way the team functions with him as opposed to Auba. My ideal starting attack as of right now is: -----------Laca--------- ESR-Odegaard-Saka
I hear you. And written down it looks a little like a pyramid, one whose foundation is made up of 3 quick talented young dudes serving the aging, slowing, but still just about lethal enough veteran.
I like the way he links the attack with his hold up and 1-2s and I think he does that better than Auba can
My criticism of Laca isn't that he sucks. Arsenal as a club have clearly underachieved this season. Some players have performed above expectations (ESR, Odegaard), some below expectations (Willian, Bellerin, Ceballos, Auba). Some have been injured a lot (Tierney, Partey, Martinelli). Some are who we thought they are and that's fine as long as they are mostly backups (Holding, Mari, Elneny). Laca, along with Xhaka, for me falls into the category of players who are performing fine, maybe even better than they have in years past, maybe as well as can be expected from them, but who aren't good enough for a side with top 4 aspirations. Leno is kind of in that category as well. I think you can finish top 4 if you surround those 3 with 8 other really good players plus a solid bench, but they are all 27, 28, 29 and not getting better.
Nice post. With one glaring omission... Bukayo Sako. p.s. I'm OK with retaining Leno, but I'd probably rather see Laca & Xhaka shipped off... as long was we can improve on them, and that's a pretty big if considering our finances.
it's a triumph of low expectations We used to have 9's who could put up 20+ goals per season like Henry, Ade, RvP, Giroud, even Alexis The reason we had to buy Auba is because Laca wasn't good enough. Now we are in the stupid situation of having awarded a massive contract to Auba, but he doesn't fit how we play....
Here's The Breakdown of this match: https://www.arsenal.com/news/how-slick-combinations-cut-through-blades Maybe not the most scintillating work by Clarke, but three things stood out a bit: How the average position map shows 2 very distinct pairs of interchanging forwards (Laca+Gabi on left, Saka+Pepe on right) something that I assume was one of Arteta's creative design aspects for this game That turn by Partey then the thruball assist for the 3rd goal was absolutely exquisite How sharp Laca was, especially with his finishing. A deserved MOTM. And we can only pray it continues tomorrow, since Auba's been a shadow of his former self