Arsenal, Pt. X: Boom-Xhaka-Laca!

[SalvadorsDeli]

On 10/1/2018 at 10:23 AM, rcon14 said:

If City wanted Ramsey for a significant amount, I would have been fine moving him to City. Arsenal are not competing with City in the next couple years (the years in which Ramsey would be productive), so it's not really like it's working against you.

It was apparently Liverpool that made the Ramsey bid this summer. Think Ramsey would either be a star in Klopp's system or have to retire from overworking his hamstrings so much. 

In general I agree about Ramsey, and I think now that it's clear he's on his way out, it's incumbent on Emery to bench him and move Ozil into the #10 role. Ramsey just isn't a box-to-box midfielder anymore - he doesn't seem to want to play that role even when he does play there, and his skillset isn't in recycling possession and dictating the tempo of the game as it needs to be particularly in Emery's team, which explains why Xhaka/Torreira/Guendhozi are all preferred over him in those roles. 

Ramsey's an attacking player, an often dynamic one, but the only options are either to play him as the 10 or on the wings. Ozil is ineffective on the wing but is better than Ramsey in the 10 role, and he's on a long term contract with the club, and while Ramsey has played as a tucked-in wide attacking midfielder before, we can't play him there when we already don't have a natural winger playing opposite him. Really need either MIkhi or Iwobi to start, on the right with Ozil at the 10, and hopefully bring in a true winger like Pavon in January. 

[rcon14]

5 hours ago, BaltimoreTerp said:

It was apparently Liverpool that made the Ramsey bid this summer. Think Ramsey would either be a star in Klopp's system or have to retire from overworking his hamstrings so much. 

In general I agree about Ramsey, and I think now that it's clear he's on his way out, it's incumbent on Emery to bench him and move Ozil into the #10 role. Ramsey just isn't a box-to-box midfielder anymore - he doesn't seem to want to play that role even when he does play there, and his skillset isn't in recycling possession and dictating the tempo of the game as it needs to be particularly in Emery's team, which explains why Xhaka/Torreira/Guendhozi are all preferred over him in those roles. 

Ramsey's an attacking player, an often dynamic one, but the only options are either to play him as the 10 or on the wings. Ozil is ineffective on the wing but is better than Ramsey in the 10 role, and he's on a long term contract with the club, and while Ramsey has played as a tucked-in wide attacking midfielder before, we can't play him there when we already don't have a natural winger playing opposite him. Really need either MIkhi or Iwobi to start, on the right with Ozil at the 10, and hopefully bring in a true winger like Pavon in January. 

I'm with you on basically the entirety of this post. It'll be interesting to see who Arsenal are linked to in the January window. I wonder if any of the PL clubs would try an Alexis with Ramsey to try and get him for the stretch run and CL knockout stages. The squad needs right now are certainly not short (left-back, center-back, winger) and the 60M we spent so we could have another striker (and one that was moving into post-peak) would be kind of nice to have right now.

[Dr LBC]

7 hours ago, BaltimoreTerp said:

It was apparently Liverpool that made the Ramsey bid this summer. Think Ramsey would either be a star in Klopp's system or have to retire from overworking his hamstrings so much. 

In general I agree about Ramsey, and I think now that it's clear he's on his way out, it's incumbent on Emery to bench him and move Ozil into the #10 role. Ramsey just isn't a box-to-box midfielder anymore - he doesn't seem to want to play that role even when he does play there, and his skillset isn't in recycling possession and dictating the tempo of the game as it needs to be particularly in Emery's team, which explains why Xhaka/Torreira/Guendhozi are all preferred over him in those roles. 

Ramsey's an attacking player, an often dynamic one, but the only options are either to play him as the 10 or on the wings. Ozil is ineffective on the wing but is better than Ramsey in the 10 role, and he's on a long term contract with the club, and while Ramsey has played as a tucked-in wide attacking midfielder before, we can't play him there when we already don't have a natural winger playing opposite him. Really need either MIkhi or Iwobi to start, on the right with Ozil at the 10, and hopefully bring in a true winger like Pavon in January. 

It would be one thing if his play was screaming that he needed to be kept in the side, but it's not.  Iwobi is outplaying him.  Welbeck is outplaying him.  Guendouzi is at least on-par with him in terms of level of play.  Mkhitaryan is outplaying him.  Realistically the only midfielder he's put in clearly superior shifts to is Elneny; I'd say he's been about par with Xhaka (not nearly as bad as people make him out to be, but the bright spots aren't as bright and don't come as often as you'd like).  Thing is that Xhaka's ill-fits have been less noticeable when partnered by Torreira, whereas Ramsey's are (because Ramsey fights the concept of a double pivot constantly and - if we're being honest - has really always done that, he was just covering a ton of ground with work rate that people were willing to forgive his utter lack of discipline and tactic.

The may be a little young for the taste of most who would want someone clearly in their prime brought in, but I've been keeping tabs and liking what I'm seeing from Jordi Mboula and Ferran Torres, too.  (I think we'd benefit from bolstering the height on our wings as well)

[khodder]

The one thing I've noticed so far this year is that the guys seem to be enjoying their football again, the celebrations, the team play, I'm liking what I'm seeing from Unai so far.

We will see where it gets us vs the bigger teams soon, but I'm happier than I've been as an Arsenal fan for a while.

[rcon14]

Arsenal aren't actually that good:

https://statsbomb.com/2018/10/arsenal-arent-this-good-nor-are-dortmund-heres-why/

[SalvadorsDeli]

Ozil just unplayable tonight. What a treat he is when he's on. 

[SalvadorsDeli]

Torreira is just so, so good. I had high expectations for him but he's really blown even those out of the water; he's just an unbelievable all-around midfielder who is very tangibly making players around him better - particularly Xhaka but also the backline as well with the shielding/protection he provides. 

Best part about him though is that he isn't just some destroyer, he's genuinely good with the ball at his feet too and can pick out some really tasty passes in addition to all of the energy/support he provides defensively. Getting him for £26.4m was one of the bargains of the summer, I wouldn't sell him for double that now. 

 

Edited November 5, 2018 by BaltimoreTerp

[NVRamsFan]

That didn’t look good for Welbz, feel bad for our guy he just has no luck with injuries.

[kempus]

How did Arsenal allow themselves to get into such a mess? Their back line is so slow and old. The Ozil situation is also beyond belief. Serious changes need to be made in the summer.

[rcon14]

1 hour ago, kempus said:

How did Arsenal allow themselves to get into such a mess? Their back line is so slow and old. The Ozil situation is also beyond belief. Serious changes need to be made in the summer.

Terrible management of pretty much everything since the 15-16 season. Letting Ozil and Rambo's contract run down, letting Alexis leave for pennies on the dollar, not supporting the midfield until this summer, not adding any real wide talent when it was desperately needed, and then whiffing at CB with Mustafi. And then Unai Emery is also probably not very good.

[Dr LBC]

14 hours ago, rcon14 said:

Terrible management of pretty much everything since the 15-16 season. Letting Ozil and Rambo's contract run down, letting Alexis leave for pennies on the dollar, not supporting the midfield until this summer, not adding any real wide talent when it was desperately needed, and then whiffing at CB with Mustafi. And then Unai Emery is also probably not very good.

Emery is fine.  This was never going to a single-year rebuild - particularly given the fact that with Kroenke as an owner we're never going to be the club that just throws gobs of cash at the problem or goes into debt to fix it.  We had our worst (finish on the table and total in points) season in 20 years last year - and, contrary to what some of the WOB's would have contended, it wasn't just a case of subbing out the manager (considering all the pots that Arsene had his thumb in).  Yeah, we finished 6th, but we finished 6th on a point total that in many other years would have been monumentally closer to 10th than the Top 3.

I'm not saying that emery is immune from criticism, particularly in his tactics, but I don't fault him for not bending his tactics to accommodate players that he and Sanllehi don't see in the long-term future of the club.  Let me put it as bluntly as a can and take it from someone who played at the NCAA D1 level for the sport, you can't implement a pressing system overnight, you can't even do it over a single season, if they haven't come from a system (either at the professional or international level) where some level of pressing is already implemented, it's not something that established internationals in their primes flow naturally toward.  Then consider the culture shock that comes from being an establish international that went from the laissez-faire "you do you and play your natural game" (basically... coddling) approach that Arsene implemented to this more regimented expectation of everyone has a job to do and other people's jobs getting done are dependent on you doing yours effectively.  Reality is that you need roughly 40-50% roster turnover before that takes effect, particularly when your roster is constructed of European (Germans especially, pressing it antithetic to their national side game) internationals who have been drilled in a specific style of play since youth.  There's a reason the South American(s), French, and Spanish players in the side take more readily to the system - it's closer to what's largely been pushed by their national sides for the past couple generations.

And part of this, which has almost certain made an additional pothole to overcome, sounds like it's the big reason (per an Ornstein interview) why there was a falling out between Sanllehi and Mislintat.  Mislintat was pressing for a manager/coach that wasn't Spanish, because it didn't fit the type of players he typically scouted but also because he believed it would get him frozen out of the Technical Director job as a result.  Lo and behold the two candidates that progressed the furthest in the hiring process were Spanish.  Mind you, by the time Emery was hired we'd already bought players so these weren't exactly players he would have preferred if he were able to provide an opinion (cases in point: Lichsteiner and Sokratis).  At this point my biggest point to stress in my hopes is that we identify and hire this Technical Director position we're seeking to fill before season's end (or at least have it lined up to where if they're currently in that position elsewhere, they shift over as soon as the season ends and directly into our offseason).  There's been some rumblings and scuttlebutt that Monchi may be the guy (he's apparently not all that satisfied at Roma and he has familiarity with Emery), which would be ideal considering the financial restraints we all know we're going to have to endure (granted, we're Arsenal, so until I actually see a presser with the man, I won't be convinced that the club won't actually hire a literal Monchichi instead of Monchi).

But we've got players that, due to Arsene's loyalty to his own players and (often misplaced) faith in them to turn the corner, are on contracts they're probably aware they're not going to get offered equivalent elsewhere unless they're coming in on a free (Juve would in no way, shape, or form be paying Ramsey 400k a week like they're set to if they also had to pay a transfer fee for him).  This isn't American sports (most of them at least) where you can just buy out a contract or send a player packing for a modest dead-money cap-hit.  The only way we're going to get some of these contracts off the books, unless the players are amenable to going to China or Turkey, is to allow them to simply run out.

The Mustafi thing, was yeah... a missed shot.  But that tends to be what happens when you take a player who is a more natural fullback (he sure as hell tackles like a fullback as opposed to a centerback - hence the love of going to ground) and playing them as the last line of defense at centerback.  That's been since compounded by the injuries to Holding and then Sokatris (who isn't ideal for the system but is at least natural CB) and then Bellerin, wherein at least Mustafi could have been deployed as a RB (even though he's clearly more fullback than the wingback Emery would seem to prefer).  At the very least, the brain trust had the good sense to extend him last summer so that we can at least get fee for him this summer (there are still a number of sides in Spain, Germany, and Italy that play systems wherein he'd be deployed more naturally).

It's a catch 22 ultimately.  You have the players that the Director and Coach clearly see a future in like Holding, Torreira, Lacazette (most likely), Guendouzi (though he was plunged into the fire quicker than was ideal), and I'd also bet that Smith-Rowe and Willock are in that number who need to acclimate to playing in the preferred style and system, but if you have to tool the system to accommodate players who aren't in the club's long-term future because they can't or refuse to adapt their games to play in the preferred system, you're doing a disservice to the development of the guys you intend to keep within said system.

The Ozil situation is what it is right now unfortunately.  He won't adapt his game to fit the style that Emery wants to play (this is part of why, if you look at Emery's track record, he's preferred worker bees to out-and-out "international stars") and may feel he shouldn't have to.  T hey hoped that by giving him the number 10, putting the arm around him after the whole fallout with the German football association, and making him one of several captains for the side would have lit a fire under him to get him to be willing to adapt; it doesn't appear that worked.  Emery doesn't want him.  Sanllehi doesn't want him.  (from what I've heard there were members of the brain trust - read: Sanllehi - that didn't just feel that Ozil shouldn't have been given that contract extension, they didn't feel he should have been given an extension period and just sold on.)  But he was the apple of Wenger's eye and the principal figure to be marketed (other than Wenger) at the club for Ivan, and so he was given that monstrosity of a contract that tied him like one of those old school ankle shackles with the cannonball on the other end to the club until/unless he decided he wanted to leave prematurely.  So the strategy appears to be that Emery's trying to make him want to leave.

[ElReyDeLosReyes]

Ozil is not the same after the 2018 WC.

[Dr LBC]

Calling it now, Santi's going to have a glorious return to the Emirates and it's going to be what results in us getting ousted from Europa.  Can't say what round it's going to happen in, but it's going to happen.

[PurpleLion]

Arsenal seems to have really given up on the season.

[Dr LBC]

7 hours ago, PurpleLion said:

Arsenal seems to have really given up on the season.

On the road, yes.  They're in their own heads (I think losing the home win-streak actually messed with their heads more than the road losses) and, let's be real, a majority of this side is psychologically weak after years of being coddled by Wenger.

If Chelsea beat Watford, the best bet may just be to write off the league (they won't because of the money difference involved in finishing 5th as opposed to 6th), start kids the rest of the way out, and save the bodies/health for Europa.  Ramsey was a talisman, and it should be this way but it appears losing him dealt the team a mental blow it hasn't been able to overcome.