Goonersworld

Nico Williams (not the Forest one) as soon as possible for me. Not liking the reports around the CPS today (sorry if wrong Mods and please delete) so would try Zubimendi as well. I know this is a bit football manager but that's what I would try for. I watched the game last night and thought it would be great 'housery' if we went in with £90 million for Isaak just to unsettle him before the game.

Also think another issue we’re facing is we don’t have money!

Even a striker wouldn't be enough if the midfield remains as flat as it has been this season. Mental that we only seem to have one attacking midfielder.

It is difficult to keep two attacking midfielders of equal caliber, because,none would like to sit out for long or not be the attacking focus.
Nwaneri could be considered a junior partner to Odegaard in this department for a while, but, if he really makes major strides , then if you'll end up choosing one or the other.
As for a no. 8 , who is equally adept at attacking and defending, and switches on or off at ease, is another rare commodity. We have Merino, Rice played often as no.8, and maybe Jorginho might fulfill the requirements ( he's coming short strength wise ... maybe the end of the line for him here), but none have really excelled there.
Finding proper balance in attack and defense simultaneously is a difficult task. Wenger couldn't do it, in later years ,put more emphasis on attack, and left us vulnerable at the back.
Arteta is trying to juggle, and probably has taken the safety first approach, which has hampered the attack, especially, in a season marred by injuries to critical players.
Lately the coordination between the midfield, full backs and forwards have been breaking down due to constant changes owing to injuries/ sickness, but, even then, we've been creating chances ( even w/ Newcastle we had 5 clear cut chances, some which should have been buried) but are inconsistent in execution on regular basis. Played 4- 5 decent games against WH, Palace and Brentford, but threw in draws and defeats against Everton, Newcastle in between. Pretty frustrating.
No easy solution ( other than buying mid season, don't know the kind of budget we've and what's actually available) unless the injury bug goes away and we can get a run going.

Angelito wrote:

Urgh

The only spin is waiting for the summer - which I think many would understand

We've seen first hand the issue of signing stop gap signings before

Frustrating nonetheless. Essentially throwing the towel in this season

alexafc12 wrote:

Angelito wrote:

Urgh

The only spin is waiting for the summer - which I think many would understand

We've seen first hand the issue of signing stop gap signings before

Frustrating nonetheless. Essentially throwing the towel in this season

Sounds about right.

ag6789 wrote:It is difficult to keep two attacking midfielders of equal caliber, because,none would like to sit out for long or not be the attacking focus.
Nwaneri could be considered a junior partner to Odegaard in this department for a while, but, if he really makes major strides , then if you'll end up choosing one or the other.
As for a no. 8 , who is equally adept at attacking and defending, and switches on or off at ease, is another rare commodity. We have Merino, Rice played often as no.8, and maybe Jorginho might fulfill the requirements ( he's coming short strength wise ... maybe the end of the line for him here), but none have really excelled there.
Finding proper balance in attack and defense simultaneously is a difficult task. Wenger couldn't do it, in later years ,put more emphasis on attack, and left us vulnerable at the back.
Arteta is trying to juggle, and probably has taken the safety first approach, which has hampered the attack, especially, in a season marred by injuries to critical players.
Lately the coordination between the midfield, full backs and forwards have been breaking down due to constant changes owing to injuries/ sickness, but, even then, we've been creating chances ( even w/ Newcastle we had 5 clear cut chances, some which should have been buried) but are inconsistent in execution on regular basis. Played 4- 5 decent games against WH, Palace and Brentford, but threw in draws and defeats against Everton, Newcastle in between. Pretty frustrating.
No easy solution ( other than buying mid season, don't know the kind of budget we've and what's actually available) unless the injury bug goes away and we can get a run going.

This is only an issue if you only ever play one attacking midfielder (ie. are constantly in negative or pragmatic mode). If you actually play expansive football against lesser teams that you need to break down, it's feasible you'd play two attacking midfielders and suddenly the problem allieviates.

Cry me a river. If it's so hard to sign forwards why did we let Auba and Laca go for free? Why did we sell ESR and Eddie for cheap. Why did we have to loan Nelson? And how have other clubs bought players like Haaland, Isak, Nunez, Jota, Wilson, Hojlund during the time we've been shopping for Jesus and Havertz?

swipe right wrote:Cry me a river. If it's so hard to sign forwards why did we let Auba and Laca go for free? Why did we sell ESR and Eddie for cheap. Why did we have to loan Nelson? And how have other clubs bought players like Haaland, Isak, Nunez, Jota, Wilson, Hojlund during the time we've been shopping for Jesus and Havertz?

We have the albatross twins Jezus and Havertz that have f***ked up the wage structure while delivering far less than Laca and Auba.

It's not all on them, though. Arteta has put everybody on £200k or more - Rice, Ode, Saka, Saliba, Martinelli. Even Ben White, who was already on a fairly high £120k pw when he signed.

Ag6789, a club the size of Arsenal should not have a problem having 2 or 3 attacking/creative midfielders, all the big clubs have multiple creative midfielders of a good calibre

alexafc12 wrote:

Angelito wrote:

Urgh

The only spin is waiting for the summer - which I think many would understand

We've seen first hand the issue of signing stop gap signings before

Frustrating nonetheless. Essentially throwing the towel in this season

Meh, if we hadn't signed half the shit players we have signed in the summer under Arteta I would be more inclined to agree with you. But the dross count is higher than the decent count, we are more miss than hit under Arteta for signings.

theHotHead wrote:Ag6789, a club the size of Arsenal should not have a problem having 2 or 3 attacking/creative midfielders, all the big clubs have multiple creative midfielders of a good calibre

Our main issue right now is that we don't have ENOUGH talent. I'd much rather our issue be that we have too much talent.

theHotHead wrote:Ag6789, a club the size of Arsenal should not have a problem having 2 or 3 attacking/creative midfielders, all the big clubs have multiple creative midfielders of a good calibre

The guys a knob. How many fcking left backs and keepers have we loaded up on?

Sancho contract expires in summer. Throw United some change and bring him back to England.