theHotHead wrote:Goonerz wrote:theHotHead wrote:Goonerz wrote:theHotHead wrote:.
Are you saying you didn't think he was a world class player for Athletico Madrid ?
Who in your opinion is a world class box to box CM ?
I never thought of him in those terms. I always thought he was a very good decent player at AT Madrid.
I thought he was just your typical stable midfielder that got a job done. To me he is a Alex Song level of talent.
I might be very closed off or have very high standards due to the type of players I grew up watching from the 1990’s to early 2000’s.
I grew up watching the likes of:
Vieira, Yaya Toure, Gerrard, Lampard, So my basis of a world class Box to Box midfielder has to somewhat mirror players in this mould etc. Defensive mids like Makelele, Gilberto, Essien, even pitbull (Gattuso) lol.
Grew up on midfielders likes of Berkamp, Zidane, Zola, Nedved, Seedorf, Figo, Ronaldinho, Xavi, Iniesta, Scholes, Pirlo, Riquelme, Totti, Del Piero etc. So anytime I hear anyone throwing around the label “World class” for any midfield player in recent years my brain automatically starts comparing and contrasting that particular midfield player with a particular player I have listed above. They are my template.
I grew up watching strikers like “the Brazillian Ronaldo, Henry, RVP, Raul, Van Nistelrooy, Cantana, Drogba, Ibrahimovic, Eto’o, David Villa, Alan Shearer etc. So anytime someone throws about the term World class striker my brain starts comparing them to those strikers.
Same with defenders or keepers. I compare them to those of yesteryears.
One has got to have a more objective foundation to base their claims on.
Again, from the short time Partey has been at Arsenal i am not convinced yet whatsoever. He can’t pass, can’t shoot, can’t dominate, hardly ever shows that he is a Box to Box kind of midfielder. He has been as underwhelming as the likes of Pepe, Ozil, Laca, Auba etc..
What has been so world class about Partey since he moved to Arsenal? Can you even think of many games where Partey was the overwhelmingly standout player? Any MOTM’s? Player of the month? Etc..
Whenever I have heard people labelling Auba as world class at Arsenal it always made me cringe. Auba at Arsenal is not even as good as Adebayor was for us. And I don’t think that Adebayor was world class. But he was on that trajectory.
People labelling Ozil as world class at Arsenal never convinced me. Playing for Madrid and Germany he might have been, but not at Arsenal. The likes of Santi, injury prone (Wilshere, Rosicky etc) performed better than him overall at Arsenal in my opinion.
Now people labelling Partey as some sort of world class monster. I don’t see it. From his first season to today he has not done anything of note. He has not outshone Elneny, Xhaka, AMN or Lokonga yet, he has performed as poorly as them. Never stands out. He can’t be world class for sure. Diaby was always injured but there are specific games one can still remember where he was absolutely the standout player.
If this Partey we currently have at Arsenal is what is deemed as a world class midfielder then Denilson, Diaby, Song, Xhaka, Elneny, Lokonga etc can also be labelled as world class..
I feel like the label “World class” has been banded about nonchalantly in recent years that it has lost its gravitas. You can’t tell me that Yaya toure, Vieira were world class then include someone like Partey in the same breathe.
Can’t label Henry, RVP, Drogba, Zlatan, Suarez, Raul, Nistelrooy, Fat Ronaldo etc as world class then in the same breathe include Auba or Laca etc in it. No.
Partey has to got to earn that world class label at Arsenal first. I don’t care about him being world class for AT Madrid. It does not benefit Arsenal. This is the same reason I always clashed with the majority of my fellow gooners when it came to Ozil. I didn’t care about his Madrid or Germany world class exploits. They meant absolutely nothing to me as an Arsenal player. What I cared about was for him to replicate those world class performances for Arsenal in the EPL. In my own opinion he failed for the largets part in his time here.
Partey, Pepe, Ozil, Laca and to a certain extent Auba have been our biggest buys but they have been just Okay / Hit and Miss signings. Lower purchase signings like Santi, Sanchez, Rosicky, Nasri, Hleb, Wilshere, Adebayor, Eduardo, Ramsey etc were bigger performers in comparison.
Lets stop downgrading the label World Class..
New Day, New Era, New Start. Come On You The Arsenal.