Is Hincapie better than Kiwior ? Kiwior proved he can play at the highest level last season, I don't know anything about this new guy but I am miffed we are getting g rid of Kiwior.
Lets think about this, that defence was **** Bellarin, Holding, **** Koscielny, **** Monreal. LOOOOOOOOL As shocking as the defence that lost 8-2 to Man U ? And by **** I mean, when they were on the slide. Holding was always **** so no need to preface his name.
What are you talking about Jay ??? We paid £60m for Gyokeres, even if he scores half the goals he scored at Sporting thats still a bargain ! Seems to me like you don't like him and unless he outscores prime Messi you will always find fault with him. You never criticised Havertz at all when he was dire for us and needed a pity penalty to get going because you were fully invested when we signed him. Be fair bro. And we looked **** as a team long before Gyokeres was signed so the season was due to be long anyway and not through any fault of Gyokeres.
For 2 years we looked excellent as a team and last year did well too considering the injury crisis. Ridiculous to call us **** after finishing 2nd three times in a row and reaching a CL semi final. The narrative was clear - we need a striker to take us to the next level , which is winning the league. THAT is how Gyokeres must be judged. You can't just revise history and ignore the very loud and long term calls and claims that we need a proper striker to get over the line. If Gyokeres beats Havertz output as a 9 , I will be happy - Havertz has played 30 PL games at CF for us, scored 15 goals and assisted 10 times. 25 G+A in 30 games as a striker. Very early days, but so far unimpressed with Gyokeres, but again if he can beat those kinds of numbers by Havertz I will happy enough. He does not have to reach Messi levels. Keep in mid too that Havertz has also been very versatile for the team, scoring from midfield too - so at a minimum I want to see Gyokeres improve on Havertz G+A from the striker position (and that does NOT include penalties).
So, to sum up, for the first team: Incomings: Kepa Arrizabalaga Christian Norgaard Cristhian Mosquera Martin Zubimendi Eberechi Eze Noni Madueke Viktor Gyokeres Piero Hincapié (loan with option to buy) Outgoings: Thomas Partey Jorginho Marquinhos Kieran Tierney Takehiro Tomiyasu Albert Sambi Lokonga Karl Hein (loan) Reiss Nelson (loan) Oleksander Zinchenko (loan) Fabio Vieira (loan with option to buy) Jakub Kiwior (loan with obligation to buy) What we rate that window out of 10?
Without Eze, i think this would have been one of the worst windows we ever had, even when we bought no one - but it is early days. Nearly £300m spend and I think we are weaker as a firs team and sqaud. The one possible shining light is Eze. I think he may have saved the window, at least I am hoping so. Kepa - no improvement Norgaard - downgrade of Jorgihno Mosquera - looks a good player and an improvement over a constantly injured Tomiyasu Zubimendi - downgrade on Partey Madueke - not sure he is any better than Nelson Eze - upgrade on Odegaard, but he needs to play centrally Gyokeres - upgrade on Jesus in terms of the squad because of Jesus injuries, but looks well short of Havertz Hincapie - unsure whether he is better than Kiwior We then lost quite a few other players. Marquinos - no loss Vieira - no loss vs last year because he was not here, but i rate his creativity and could have provided an option Tierney - too injury prone, but did provide an option in terms of getting wide and crossing Lakonga - no loss as he was not here last year, though with more time understanding the positional side of the game he could have been a good option from the bench. Hein - no loss Zinchenko - another option gone, of all our FBs, probably the best at the inverted role.
I like Havertz, but until Gyokeres starts missing these sort of chances nobody can talk to me critically about Gyokeres and talk up Havertz
I could show you the same from every other striker.These youtube videos are stupid. Gyokeres miss against Leeds was horrendous too, but every striker will have them. There's only one thing to judge - scoring and assisting more than Havertz and improving the team.
I like Havertz a lot - he works his arse off. Hold up is good, passing is good, he does strike the ball well.. but he is not a natural finisher. We rarely see tap ins or quick instinctive finishes from the guy. He's good false 9 - I always said we could win the league with Havertz up top providing we get enough goals from the LHS. It's funny cause right now we have added both a new No.9 and another option for the LWF. Be interesting to see in 5-6 weeks what our favoured starting 11 is.
You make my point for me Jay. You are going back to when Gyokeres was at Leeds to find genuine fault, look how long ago that was and how much he has improved since then. And even at Championship level Gyokeres was a goal every 2 game striker which is the ratio every "good" striker has. Shall we also ignore he was voted into the Championship team of the season too ?! Those Havertz misses were as recent as last season for Arsenal.
This is why I am calling for a change of formation, 4-4-2. Havertz is a good false 9 but we were missing a traditional 9 which we now have. Support striker, main striker duo, perfect for a 4-4-2. Saka gets to be a wide attacking threat, I'd put Rice and Zubimendi as the CM pairing and Eze left midfield.
Mate, a 4-4-2 would never work today. For the same reason Amorims 3-4-3 doesn't work. Two CM's will get you killed at the highest level.
I am not going back to when he was at Leeds - he never was. I am going back to week 2 of this season against Leeds, where he missed an absolute golden opportunity. His lowlight youtube video of misses for Arsenal has already started. I don;t pay much attention to it as all strikers will miss chances and they all can have a video like that. What I care about is efficiency - one way is goals ratio to big chances missed. Your video goes back 5 years for Havertz and it's only 3 minutes long! There are far more highlights with some great finishes.
I don't agree with this at all, just like I don't agree with the no10 role being dead. Think about teams that play 4-3-3 without an inverted fullback, they have 3CMs at least one of which is a creative midfielder. Saka and Martinelli;'s starting points are often in and around the halfway line, so there is no reason to get overrun. Also, don't forget, in 4-4-2s you will often find fullbacks overlapping their wide midfielders (think Ashley Cole, Sylvinho etc) and in possession there is nothing that says you can't have an inverted full back providing that extra midfielder when your wide midfielders push forward. 4-4-2 can be as fluid as you want it to be.
I don't think that chance against Leeds was a sitter, it came quickly, weight on the other foot, he just swung a leg at it. At the time I thought "unlucky" rather than "OMG how did you miss"
This is the problem - the video oh Havertz you posted contained a number of chances that were way more difficult than the one Gyokeres missed. Yet - the reaction is different and excuses are made for one player and not the other. That's the nature of football fans - i am not knocking it - we will ALWAYS have a situation in football where the best of one player is sought out and the worst of another is sought out because of bias. It really doesn't take much to find a whole catalogue of really poor misses by Gyokeres, but again, there's no point doing that. Every striker will miss them. Objectivity and cold assessment is generally not a thing in football - which, by the way , is why referees make wrong decisions all the time too. They are human beings and football fans with their biases.
I tend to agree - a focus on starting formations is not useful IMO. In a game the formation is rarely static - movement and game in intelligence to take the right spaces is everything. I think the only time we see static formations is when a team is defending deep - otherwise the set up is dynamic. During a game there are many formations in play.
