Regardless. I'm hoping he will continue to improve. If he can hold the ball up, create space, get in the box etc.. we should be able to get the most out of Alexis, Walcott, Campbell etc.. With Walcott and Oxo out last Season we had NO pace which completely messed up our system. Plus it put FAR greater pressure on Giroud to score. This year we have added two very quick, aggressive forwards and have Walcott and Oxo back in training. With these kinds of players making runs we should start to see Ozil doing what he does best.
Sorry mate but I don't think you know **** about arsenal. I disagree with you're entire analysis of us. You clearly don't watch us play much and don't keep up to date with our team. Other than listing that we wanted a new dm and striker which has been all over the news you talk nonsense. You've gone for gk as our next weak area that needed to be addressed but Szcz was one of the best keepers in the league last season. Go check his stats. Especially if you ignore the collapse against pool and Chelsea he stands out above all the other keepers. Top quality. Flappy was always going to leave so we needed to find a backup keeper which we have in ospina who was quality at the World Cup and apparently ligue 1s top keeper last season. No-one who watches arsenal regularly was thinking at the end of last season "what we really need is a new number 1". Total rubbish mate, sorry. Also the next position you mention is CB. Now I can only assume you mean a fourth choice CB, which would be a weird area to list as needing strengthening. Since Kosc and mert are one of the best Cb partnerships in the league and vermaelen is a top quality backup. We have added chambers who can play CB to be fourth choice. IF vermaelen leaves we will replace him but otherwise we are really solid at. CB. So far we have added: Sanchez (who can play all along the front three) who we really needed. The lack of pace last season is one of the key reasons we dropped out of the title race at the end. Excellent addition in area we obviously needed it. What a load of nonsense from you about adding to the area we didn't need. After dm and cf, lwf is the area people have wanted an upgrade. So again you've missed the whole point of that signing. Campbell who will be our backup cf after his quality World Cup. (Which means we have strengthened the depth of the C f position even if we haven't upgraded the starting lineup - unless Sanchez goes central). Debuchy to replace Sagna. Debuchy plays over Sagna for France so can't be a bad replacement. Chambers to add depth to our back line as he can play all along it. Quality young player. Ospina to replace flappy. He had a great World Cup and was a top keeper in the French league last season. Good addition to the squad. Keeping up the depth of the team. And some German youth prospect from barcas youth academy. So we haven't only addressed one area. We haven't just added a player we didn't need. And we will have improved as a squad over last year. Whilst I agree we may not yet be ready and in particular I'd like a physical dm/cm added before the window closes, I think you've either not seen what we have done this transfer window, or dont understand our team and what it needed, or both I won't disagree over whether we are ready or not though as I'm still undecided!
If the Khedira deal doesn't go through, there needs to be other alternatives to buy, there are better than Arteta out there. We will be handicapping ourselves again if we go into a new season without sorting that position out.
I have to agree, last season screamed that we needed a shielding MF player. We got sprung so many times in that position.
Bless! You say you disagree with my entire analysis. you say the DM and striker are positions that every man and his dog know about, and yet those are the areas that have yet to be strengthened!!! You then go on a rant about the GK position; which if YOU were an Arsenal fan, you would clearly know that you knew Fabianski was not going to sign a new contract In March, then straight after the FA Cup win, he reveals he is joining Swansea........so you didn't need a GK then??? Not once did I say you needed a new number 1, what I said is that it is an area that needed addressing; meaning you needed a quality back-up and someone to truly rival Szcz. I think your emotions are clouding your ability to read clearly. Still smarting from highlighting your theory on getting hammered by your rivals as due to no attacking outlet on another thread perhaps? The CB position I state is an area that is less of a priority, but one that I feel is still pretty weak. Vermaelen was fantastic in the first 12-18 months, since then he has been either injured or out of form. Many fans on here have stated in the past year or so that he fills them with dread, and that he is no longer up to it. Again he is also injury prone, so what do you do if he is injured and/or Merts or Kosc are injured/suspended too. You lost cover in that position when Sagna left; you think Chambers can step in to the CB role when he has no senior experience whatsoever there?
This for me is the priority at the moment. I just don't think Arteta has the engine to do this job and Flamini is too one dimensional. If we get a top quality DM then it will give us more strength and confidence to be more attacking. Also a striker wouldn't go amiss but hopefully Campbell or Sanchez can provide the competition for the CF spot.
People have been tweeting that since last night but there's absolutely nothing about Khedira on Marca. Sounds like someone just rehashed their story from a few weeks back
It seems the general consensus is we need an upgrade on arteta/flamini and a replacement for vermaelen if and when he goes. I would have to agree with this, carvalho, bender or khedira would be superb and would give us a really strong squad. Yes ideally a world class centre forward would be great but realistically it's not going to happen. I'd like to see Sanchez given a real chance up top and not just a couple of games, ox and Campbell/podolski on the flanks. Pack the team with pace instead of playing the likes of cazorla out wide, in Ozil's absence he should play centrally for me.
You're right on this one. This is the position that needs the most filling and once we get this sorted, we will look like a more well rounded team. We have enough attacking talent to cycle through to not get another CF, and the only glaring problem we have is Vermaelen (will he or won't he stay). Let just hope we get in either Carvalho, Khedira or Bender in, so we can start looking forward to the new season
Meh, if Vermaelen wants out, and it sounds like he does, then I say let him and find a replacement. I have no issues with him for wanting first team football but his form and fitness over the last two seasons hasn't been enough to warrant hanging on to him. Providing we sell him abroad I think it makes good sense to cash in and we should be able to find a new player easily enough. TBH I'm sure we're already looking at players.
Wenger did say we would get a CB if Verm leaves so I'm not worried. Imagine ths squad Szczezny (Ospina) Debuchy (Bellerin) Mertesacker (Chambers) Koscielny (Vermalean/New CB) Gibbs (Monreal) Carvalho/Khedira (Arteta/Flamini) Ramsey (Wilshere) Ãzil (Rosicky) Walcott (Campbell) Sanchez (Giroud) Oxo (Pod/Santi)
I'd like to apologise as from the tone of your reply I've obviously upset you! Sorry about that buddy, didn't mean to wind you up! Go back and read through my first post and it already answers any points you've made in reply to it. One thing I will draw attention to because it made me laugh is in your first post you say the only area we have improved was the only area we didn't need to - I listed all the areas we have strengthen - in your reply you then start ranting about how desperately obvious it was we needed a new gk, completely ignoring the fact we have already signed a GK. Thus you've disproved your own original point as we obviously by your own admission have strengthened an area we needed to... The whole "if YOU were a real fan blaw bla bla" stuff just made me laugh, of course I knew flappy was leaving and I even spoke about him going and being replaced in my first reply to you. It's hilarious that you question my ability to read yet completely missed that point. And finally, am I still smarting from having an opinion on us getting beat in the big games last season? What a ridiculous comment. Why would someone be smarting or annoyed at holding an opinion? Pretty stupid from you there. And anyone who watched us last season would agree that a lack of a pacey outlet stifled our ability to counter attack and meant we couldn't get back up the pitch quick enough. It stunted our chances of success in several games last season and was very noticeable particularly in the games when we had several injuries, which happens to be the games we lost away to our rivals. Have a nice day.
This would be an excellent squad, although I hope Gnabry goes on loan this season so replace him with Campbell. Then hopefully next year we add Reus and then we're perfect!
I think we've pretty much found our third CB in Chambers. He's looked really assured there already. It looks like Wenger will sell Vermaelen to Barca rather than Utd which is a good move, especially after the RVP debacle. To be honest, whilst I like Vermaelen, he hasn't really offered us much over the last two seasons. Kos and Mert are first choice and he's not going to displace either one of them. He's not a good LB and I don't think he's dynamic enough to be a DM. I say we cash in now on him before his stock falls
Although I thought Chambers did very well at CB over the weekend if Vermaelen goes he needs to be replaced. 3 centre backs, one of whom is a 19 year old with barely any experience is nowhere near enough squad depth.
