I changed mine a few times but I think I was mainly 'TillerBear' on not 606 I mean yes. - You don't get 89 pts in a Prem Season with a ****ty attack. But your right our defence and midfield has been stronger and deeper . I have said before but I rate Havertz as a false 9. But if you're going to play a false 9 both your wingers need to be scoring big numbers. Soo in a way the weird thing is Havertz gets all the criticism but in reality it was Martinelli who didn't hit the level expected of him.
I rate Havertz highly for the specific reason he reached the very top class level for the second half of the 23/24 season - by top class i mean one of the best players in the world - his numbers and contribution were excellent.. I believe the best in the PL over that period. We KNOW what level he can reach. His challenge now is to maintain it week in week out over a full season.
Yeah, I agree. The main issue is Skysports/Talksport etc.. still can't get their old heads around the idea of a false 9. Much as I like Martinelli - If you think back to when him and Saka were at a similar level say 4-5 Seasons ago you would have expected the Brazilian to be closer to Saka now in terms of numbers. A fit Saka gets you 20 goals +10 or more assists. If we can get similar numbers from a top class LWF we win the league. If Havertz had stayed fit he would have hit 20 last Season. If you get 15-20 from all three forward players that's more than enough - doesn't matter if you have a traditional no.9 or not.
Yeah Havertz was on track for 35-40 Goals and assists last year when he got injured - and it was even more prolific the second half of the year before. Martinelli is an interesting one - his game is very complete IMO. Going forward and defending , with one flaw... he doesn't seem confident enough. When the pressure is off he looks absolute dynamite - for evidence of this look at his goal against Madrid when we were already 4-1 up on aggregate with minutes left. The run burst of pace and cool finish was world class. He needs to get some arrogance in him. I actually think he could be an extremely good option through the middle too.
Scoring record goals in consecutive seasons didn't win us a cup of any sort Jay. I would much rather we had players that scored at decisive moments, in decisive games. No point winning games 5-0 but when you need to score when you are 1-0 or its 0-0, you can't because your attackers are squander-some. Havertz has as much chance of missing the target totally in a one on one as he does scoring, we need better finishing to win the big prizes. Martinelli's finishing has been off and Trossard looks like he has forgotten how to play football. Bringing in a lethal finisher should be the highest on our agenda.
The problem with Martinelli is Arteta. Think back to 3 season's back when Martinelli had his best season in terms of goals and assists. He had Xhaka providing width at times (sometimes it was Zinchenko), but either way he wasn't isolated, he had options. When we sold Xhaka Zinchenko stopped doing overlapping runs, Martinelli became totally isolated. With no fear of the overlap defending teams doubled up on Martinelli which destroyed his game. Meanwhile Saka always had/has Odegaard and either White or Timber giving him options on the right. Thats the reason for the past 2 seasons Martinelli has been a shell of himself. We saw him look brighter when Calafiori gave him options and toward the end of the season when Rice noticeably played further up and left, he and MLS began to give Martinelli options and overlaps, he looked reborn.
Na - Martinelli wasn't any better when he played on the right for example. He's just not been consistent enough. I don't think that's Artetas fault at all. Arteta has shown a lot of faith in him.
As you know i do not buy the 'decisive moment' argument. The best strikers in the world miss big and important chances. Winning trophies is not just about scoring goals - it's also about not conceding them and more crucially whether you are actually the best team. You can be second best and still have a great attack. Haaland has a low conversion of big chances HH, in fact its lower than Havertz. Strikers will always miss more than they score.
