https://www.arsenal.com/news/sokratis-papastathopoulos-signs Greek Defender. 30 years of age. good to see we are adding more players to what is already the best defense in the league. Thoughts on him? Anyone see him play before? He is yet another player on the wrong side of 30...
I think he's better than most realise. He was the Captain at Dortmund which shows he's a leader. Plus he's a hardworking aggressive CB. Good to see us signing some actual defenders who know how to defend.
Decent signing, obviously not one for the long term, but our defence needs sorting out in the immediate term Just hope we get the Torreria one over the line now.
Looks like the project is getting in tough competitive players to change the way we play, which is a good thing. It's also a shift in mindset on the pitch that reflects the way the manager thinks. Interesting to see us change philosophies moving forward.
So we've added a GK, CB and RB so far and we seem to be mainly linked with DMs, CBS and the odd winger. Defensive strength seems to be the aim of the game. Good choice imo as we have some quality offensive players but we fall apart too often and have no stability.
I think he is a stop gap making up numbers. I doubt he is going to get a game ahead of our existing CBs. Sorry guys, but at 18M he isn't a game-changer and he is going to struggle to adapt to the PL before he is past it. I hope he does well, but expectations need to be lowered here, or it is going to get ugly again.
Na. He's a quality defender. Cant see him having problems adjusting, the guy is a very physical player. I bet he's an automatic starter. I also wont be surprised if Emery sells Mustafi this Summer
Sack Mustafi and replace him with Sokratis. Sheer insanity. Arsenal would be complete laughing stocks. End of Emerys career before he started.
Laughing Stock?.. by who? You do realise nobody outside a small group of Arsenal fans rates Mustafi these days. You think Chelsea, City, Tottenham, or United fans would be happy if they signed him?? Sokratis is a much better defender IMO.(Although - I would play Chambers ahead of Mustafi also.) I think the German isn't quite a CB and he isn't quite a fullback. Probably best suited to a back three. Every team he plays for concedes WAY too much. I guess we will have to see but Im pretty sure Elneny and Mustafi will not last long under Emery.
Any serious manager would be crazy to get rid of his only fit experienced real CB in favour of a player completely untested in the Premier league. Even if you had a good idea that Sokratis was better, you just don't take that kind of risk with a subjective opinion if you are a responsible professional manager. If Sokratis turned out to be a bust, and Arsenal sank like a stone, it wouldn't just be the other team's fans that would be all over him, it would be the Arsenal fans as well. This isn't a game of CM where you can restore if you get it wrong. Whatever you may think about Mustafi subjectively, he is our top rated CB, in terms of an objective measurement. You had better be damn sure of your opinion, because if you get it wrong you have no other excuse but, "I was wrong, my bad"
You realise Minilsat signed Sokratis at Dortmund? You really think he would re-sign him AGAIN if he wasn't a quality player? Think about it.
I'm not arguing he isn't a quality player. This is not about some kindergarten argument about which player is better, which can't be settled. This is managing a professional football team in a responsible manner. It would be completely irresponsible for any professional manager to take that kind of risk with a subjective opinion. That is just the sort of decision that comes back to bite you in the ass. And if it does, there is no excuse. That is why it would be a career ending decision for Emery. He would be left trying to explain why he thought a 30 year old CB that had never played a game in the premier league was a better choice than the CB that statistically was the best CB in the premier league. https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/2...s/15151/Show/England-Premier-League-2017-2018 I can see him starting Sokratis ahead of Mustafi in a few pre-season games, and even to start the season, but even going that far would be a risk, and compounding it by burning his bridges in the event he was wrong, would be ****ing stupid.
Does anyone know how Emery had his backline for Saville and to a lesser extent PSG? That should give us an idea of what he'll do with us.
All you read is about how he likes the press, so that takes a bit of the pressure off the back 4, except in terms of defending the long ball and set-pieces.
Not that i want to argue whos better as i haven't seen either play enough (especially sokratis) but isn't the game of CM comment about re-loading a game etc the exact thing you could argue for looking at your "pure stats" that you are throwing out. I'm sure Emery will see the strengths and weaknesses of both, how they interact with their teammates and make a decision from there (also the type of footie he wants the team to play).
The CM comment was more about the ability to turn back time for a do-over than how to judge a player. But I'm not advocating a pure stats approach, I'm just saying that totally ignoring it isn't sensible.
