kingfox

No way mate, no way. If we are left with Winks and Soumare as a holding two, that’s terrifying.

This team is crying out for Cameron Puertas or someone of his ilk. Creative ☑️ Progressive ☑️ Ball Carrier ☑️ Defensive Work ☑️

Some more energy and creativity desperately needed in the midfield. If we had any sense, we need to be bidding £20-25 million for Cameron Puertas.

After Michael Lamey’s World Class performance against Sunderland in 2010, I tend to agree.

Cooper’s midfields in the past have all usually offered good defensive work, during his time at Swansea, Grimes and Fulton ranked quite high for tackles and interceptions per90. Winks and Soumare won’t give us that, Choudhury isn’t good enough to start regularly, Ndidi is the only one who can give us work like that, yet he isn’t the player he once was. This current midfield would get killed on transition in the Premier League.

Looking forward then to Soumare getting a hat-trick of assists courtesy of some defence splitting passes

Soumare as a creative number 10 🤔😂

De Zerbi has gone in with a cut throat mindset by the looks of it. They are having a proper clear out, former English based players all gone or going in Mbemba, Veretout, Sarr, Ndiaye and Aubameyang. Could see why they’d be interested in Soumare with Veretout, Kondogbia and Ounahi likely to leave. English based players going over there has been a total mixture imo, look at Iliman Ndiaye for example, already back in England after one season But then you have players like Kevin Danso, Jake O’Brien and Folarin Balogun didn’t make the grade in England, but they’ve all thrived in France over the past season or two.

I can see the logic on this one. Replacing a nothing midfielder in Jordan Veretout with a nothing midfielder in Boubakary Soumare. Excellent scouting work 👏🏻

Shame it’s a crappy source because he’d be an ideal signing. Can play in a holding midfield role, can play as a 8/10, he also played off the right quite a few times last season, so would be suited to playing the role McAteer did the other night. Also we need a recognised set piece taker. GERRIMIN!

Hmm A potential stroke of genius or underwhelming 🤔

Of course we could still sign one, especially if we’re playing a in possession three man defence with someone tucking in, but at this current moment in time, I feel we went for the wrong CAA Base client. Koki Machida of Union SG would have been more ideal.

A striker good in the link up is a bit of a head scratcher, feel Fotis Ioannidis would’ve been perfect for us, but signing him is starting to look like a pipe dream. He wasn’t really linked, but from a certain standpoint I can understand potentially signing Wout Weghorst, his record in the Premier League is a turn off though. Looking around I think Borja Mayoral could come in a reasonable price bracket, 15 goals for Getafe last season until he got injured in the latter stages of the season https://breakingthelines.com/player-analysis/borja-mayoral-the-ex-real-madrid-man-emerging-as-one-of-spains-best-strikers-at-getafe/ But I’m starting to think it could be someone seriously underwhelming like Habib Diallo, Odsonne Edouard or Josh Sargent

Let’s hope Cooper is wise enough to realise what worked and what didn’t Going forward I don’t think a 3-4-1-2 setup is the answer. Mavididi I thought did well enough in his role, he has played central at times throughout his career, but it gives you too many headaches when it comes to Fatawu and Ricardo. Getting Fatawu on the right would then see him as the wing-back, while Ricardo would then have to be shafted to the left or as a central midfielder. A variation of 3-4-2-1/3-4-3 is the way forward imo, get Mavididi and Fatawu into their natural wide areas, then potentially have the wing-backs making inside runs where they pick up a 8/10 position, Ricardo was used in this area on a few occasions last season.

Most comments are positive, but the comments writing Reiss Nelson off just because he hasn’t nailed down a starting place at Arsenal are baffling. He has Saka, Martinelli and Trossard ahead of him, getting in ahead of them is impossible. It’s just the same case with Smith-Rowe potentially heading to Fulham, no way he gets in ahead of Odegaard and the wingers I’ve mentioned, so it’s come to the point where it’s probably for the best that Nelson and Smith-Rowe head for pastures new. Nelson has had enough decent cameos and cup appearances for Arsenal to know that there’s a decent player in him. If he does come, maybe he excels, maybe he flops, but he’s a player that deserves a fair crack of the whip at another Premier League team.

He’d probably cost £10-15 million, but surely Alfie Doughty must be considered, also takes set pieces and ideally we need a player of that ilk.

After contemplating more on last night, I think this could be the better solution, 3-4-2-1/3-4-3 when in possession. With a few alterations, Justin out for a new LB/LCB, McAteer out for a new LW/LWB and Daka out for a new striker.

Thank fvck this is close to being over, the confusion I had on what position he was going to play was giving me headaches. I guess this is why we’ve moved onto Nelson, not as creative as Soule but a bit more versatile.

His time at Feyenoord is probably the best thing to go on, he played a mixture of right and left 👍🏻 At Arsenal and Hoffeinheim, despite plenty of substitute appearances, his versatility to come on and fill numerous positions is a standout. He’s a player that’s intrigued me on what he could produce if he went to another Premier League team, happy enough for us to be that platform for him.

In other words, Cooper out 🤔

Because he’s rarely featured properly for Arsenal, whether through FBREF or Wyscout, his stats will be a bit flawed mate. Versatile player though but yet again predominantly right sided, the Fatawu conundrum gets more confusing by the day.

If last night is anything to go by, that won’t be the case mate. As Strider showed on Page 9, out of possession very much looked like a 4-4-2, with Ricardo and Thomas dropping into their natural positions. In possession was just a few tweaks on last season, instead of inverted full back and two 8’s, we just switched it for a predominant RWB and two 10’s, one of which(Mavididi) joined in a front two.

Knew he’d be the first name you mentioned for that particular position