So anyone who got the prediction of today’s game wrong is a
?
I thought you were better than that.
I agree that people can say whatever they want but being consistently off the mark will expose your credibility.
Your views on Edu, Martinelli and Havertz epitomise that.
Edu:
He has done a terrific job overall. Since joining Arsenal in 2019 as TD, the club has been trending in the right direction because it has been making the right moves in the market.
Every TD/SD makes bad calls just like every manager takes bad decisions. That is the nature of the sport, the nature of the job.
Edu signed Odegaard for £30m, a player who is yet to enter the prime of his career and is already worth £100m+.
He signed Rice in spite of pressure from Man City and his critics kept telling us that he will lose out on the player because no one can compete with City.
Over the last couple of years, apart from 1-2, almost every signing has made an impact and proved to be a good purchase.
Could he have done better with outgoing transfers? Certainly, but as I said, everyone in his position gets a lot of things wrong. You can look at every single club.
However, you have to look at the overall performance and overall, he has done a splendid job.
Arsenal fans need to be more grateful and appreciative of the work Edu has done especially when you look at the business Chelsea and Man United have done.
But his critics would try to convince you that every good signing had nothing to do with Edu and happened due to XYZ reasons while every bad signing had everything to do with him.
In other words, he has to take all the blame and none of the credit. This is what pure hate looks like.
Havertz:
Arsenal fans need to get off his backside and give him a chance. He is playing for a new team with a new tactical profile. Again, his performances for Chelsea in the recent past mean nothing because he was not signed for those performances.
He was signed for the fact that he is only 24 and has some very interesting characteristics that the club thinks could add something new and different to the team.
He can play in multiple positions and can also serve as a target man who can hold the ball and we saw that yesterday. Arsenal have lacked such a presence upfront since Giroud left 5 years ago.
He has the backing of the manager and he is working hard to prove himself. Arsenal fans should support him.
Eventually, if it doesn’t work out, so what? He won’t be the first or the last player to not succeed but sometimes, you have to take a chance with someone because you believe in yourself and you believe in that player.
Arteta took that chance with Havertz and let’s see where we are at the end of the season.
Martinelli:
You and
@Amjid Javed keep harping about his G/A compared to other LWs but that is a cop-out because it doesn’t hide his deficiencies and the areas that he needs to improve on.
Don’t get me wrong - he has a lot of good qualities. He is rapid, he is aggressive, tenacious and ruffles the defenders. It is always great to have a direct player like him in the squad who can take defenders on.
However, he has major and glaring weaknesses and shortcomings and hiding behind his stats and how he compares to other in his position doesn’t help.
He is wasteful, he lacks composure, he makes a lot of bad decisions in the final third and can be very panicky instead of slowing the game down for a bit and making the right decision.
Anyone who has watched him over the years should agree with this assessment otherwise they are clearly in denial.
Even yesterday, his shot was at least 10 ft wide of the target. It was his great fortune that the deflection ended up in the goal, but a world class LW in that position should be hitting the target and testing the goalkeeper.
It was classic Martinelli - great position and bad execution. Thankfully, the deflection off Ake was perfectly executed and won Arsenal the match.
🖋 list of all these 40 G/A left wingers still
