Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Really. What about that 2nd goal, they where both fucking useless.

Sokratis is slow they said… :

3 Likes

Our defenders slowness is of mind, not body :smile:

Sokratis’ acceleration is poor and don’t even get my started on his turning!

2 Likes

Sokratis is the 3rd fastest player in the Arsenal squad!!! Pacey and strong central defender…I have big hopes for this guy this season…

Weird thing is he’s always been pretty fast in FIFA which is where 90 percent of football fans get their attribute opinions on players.

2 Likes

Or stupid TV pundits with their generalisations

Top Trumps was much more accurate in the day.

I think Sokratis is doing okay. There’s a lot of prejudice against him because he was an undesired signing but individually he’s not done much wrong. Mustafi is the one not able to sense danger and react.

Mustafi and Bellerin are the main culprits at the moment but it would be nice if our right mids and defensive mids helped them out a lot more.

4 Likes

I’d mostly agree with this, but I think you are giving too much benefit of doubt to Sokratis. So far I have seen little to give me confidence that he can really change things for us this year and/or next above our pile of mediocre knuckleheads… we are really missing Koss and at his age, he is going to be fading and probably around this year and maybe next as Mert-type statesman.

Paying 18 million for this guy seems odd, but I guess we will see how it plays out. If he comes good and shores us up over the next 5-10 games and is the difference between us 5/6th and 4th, he will have been worth it on that alone… those few points at that margin seem to be worth around 10-14 million depending on how far you go in CL or EL.

I’d rather we went all in on one of the truly promising CB (I know there are few) or paid less for another stopgap and used funds elsewhere (wing attack).

It is wise to defer judgment given the shambles overall we are defensively and it could be that Moose gets benched, Holding (for example) comes in and does a better job and develops better chemistry, Papa grows into the role, Torreira shores up things in front of the back line and our tactics around bombing wingbacks moderates a tad, giving us better balance against counters - a lot of little things could change and add up to big impact.

1 Like

It’s not so easy to judge because he’s come into a shambolic defence under a new manager who hasn’t had any time to stamp his vision on the team.

The best CB’s in world football would come here get roasted and struggle, with that said there were better options out there especially age-wise.

Our best defender against Cardiff, made some good clearances under pressure from what I saw.

If we aspire to be a better team in coming season, give the minutes to a promising talent rather than wasting them on an average journeyman.

1 Like

Couldn’t agree more, Don’t see the point of playing average journeymen with no scope when we are going to concede 50 league goals regardless.

You can break a young player by throwing him in the deep end and him getting mauled and ripped apart by fans and the press weekly because the teams performances are shocking.

I’d much rather our young talent were protected at this stage.

2 Likes

Tbf I thought that, but then I think if we bought say, Diallo, I think the defence would be just as shambolic and he’d probably let it get to him, and then there’s another talent ruined.

Maybe decent-mediocre CBs that won’t let the criticism get to them are what we need right now as we find our feet

As long as they are progressing and developing and have good coaching, I don’t have an issue with throwing them in deep end - if they are so fragile, I’d rather figure that out now… having said that, it COULD be worse than Papa and that IS a legit consideration at this point. We have to hope and trust that Sven and Unai have a good pulse on this and are open-minded about changing if Moose or Papa don’t improve and/or Holding or Mavro show something special in practices/cups, etc.

Going ham today.

3 Likes

Clearly him and Kos should be our first choices at the back when our captain is back.

2 Likes

We don’t know in what state Kosc will return. Could be bad. Let’s wait and see.

1 Like

I mean, I don’t care what state he is in. He can come back blind with a broken leg and i’d still rather play him than Mustafi.

2 Likes