Can someone make me feel better about our current situation please?
Now that Alexis is our first choice in the centre that leaves us currently with Walcott, Shitlade Chambershit, Iwobi and Ramsey.
I’m a big fan of Iwobi but he’s not really offered us much for the past few weeks (month(s)?) and could do with being dropped. I don’t even hold it against him at all, he is a young player still developing and many of us have said that it would be stupid to be too reliant on him, but we clearly are. If we drop Iwobi that means either side of Alexis we’ll need to play two of Walcott, Ox or Ramsey. How fucking uninspiring is that? Only Walcott has been good enough to justify that.
This situation is exactly why we needed to bring in another wide attacker this summer, or not let go both Gnabry and Campbell.
I assume Perez was meant to be signed as a striker, and he doesn’t fit the calibre of attacker we should have brought in to start for us.
Welbeck is just a myth these days. Like Wilshere I’ve stopped considering him a genuine option, just a luxury when he is fit.
This thread is a bit all over the place, and reads like a stream of consciousness, but I figured that if I got the ball rolling others would add a bit more quality discussion. Seems like a topic worth discussing.
Gnabry is simply not good enough, neither is Ox, Campbell I thought was a great squad player but in reality if you arent pushing for a starting place then what’s the point?
I think Alexis Giroud and Walcott will eventually became the front three again. However, while we had a bad game today it’s worth noting that this game was always going to be slow and frustrating.
Tottenham are in fine form defensively, I would wager any other opponent would have resulted in us having a more appealing performance, from the wings and, well, everywhere tbh.
Just as the winning domination against Chelsea didnt make us great, the tediously grinded out draw here doesn’t make us bad. Remain hopeful Jake
The standard of the teams he has performed well against does leave a lot to be desired. He is hardly setting the world alight AC, we absolutely need more. As far as potential goes, Iwobi blows both Gnabry and Ox out of the water at the moment anyway.
I genuinely don’t think we should worry though. Bad games are a given, we will regroup and come out guns blazing.
@JakeyBoy ha sorry, I could have tried harder couldnt I.
That’s not true, actually, Gnabry did break into the team, but then got injured.
People really have short memories with Gnabry for some reason, what he did in 13/14 was really eerily similar to what Iwobi did last season, the difference is Iwobi was able to carry it on into the next season and Gnabry got injured that summer.
I honestly think you have to stick with Iwobi, even if he dosnt offer much.
Anything which prolongs the season until we inevitably switch to Ramsey RW and Giroud up top and start to REALLY see what grinding out matches is like again.
So why wasn’t a fit Gnabry getting selected over Iwobi? Why did he move to a fairly average bundesliga side instead of earning a place at a top premier league side?
If the ability was there and if it wasnt clear who was better then I’d imagine Gnabry would have been assured game time, much like Iwobi.
Because he needed first team football (plenty of top talents Gnabry’s age are playing at similar levels, doesn’t suddenly make them less talented than the big talents involved at top clubs), and Wenger wasn’t giving it to him. (There’s also the fact that he’s rumoured to have a pre-agreement with Bayern as part of the deal to Bremen…)
Why, because Wenger is a perfect judge of talent? That sure explains why Ox and Ramsey are still here and why they’ve been preferred to hundreds of other young talents we could’ve brought in in the time we’ve spent on them.
Man, how do you think Iwobi got his chance? We can play this game all day long. Fact is he got his chance and he took it, just like Iwobi.
Anyways, you’re wrong…Wenger was bigging up Gnabry massively back then, he gave him appearances at just 16 in the Champions League, he was clearly part of his plans and thinking long-term, he even mentioned Gnabry when questioned why he didn’t go after Sterling, which was after Gnabry had been out injured for a year.
Gnabry had a full year injury, a terrible loan was chosen for him the year after that, Iwobi took his spot in the first-team meanwhile, and Gnabry decided to leave. That’s football, but some of the holes in your thinking are pretty big here, man.
Iwobi is the only sensible option right now. I do not want to see Giroud up front, Ramsey on the RW or Ox even coming off the bench. If keeping Iwobi on the left helps us avoid those things, then I’m happy. He hasn’t been spectacular but his general football intelligence is strong and he has to hone his overall game if he’s to develop into a good player.
You have to be really careful when you assess young players because after the initial bright spell of performances you really don’t know where they will go. The demands of being a top level football player are far more than being young and fearless, which is the number one quality you usually see in young players and it often fools football fans into believing a player is a lot better than they actually are. they
:welbeck:
