Rob Holding

Absolute bullshit.

Holding has done fairly well but he hasn’t played to a higher level than Chambers did in his first season yet at all.

Some people have very short memories when it suits them.

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I disagree, he showed plenty particularly in the Champions League.

Was enough to earn him multiple call ups to the England squad, so yeah as I said I disagree.

Holding seems to have a distinct flavour of the month vibe about him at the moment IMO and his minutes will quickly dry up just like Chambers did, we’ll see how he develops then.

Chambers has had some brilliant performances for us at right back. Its a shame he only gets remembered for being skinned by Montero.

Holding looks to have the potential to be a better CB than him though for sure.

I don’t judge Chambers about football qualities (I remember many great performances) but mentally isn’t good enough to play with us.

He has shown qualities that I haven’t seen in Chambers. I never thought Chambers played that well, period… he had a couple of games where he was ok and even in those he showed the propensity for brainlessness. Holding has done alright so far and it is far too early to say much, but the small sample of evidence I have so far, including the basic eye test tells me he is better player atm.

Why do you think AW put him in instead of Chambers even though Chambers has been with us for a long time, has Prem league experience, and Holding is brand new?

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The biggest compliment I can pay to Holding, is I don’t feel uncomfortable when I see him in the starting lineup as CB.

I can’t say the same about Chambers.

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Chambers has clearly regressed that much is obvious, I really don’t see how in the few games he has played he’s shown so much more than Chambers as for the brainless antics I haven’t quite seen that either, he’s been rash yes but age what 19-21 that’s to be expected. Holding does look the superior athlete however.

If Holding is worthy of starting over Chambers now it’s not necessarily a case of ability rather than he’s come off the back of playing week in week out for Bolton whereas Chambers was barely given scraps here, he may well be the better prospect but Chambers was seemingly a very good prospect too and had many raving, he simply hasn’t been handled well IMO.

At this rate with Gabriel to come back and Mustafi clearly going to be a starter Holding’s minutes will dry up and we’ll see how he handles not being played.

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I’d prefer to see less of Gabriel. He is reckless at times back there.

Much better to see Holding or Mustafi partner with Kos.

I think you are cherry picking facts a little bit… he played regularly for BOLTON f*ing WANDERERS so he is somehow more ready to play in the Premier League even though Chambers trains with us every day and has for a year+ and HAS played with the team, in the Premier League, and before then was trained with one of the best academies in the country?

Anyway, all of these situations are data-poor, so of course you have to go with what data you have and realize it is easy to be totally wrong b/c of the lack of data, but to me Holding looks better in almost every respect, not just athleticism (In fact, that didn’t really occur to me b/c they are both decent athletes) - but now that you mention it, Chambers looks prone to getting his own feet tangled when turned and his overall agility is relatively poor (reminds me a bit of Mertesacker that way).

Re: minutes, clearly Mustafi will get slotted in but I don’t see Gabriel as a threat any more at all. He has been an awful signing imho. Holding will be 3/4th behind Kos and Moose and Mert will likely get phased out. Will be fun to see Holding and Mert in Cups, etc.

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I’m not cherry picking anything the point was he’s played more consistently yes albeit at a lesser level but the fact remains he’s coming off the back of playing regular football whereas Chambers has been a non-factor, training can only do so much for a player particularly a young defender. Then there’s the fact our defensive coaching clearly isn’t up to much lets be real here.

Clearly the lack of game time has resulted in a degree of stagnation and regression which is why it’s imperative he goes out and plays regularly somewhere else.

As for Gabriel he’s not a bust he simply made the big move too early, another year in Spain would have served him well. Let’s not forget Kos was very shaky upon his arrival also. Gabriel would do better under a manager who can actively coach a cohesive defensive unit, the likes of Simeone, Conte or Mourinho would work wonders with him. Then there’s the language barrier and acclimatising to the PL. I’m not ruling him out because I believe there’s at least a decent defender in there somewhere if not a very good one.

As I said will be interesting to see how Holding fairs with little game time, his minutes are about to dry up faster than a lick of water in the desert. As usual some are busting their loads way too early.

You see more in Gabriel and Chambers than I do. Neither of them look intelligent enough or skilled enough overall to make it at a club like Arsenal. Frankly, Holding probably won’t either, but for the moment he looks a better player and prospect.

I’m just not going to write off someone who was clearly a very good prospect and played well in his first season and another player that clearly needs more time to acclimatise as well as better coaching.

Time will tell.

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We can both agree he needs better coaching… sadly, he won’t get that at Arsenal.

Just give Holding a few months with our coaching staff, starting random games here and there and he’ll look as rubbish as most of our CB’s.

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Chambers needs game time and I hope he will get it on a loan. I remember on the old board, how ecstatic some were over his start for us. Raising some fairly average and shaky performances to the sky!
Holding has had a good start and I think he deserves to be 4th choice CB, given he gets som game time in the cups to not stagnate. Gabriel doesn’t cut it imho and it would be better to move him along next year.

What, the complete strawman comment where he sarcastically apologised for Holding not costing £55m?

I don’t care how good Holding turns out to be or even is now, that was still a totally wankerish thing to say and full of contempt for the fans.

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We’ll have to agree to disagree :slight_smile:

I’m with @Jules on this one @JakeyBoy Elneny for example, probably as good or better as any United midfielder not named Pogba, Alexis @30m is better than Sterling and Martial who cost pretty much twice as much. Cazorla cost less than half what Mata cost and has been better in the PL.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Holding turns out to be a better ball playing CB than Stones. His range of passing, first touch, control are all exceptional for a CB. And he looks fairly solid defensively. Time will tell.

I hope everyone sees the common theme here. What’s the difference between Chambers and Holding? Chambers has been here longer. :wenger:

I’m with @JakeyBoy on this. the cost of the player is immaterial. most gooners were hoping we would spend big for a Leicester player who cost the Foxes less than 500k.

Wenger’s comments on the cost of a player however were completely out of order and shows that Wenger had no clue what the fans were asking him to do.