Skhodran Mustafi

Wasn’t he pretty good yesterday?

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Is that your opinion framed as a question, or is it a genuine question because you didn’t watch?

Rather

if defender price >= 30 million
{ NOT ok to be trash }

Don’t think he’s a very good defender at all. He has good games but his concentration is poor and that’s such a huge component of being a top defender. What separates the best defenders from the rest is their concentration.

Some players (no matter how good they are) need to be coached and I think he needs more guidance. Hardly getting any of that with Arsène. Those games I’ve seen him with Germany and their good organised defence he seems a completely different player.

Price is not relevant to quality in any way because he doesn’t set his own price. Wages, maybe, price - nah. His price is set by his selling club and is matched by his buying club, so maybe direct your disappointment with his price towards the people/manager that paid it.

Fair enough.
Replace the transfer price with wages. With his transfer fee, definitely high wages are involved.

I think he makes the same as Xhaka and less than Cech or Bellerin, not a lot more than Welbeck or Debuchy.
His wages seem fair. And so does his price by the way to get back to it, just start acknowledging the times you are living in already. It’s not the 2000s anymore.

I can name you for certain one person within this club who earns twice as much as him but doesn’t warrant any penny of that.

No it’s a genuine question. I watched from the 25th minute on but had just got back from football so was also making dinner and whatnot during the game, so while I was watching I wasn’t at the level where I was really able to analyse the game, thus wouldn’t really go so far as to opine on performances.

Certainly coaching is a factor in this. He’s got a lot of qualities, especially that impressive quickness/agility. Can’t help but feel under a manager like Pep he’d be a pretty top defender.

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I think those qualities are the reasons he can have very good games but I do think without proper coaching his concentration is going to be an issue with him that will plague him until he either leaves or Wenger does

You know what, I am not convinced with this.
I know the transfer price is beyond player’s control & say Caroll shouldn’t be judged for Liverpool’s stupidity to pay 35m for him.

But regardless If you are being bought for silly money, be sure that you would be expected a certain standard of performance & scrutiny.
I don’t expect Lukaku to be like Henry, but I expect him to regularly provide 7/10 or above performance.
I expect Xhaka to be better than he is atm.
I expect Mustafi to do his basics right.

I don’t expect Elneny to be any better than a squad player because his profile, transfer value & wages do not make me expect more than that.

If you don’t think you can handle the expectation & criticism that would come with the transfer price being paid; don’t take the offer.
If you took the offer, you have consented to a certain standards regardless if you were ever talented enough to deserve the transfer fee.

When you overpay for a mobile phone that isn’t even in the top10 performing brands/models for the year which you could have bought for the same money or less, is it the manufacturer’s wrong-doing for taking your money or you just made a bad, ill-informed purchase?

He is the 8th most expensive defender transfer of all time. You can be sure the buyer is evaluating roi of any asset purchase and cost is a factor in that.

If I overpay for a mobile phone even if it was a Top 10 performing phone, I would be making an ill performed purchase; because the hint is in the word ‘overpay’.

Unlike Mobile Phone, players can’t have an MRP associated with them so some would turn out to be a bargain & some waste of money; accordingly we won’t know if the price paid was a bargain amount like some say it was with Ozil & Sanchez or waste of money with Xhaka.

Football is dependent on plenty of arbitary parameter like ‘playing for a big club’ sentiment, speculative wages, etc.

Mustafi is a mystery to many. No one can say for sure he is a good player or he is a crap player.
He is capable of performing very well, so I don’t think it is unreasonable to demand non-crap performance for a player at right age purchased for a good amount and racking in good wages.

Yeah have to agree with this - we bought a player who we thought was pretty much the finished article, playing for Germany, etc. He has been too inconsistent for me, but lately there are things I like that I am seeing from him - I still doubt the intelligence of the investment, especially if you press it up combined with Chambers, Moose, and Xhaka together - that is a LOT of money on CB and DLP and we aren’t getting near the value imho. More importantly is the opportunity cost of not playing other players and acquiring new young talent.

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Nobody is saying that you cannot do that, but if you do, turn those demands to Wenger. He is the one that paid the price and also the one managing the player, therefore he is responsible for his end product.

I thought he was pretty good yesterday. Someone posted a stat saying this was our fifth different combination of a back 3 this year, I think with a little more time on the pitch these 3 could gel and make a solid unit.

One thing about Mustafi that I particularly like is he is a communicator out there on the pitch. Yes they had some moments where it looked like they had never played together as a defensive unit, which they hardy have, but it seemed like Mustafi was out there trying to organize things at least. How many times in the past have we conceded a goal through defensive error and you see Kosh, Nacho, and whomever else just hang their heads in shame. Mustafi seems like he’s trying to take some ownership which is something we need in the team.

Here it is where a good manager makes the difference. Mustafi and our defenders overall need to be coached properly.

Man… when playing for Germany he has a complete different set of players… better set of players.

I like Mustafi, but I think he is overrated (by some Arsenal fans).
He needs to up his game more often.

Can you stop clicking quote and having it bring in 3/4/5 previous posts please.