With this logic we shoulda never signed Santi Cazorla to play as a cm for us or Thierry Henry to play as a striker. Not taking a dig at u as I see ur logic but sometimes gotta take a baller if he’s available and worry about the rest later 
1 Like
I think Buendia would be a great signing, and even if we have him playing as a right winger/CAM in the early stages and convert him into a CM down the road he could be a steal
yes Buendia cuts inside a lot in attack, that’s probably their tactical setup on purpose, this is what Auba does for us a lot and we want Pepefrog to do more for us.
Thomas Partey was a defensive midfielder, ball retainer, turned into more of a complete central midfielder but with a great engine and athleticism so under Simeone after Gabi left (and Rodri) and also Griezmann moved to Barca Partey’s role has been to do defensive work almost from box to box, but to also start attacks and distribute the ball forward.
He’d be more like what Arteta wants from Laca when we lose/are not in possession and from Xhaka when we have possession, i.e. move around a lot from box to box, win the ball back high-ish up the pitch if possible like Laca is doing here and there, otherwise fall back and try to cover for the back line when we’re just not in possession for parts of the game, if we win the ball back he can move it up the pitch a bit by himself if space is given, but also if they sit back or fall back quickly he can distribute good forward passes himself, a bit like Xhaka when he’s not under pressure.
Basically a defensive minded central midfielder who can use his athleticism to do work over a larger part of the pitch than the ‘standard’ DM would, and has a decent forward pass in him if the opportunity is given. He is not an attacking player, he should count as the back 5/6 on the pitch with a touch of a hybrid role, whereas Buendia is the front-4/5 on the pitch more than anything else.
1 Like
But I don’t see why the club should sign a right winger / #10 to play a deeper role that he hasn’t played in his career? That seems like it’s a risk to me. I’d rather we parted cash with an actual ready made CM rather than a right winger who’s spent his career playing in advanced roles.
Buendia isn’t Santi/Silva/KDB though. Those guys are of elite quality and I don’t think that’s Buendia (right now anyway).
I haven’t really seen him play but it’s a risk to take a winger and ask him to play at CM.
1 Like
The fact that Santi had to be dropped back has always been another sign of Wenger’s inadequacy in the latter stages of his career than something else. I don’t think that should be some sort of bench mark.
3 Likes
Plus those half players in the Dutch/Spanish/Guardiola system (De Bruyne/Silva) play extremely high on the pitch. Something that Arteta might copy, but if it’s not necessary to convert a player why go that route…
1 Like
The thing is though we signed Santi to play in an advanced role and he did. He was a winger and a #10 who started to drop deeper as age caught up with him and his engine started to fade a bit.
But he was signed to play in advanced roles whereas people want to bring Buendia in and then alter his position. That’s a risk to me.
Henry was a striker before Arsenal signed him. He moved to the wing, but played many games as a striker too for France.
Arteta has said he wants to play 3 men in midfield iirc. He doesnt want to persist with a 343 he just knows we don’t have the talent to be playing the way he wants. As I said look at the heat map the guy is playing on the right side but plays a ton in the middle of the pitch. As long as Arteta actually switches formations it’s not a stretch.
Think what Willock does for us just a good player that creates a lot doing what Willock does 
It’s not a big risk bro, do you know how he plays?
He’s tenacious as he is creative which is really saying something , playing him deeper would suit him to an absolute tee.
He lead the team in possession won, touches , duels won, tackles and this is despite the fact he is one of the top five creative players in the league. Before the hiatus only KDB created more chances per 90 than this guy, which is frankly insane. He also leads the league in highest % of chances created for his team.
That’s the profile of someone who can play in multiple positions to a high level, we should be capitalising off of that not sniffing at it.
3 Likes
I think we’d have to totally work our system around for it to work. I’m not saying it’s out of the realms of what’s realistic. I can see based on states there’s obviously talent there and he seems to be highly rated by everyone who watches him.
I wouldn’t be mad if we signed him I’d probably be real excited actually given the reports on him. But I just don’t want us to sign a right winger and shoe horn him into a system that doesn’t suit him and ask him to play a game that’s going to be alien to him.
Our central midfield is the single most important position on the pitch to address this coming season so getting it right is going to be huge.
This whole Cazorla as centre midfielder happened because Ramsey got injured in that 14/15 season if I’m not mistaken. Dumb luck…
1 Like
I don’t bro. I haven’t seen him much outside of maybe 2-3 games so I can’t comment on his overall quality I just don’t want us to sign players that don’t play in that role and convert them to it.
That’s probably more due to years of being an Arsenal fan and seeing Wenger sign heaps of 10s and playing them as wingers.
Either way, I wouldn’t be mad if we signed him and moved him into the midfield. Like I said above I’d probably be quite excited based on all the reports.
I just don’t want us to get burnt signing the wrong player for the midfield because it’s such a priority.
1 Like
He’s no right winger, if anything he played like a #10 doing a very good job out wide and so could be made to play deeper.
Even if wasn’t potentially capable of playing CM I’d want to sign him as an attacking midfielder anyways lol
I think he’s similar to Grealish in terms of versatility
but he’s younger and cheaper. Only needs to add more goals to his game
3 Likes
It’s not like it’s going to be a massive risk, considering the current situation of Norwich, we could get him for a reasonable fee.
1 Like
I think if we’re playing 5-2-3 turn 3-4-3 turn uh… 2-3-2-3 (or whatever we do when we fuck about and have one guy fall in asymmetrically), anyway think our on-paper lineup where we play 5 defenders and then Xhaka and Ceballos and three attackers, then Partey is taking Xhaka’s role straight up replacing him, and will be running around covering space and shit behind Ceballos and helping out the back 3, probably doing… everything better than Xhaka does and covering more space off the ball.
If we do indeed play 5 at the back because our CBs are so shit we need 3 of them to do the work that 2 normally do for other teams, and we intend to play 4-3-3 then I don’t think we’d still use the old school ‘play maker up front, a b2b doing all kinds of shit and a DM who sits back’ as playmakers (as in #10s) aren’t really working out in the modern press game.
I would wildly guess we would probably rather use something like a fluent triangle with two hybrids and a central midfielder, as in almost two b2bs who do all kinds of shit and take turns falling back and moving up with the ball, and a CM who also kind of does all of it but moves more between the centre line and the opposition box, ish, but still hounds people down a lot, just in the first press. I mean it’s hard to explain, but basically Modric 
1 Like
Cazorla was a midfielder before Wenger signed him. He may not have played much in a 2-man midfield before, but he had the right skills for it and looked, out on the pitch, like a midfielder and not like a #10 who wanted to move behind opponent’s midfield.
De Bruyne and Silva are attackers and play like attackers. Their fullbacks and their holding midfielder did the midfield work 2017-2019 when they were good. Guardiola has been doing this since Bayern.
Buendia looks like an attacker and not someone I’d want in a midfield.
However, the teams needs final third brilliance so I’d be fine with gambling on him as a #10/winger. Drop the silly back 3 and copy Pep’s style but with the right players in the right positions this time and we might see an improved version of Brighton 
7 Likes
Not sure what the disagreement is about, Partey plays a different role to Beundia. Ideally if we had enough money we could buy both, but Partey isn’t being bought to play a hybrid 8 or create chances. Partey is a modern defensive/Central midfielder, in a 3 man midfield he would be at the base breaking up play, using his physicality and recycling play back up the pictch quickly. In an attacking transition he would be dropping back so he could be in the middle of our two center backs to form a 3/4 near the middle of the pitch whilst our wing back/s push up. The guy is a beast and having been playing for Simeone you know he will be drilled to death defensively and would really fit to our team.
Let’s be honest, Santi could’ve played almost any position not the pitch, both left and right.
He’s not a great person to compare other with, as he was such a rarity.
I still think our model needs to be the Cazorla/Diaby pair that Wenger was so desperate to get; albeit to be let down by injuries (Diaby, Santi, Wilshere, Ramsey) and flops (Denilson, Xhaka at the time).
Can’t help but feel that we are only a 2 players away from genuinely competing for top 4…
------------------Leno------------------
Hector------Saliba–Luiz/Musti—Tierney
------Partey------Xhaka------Ceballos------
Pepe------Aubameyang--------Saka----
It is then the depth that we need to compete, but will be less of a worry if we don’t have Europe…
Martinelli is back in 2021, Nelson will continue to grow, and hopefully Willock and ESR come good.
1 Like
———————— Leno ———————
————Saliba————-Luiz ————-
Bellerin——————————Tierney
———————-Partey———————
————Ceballos——-Xhaka————-
Pepe————————————Auba
———————-Laca————————
Suppose Xhaka and Partey could be swapped about but I’m guessing this is the thinking.