If he can’t get 15 minutes at home when we are struggling to unlock a defence, it is a worrying sign.
What’s puzzling is that he was instrumental to getting the go ahead goal against Wolves and then seemed to have a good break, at least looking very lively in the friendlies. All signs pointed toward an upward trajectory.
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I mean I would have brought him on since I think we looked very much out of ideas towards the end.
I understand that Newcastle are good defensively and maybe Arteta was worried about us getting hit on the break.
If we hadn’t just gone through a whole saga of Arteta not using Martinelli which led to a ton of speculation that he didn’t like the player only to turn around and start using him, I’d be more concerned. For now I’m just a little confused. If the argument is that he couldn’t get up to speed in a physical game like tonight, than why not bring him on 0-3 away to Brighton when the game looked dead?
Did he cost a lot? Not really by today’s standards and if it doesn’t work here, we’ll move him on. But we don’t even know if it’s going to work here.
If he doesn’t start against Oxford then I think it’s fair to question what he brings to the group.
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i reckon he is not strong enough yet especially for newcastle. Arteta probably thought that against these scummy thugs especially at the end if he got roughed up and our midfield got over-run we could potentially lose the game. He is on a bulking and strength regimen from his own mouth…i reckon arteta might feel that he would be a weak link for the EPL but will use him in europe.
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He can’t be that physically weak. If he ever was, he has been here long enough to build some muscle mass.
The Portuguese League won’t be that weak a League and playing for a top club.
I’ll repeat again it was strange how few starts he had there and not getting games in the CL campaign.
he has played in europe, i think almost every game
Maybe he doesn’t put on mass easily. I remember ManU players talking about how they had to force feed De Gea protein shakes when he first arrived. And it’s not just about getting jacked. It’s about doing it in a way that doesn’t mess with his frame or his ability to run. Look at what happened to Jack. Dude got too big after all those injuries.
The reality is he’s played in the EL and he’s going to play in the FA cup. And when we bought him the tune coming out of the club was more that the opportunity fell into their laps to get him and keep him away from other clubs than this was a guy for the starting XI or even first 15 roster slots. If ESR was healthy and rotating in, nobody would even notice Vieira’s lack of cameos.
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Pretty sure he never played in much of Porto CL campaign.
Played for us and looked very disappointing in the Europa League games.
I’m not sure on that. I think he was seen as strong squad addition and sort of justified going with a smaller squad till now.
If not then it’s been a massive gamble but basically paid off.
Either way I don’t see the physical aspect being a determining factor.
Thought he would come on tonight. Ødegaard wasn’t as sharp as usual and we needed somebody else with some creativity and guile.
Vieira is literally the only other guy we have who could potentially offer something, and he wasn’t chosen.
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My evidence free theory is that Arteta had him penciled in to play against Oxford and didn’t want to sub out Odegaard who has been sensational lately.
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Thank you!
Yep, players need to be careful when doing that, Jack got bigger but it never improved any aspect of his game, he didn’t even get stronger in duels. He was pretty tough for a small guy before, with good balance… Added mass just decreased his balance and agility which was a huge part of his game before.
Same with Ozil. Ffs can’t forget all the people saying ohh man, look at Ozil how strong he became after doing extra hours in the gym during his injury break in 2015 I think… He never recovered his earlier dribbling ability, ability to EVADE players, the agility… Got stronger, but heavier and shittier in one on ones.
Eddie is a positive exaple though. Did it the right way. Obviously got stronger, but withouth losing his acceleration and balance, got even better in duels. He obviously did something different. An obvious difference is that he did it while he was not injured and was able to participate in full training with the ball. They are footballers in the end, aren’t they? Peope do sometimes mistake this with bodybuilding. 
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I like to remind everyone that Fabio helped open the scoring against Wolves before we went to the WC break.
He has proven to make impact but somehow Arteta doesn’t want to indulge in him
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Very different opposition though. I might have given him a role on the right for 15 minutes and took Gabi off and switched Saka to the left.
Going back to it… You can’t say Areta had too much trust in Eddie before he had to play him… And AFTER that Eddie started pefroming.
I’m hugely frustrated with Vieira, and really starting to lose faith in him, but maybe he just needs a bit more trust from Arteta, and more game time BEFORE he starts performing, not the other way around.
It was the same with Odegaard. We had to witness a lot of tame, shy, average performances before he really stepped onto the pitch.
This is something that wouldn’t even require a sub actually and should be something we try more, especially when things aren’t working for our wingers.
I would’ve liked seeing Saka trying his luck against Trippier yesterday.
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Very old school thing really but don’t see why managers don’t try the tactic at times.
Exactly, Arteta is a tad risk-averse himself.
In an era of 5 subs, Arteta used just Tomiyasu yesterday.
Odegaard was extremely poor in the second half and there would have been no massive drop in performance had he brought Vieira on for mere 5 minutes.
Unless forced, Arteta wouldn’t have found the usefulness of ESR and Nketiah.
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Good performance lad.
Good start in the first half but drifted out by the end. Started the second half very well though.
Got two beautiful assists. He’s got a better pass than Ode and I’ll die on that hill. Odegaard has more in his game though.
Good to see he’s not another Lokonga.
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