I mean, you’re not wrong about the team needing creativity. They messed up completely after the 2018-2019 season by getting rid of pretty much all of the creative players without signing similar types of players. Maybe they thought Ceballos and Pepe were that, but they’re clearly not.
Just doesn’t look like Aouar is. Perfectly possible that he’s great at other stuff.
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I actually didn’t dislike those Felipe Anderson rumours. Thought he looked very good last year for West Ham and his numbers have always been excellent.
Only saying this because Aouar is a #8 and as AF has pointed out he’s not a very creative player whatsoever. I assume since we couldn’t secure Dani on a permanent this season that maybe the club dont want to negotiate with Madrid anymore and they rate Aouar more than Dani and he might be more attainable? Aouar is a ball carrier…Dani is much more impressive stats wise tho just sayin…
I agree that Aouar doesn’t have outstanding final third creativity numbers (passes into final third, xA, shot creation metrics, etc). But I think there are a couple mitigating factors at work and that he could still be a huge part of adding creativity and attacking dynamism to the side.
Transfermarkt has positional data on him for 128 first team matches and he’s only played 13 of those as a 10. Most of his career has been played as an 8, either as part of a double pivot or in some cases as part of a three man midfield with duel 8s. He has also played as a left sided midfielder/winger a bit, but not that much. Mainly, he’s been a box to box player and you’re almost never going to see players in that role among the leaders in key passes or passes into the penalty area. You look at the leader boards in those stats and its pretty much all wingers, attacking midfielders, and playmaking fullbacks.
Aouar is a really young player and he’s played all over the midfield so far in his career. So I think its not a guarantee that he can just slot in and be a great final third chance creator if we ask him to do that. On the other hand, his versatility is very useful and he clearly has a lot of development and growth ahead of him, which is part of what makes him so intriguing.
Skill set wise, his best qualities seem to be overall technique and ball control, ability to play in tight spaces, and ability to dribble past players then distribute. I don’t think its clear whether his best future will be as an attacking player or more of a deeper, ball carrying creative 8. He’s a little like early career Jack Wilshere, but without the injury problems and already have shown far more G+A end product than Jack ever did.
I think at this stage he could help us in a few different ways. Putting aside whether we get Partey for the moment, I can see him in a three man midfield with Xhaka and Ceballos as the most attacking player. While maybe not an elite chance creator at this stage, I think he would probably be our best option in that role given his ability to do some of that and his overall game.
I could also see him as part of double pivot in the 3-4-3, offering much more ability than any of our other options to carry the ball forward, break the lines, and make late threatening runs into the box. I think that would give us a different element in that formation and help our attack quite a bit.
Finally, I could also see him playing that same kind of dynamic 8 role as part of a three man midfield with a DM and Saka in a more attacking lineup against weaker sides. That is potentially a pretty dynamic midfield that could really create a lot against opposition that will sit deep.
I think he would improve us in a bunch of different ways and give Arteta a lot of options, both in terms of how to line up in midfield but also how to adjust tactics and formations within matches, which is clearly something Arteta wants to be able to do.
I haven’t seen all the stats myself but the type of stats being banded around to say he’s not impressive don’t seem fair.
One stat above from @sevchenko was that he doesn’t have as high a dribble completion rate as Partey.
Partey plays in a team where when they get the ball there are less players to dribble past (as they play so defensively and on the counter attack) so his % completion will be better.
Also, Partey plays in a deeper role, so again, less players around him to stop him, and the players that are would be less desparate to stop him than when he’s about to enter their penalty area.
Finally, if Auoar attempts more dribbles per 90 than Partey then that will include harder dribbling situations, whereas Partey would cherry pick the easier dribbles and therefore have a better success rate with them.
Then with your stat on passes into the penalty area.
First of all, why are you comparing him with a 10 and a winger/striker?
His main position is a central midfielder.
And why are we expecting a CM to be getting high numbers of passes into the penalty area? That’s far from his main job. How often do you see a central midfielder successfully pass a ball from around the halfway line (or maybe slightly further forward), all the way through to a player in the penalty area? 1 per game seems reasonable to me.
As I said I haven’t seen all the stats, will probably have a look today, but I just think the ones he’s being judged on aren’t all that relevant.
Are we expecting a young box to box central midfielder to pass it into the box as much as Alexis and Ozil in their primes playing in the front 3 of 3-4-3?
People have become so obsessed with stats these days that they often overlook the finer details of the game. You don’t sign Aouar because he’s going to give you 20 key passes, 50 final third passes and 60 chances created in a game lol.
You sign him because he will help with our transitions, he’ll help with our midfield control, he will add technical quality to a midfield lacking in it. You need players to link the team together, and you need midfielders who compliment each other and what we lack right now is a player of Aouar’s dynamic. He has the ability to maintain possession, dribble in tight spaces, pick the right pass to help the team flow well.
We do have a creativity issue but we also have a serious midfield issue and signing Aouar goes some way to helping progress the quality of our midfield.
Stats just don’t really mean that much to me because they don’t come backed up with video evidence of what every single key pass looked like or how good that final third pass actually was and what came of it. They can be a great way to identify talent but they can also be highly deceiving. Sometimes the game isn’t always about stats.
I’ve gone off a lot of stats in the past 18 months or so.
Some are meaningful but some I think tell you more about what the coach is asking players to do rather than what a player is capable.
Like pass completion will be depleted for a player who’s being asked to play risky passes in a countering team, but they might be getting asked to play risky passes because they play them the best, or simply because they have the fastest wingers in the league.
Mate that’s the one thing Xhaka probably does better than Aouar. I don’t think Xhaka would be the one getting benched either, I think that would be Cebellos.
@JakeyBoy I’ve woke up still wondering why you think I love Jack Grealish? I mean I may have mentioned him, but there are other members on here who love him more than I do.
I haven’t seen a lot from Aouar, so I won’t pretend I know what type of he is, but from the minutes I did see him surely him coming here means a midfield three. A Xhaka - Aouar pivot gets overrun.
A part of creativity, in my opinion, is also creating space for others. That is not just done by the pass, but if you’re a good dribbler and force gaps by attracting the opposition’s attention you’re also creating.
But I’m not familiar with him. Not sure if he’s a good buy for 40+ million at all.
I mean I may have mentioned him, but there are other members on here who love him more than I do.