Seeing a lot of “Odegaard was part of the team that finished 8th last season” discourse which I think is a bit silly because a) so was Saka- are we saying he’s not good enough?
No one is saying Saka isn’t good enough.
But what they are saying is Odegaard isn’t an upgrade on last season because he was already here.
We are desperate for a goal scoring, assist making AM and I don’t think Odegaard is that player.
If we finished eighth with him, why would we finish any higher this season?
I doubt if White and Ramsdale are going to propel us into the top four places.
Yeah. Hopefully he uses him centrally more now, with plenty of options(ESR, Odegaard, Saka, Pepe, Martinelli) to play as the three attacking mids behind him now(with Odegaard being central alongside Partey and Lokonga), though still feel Xhaka will be preferred to Lokonga initially. Also gives the flexibility to bring on Laca and have two up top if the game situation demands it. Think ESR is gonna have a big season as well.
Odegaard and Saka are simply two young players that boarder closer to potential than shear ability at this point. The fact they are highly talented and that any team would be lucky to have them doesn’t change the fact that our midfield is a complete black hole, and our striker situation consists of two ridiculously one dimensional types that seem to have their head’s turned by a move somewhere else.
Odegaard is one good signing, we needed about 2 or 3 this summer. There is still time but anyone expecting Odegaard to come in and turn us into a top 4 team is living in lala land.
I feel like people have a right to feel a little underwhelmed so far.
But we still lacked players to score and assist.
We might have moved up three places but nearly all of our last fixtures were against relegation, or mid table sides, that made us look good.
We needed a marquee signing in this window to give the club a lift and no matter how anyone dresses this up, Odegaard is not that player.
He isn’t going to be the difference in the pathetic way we played against Brentford, to taking us to the next level.
He’s yet another mid level signing, for poor manager, in an underwhelming window.
I don’t think Maddison would be that player either. If you’re paying upwards of £60m+ I’d be expecting Fernandes level production/impact which Maddison has never really had at Leicester.
Who would be a marquee signing for us, do you think we have the pull power to do this, is it Maddisson was Party? i am not sure, We need to be realistic of where we are now and bring in talented players with high ceiling and hope it all clicks together at some point…we finished 8th last year, just lost to Brentford and we are miles away from CL spots, Odegaard is a good player he will help us, the problem is we need so many fixes and maybe a new manager, so him alone is not the answer.
Those matches against mid-table and relegation sides used to be a big problem though wasn’t it? We struggled against deep blocks.
Nobody is denying Arteta’s record against the current Top 4. He slapped them all at least once.
To answer @Castiel’s point too.
Odegaard isn’t gonna make us a Top 4 side, but neither would Maddison or even Grealish alone would.
I actually remember speaking about it after that West Ham game and the overreaction over Odegaard, how the West Ham game itself should have been seen as a problem instead of a turning point.
We aren’t going anywhere with our brain farts at the back, those periods during games where we go into peak banter mode and not taking advantage of periods where we pin our opponents in their box and not score.
I would have gone for Maddison or someone who fits the description of a goal scoring AM, which is what we needed.
I’d rather spend our budget on one or two top quality players, for positions that we are desperate for, than another CB and GK cover.
This window has been underwhelming to say the least and, as @Castiel said, we have replaced Bellerin with Bellerin, Xhaka with Xhaka, Odegard with Odegard , spent 50m on another CB we don’t need and wasted 30m on Ramsdale.
By any stretch of the imagination, that sort of business is not going to take us to the next level.
Would disagree with the notion that we didn’t need a CB. We have a fair few if them, but several are basically shit. David Luiz was a waning force yet he was still better than most of our options, if truth be told.
I don’t think I’d have jazzed 50 fucking mill on one this summer, but I do think buying one was a good idea, cos we did need better than what we would have been going into the season with.
Bergkamp-style signing for me. I think the “same again” fatigue may be affecting some people’s judgement here. If he and Partey can keep clear of injury we’ll make a Europa spot at least. All we need to find now is a RB, GK and Auba’s shooting boots. Until phase two next summer of course.
