Lot of tame efforts there. So many good positions too.
Hope he finds his scoring boots ASAP.
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Started 18 games, 1 goal 6 assists.
The goals are low the assists are fine, although he’s helped by a couple in the cup.
On the goals front I don’t really remember him having many glaring chances, seems his shots are always with 3 defenders in front and get blocked because he’s slow to shoot.
Well he did create clear chances for Rice & Havertz against United.
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Maybe he cant get his shooting how he wants because his ankle is still bad and is playing with an injury.
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There were rumours that Rice was playing with a broken toe, and his perfomances dropped off. Last couple games he seems more like his old self.
Odegaard was rushed back and I believe was playing through injury - his pressing has returned again in recent games, but still may not be fully there yet.
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Or maybe he’s just in shit form which has been the case for the majority of the season
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could be…but just was saying maybe he isnt quite there with his injury that makes it that much worse.
I do think he may be out of puff a bit because it was like he was running off of nuclear energy for the past two seasons
The level of work rate was insane tbh and likely not sustainable
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I wonder if his new arrival is also having an impact. Tbf it has been a difficult season with the injury, then illness, new arrival and losing Saka who he clearly thrives playing alongside. Just got to hope that his form improves at the business end of the season. We need the whole team to suddenly click into gear and go on a run.
First 20 secs and he’s called out something I’ve noticed a lot this season.
Partey on the ball desperately looking for forward options and finding none. Need more movement from the 4 in front of him rather than hiding in their assigned positions. Jesus helps a lot with this.
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I don’t know if you remember the game where Partey played that disguised pass to Merino and Merino just hit it horribly and it flew wide.
Partey is almost always looking for that forward pass.
That would be correct imo.
Hard to find a more attacking minded 6 in recent football.
But Zubimendi gonna be a great replacement supposedly
Genuinely asking are you being sarcastic? 
I know absolutely nothing about him apart from supposedly every big club has bent over to try sign him.
And why is he still Real Sociedad, being almost 26 years old?
He’s been waiting for Arsenal all the time?
Pretty obvious all the big clubs are desperate about him if you ask me.
I was yeah haha
He’s a good player but he just seems to bo quite safe with his passing, don’t think he’s a top athlete. All round good player but not sure he’s such a great fit for us considering we need more X factor in that midfield.
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I don’t know about all the big clubs being interested, but he rejected a move to Liverpool last summer.
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I didn’t say so…
Apart from Liverpool (and supposedly us), I don’t think anyone has been very serious about him yet.
Anyway, that doesn’t speak much about his quality, but you definitely can’t say he’s as wanted as prime R9 as the initial post would suggest.
Zubimendi seems like quite a boring and safe passer I’m not sure he’s quite the transformative midfield option he’s being made out to be.
A midfield of Merino, Rice and Zubimendi would be a midfield worth £200m but without a single exciting and risky passer of the ball. Obviously they wouldn’t all line up but the point is that the three of them aren’t exceptional passers but would have come at quite a big cost.
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