Yeh very true I just find ESR weirdly impressive at times, he doesn’t play like your typical English midfielder, he’s got a bit of an intellect to his game that I think if developed correctly could be very useful for us. Willock on the other hand is the exact opposite. Plays and runs hard, can carry the ball well but I’d just like to see more emphasis on his final plays.
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Give it another season similar to the last and people will say the same for Saka too.
The Guendouzi hype train about to be derailed.
ngl I’m biased, what he does just doesn’t impress me. He can recycle possession well and carry/pass the ball out of midfield well too but that’s about it from my POV, I wouldn’t call that well rounded. I think he’s a big liability in the defensive third too.
Just don’t see Guendouzi as a starter at a club with a serious focus on CL football
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Nelson isn’t making it here IMO
Happy to be proven wrong though
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That will only happen on the day we sell him to Real Madrid for 150 million.
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Sticking to your guns with Willock eh? Think any list like this that doesn’t have him last is pretty discreditable.
Tier 1
Martinelli
Tier 2
Guendouzi, Nelson, Saka (in that order)
Tier 3
ESR
Tier 4
Willock
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Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a massive fan of Willock. But if I had to choose out of him, ESR and Nelson to start, I’d have to begrudgingly choose him.
But it matters if overpaying means we can’t move him. I know everyone dunks on Arsenal supporters for being armchair accountants but the club has been run so poorly and opaquely that we have no choice. Overpaying for Pepe matters because it means he has to be a success otherwise we’re in deep shit.
Yeah, I don’t really get that. Nelson is the most talented of the three, ESR seems much more likely to stick as a first division player than Willock, and Willock, is, yeah, I think pretty clearly the worst prospect of the three.
If he ends up being one third the player Sancho is, that’ll be a great result from this point.
No way is he Sancho level but my feeling is he needs ‘something’ to click for him right now. There’s definitely a player there and I think Arteta really likes him, so some form of project is still to be had with him yet.
Maybe growing up with Sancho as a close friend, being hyped in the same circles as him has been detrimental to his development? I didn’t imagine Sancho’s rise to be this prominent and on the same hand, maybe this has caught Nelson offguard and he feels he needs to take an even greater step up to establish himself to someone that was equal to him years ago. I think he needs to just rethink his plan and focus on himself rather than comparing himself with the prodigy that is Sancho.
On the flipside, the trio of Martinelli, Guendouzi and Saka came into the team with far less hype around them and this has probably projected a lot more positivity compared to Nelson’s path to the first team.
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I’m a big fan of Willock. I think he has a great ceiling and I’d love to see him kill it at Arsenal.
Definitely going to have a better next few seasons over Nelson - who I fear might end up being a later bloomer.
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This club can’t move players regardless. Mustafi might be going into his 5th year…
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A really meh game. Only thing of note was the cross that Laca squandered.
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He really needs to be a bit more fearless in 1v1 situations for me to make any judgement on him. He always seems to be way to conservative in his play; neat passes/link up whereas he is being given the license to roam (in some fashion).
I’m inclined to give him more time as he works his way into a solid run in the team.
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The kind of player you use in an easy home game. Nowhere near good enough at other times.
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He needs to have more confidence in his ability, he always seems to be playing within himself right now.
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We need to sell him is what we need to do.
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This guy just shows no willingness to be a player. Ridiculously conservative. He’s like the Denilson of wingers.
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But because he scored a few goals in the first half of a loan spell in Germany, he’s fooled some Arsenal fans into thinking we might have had a Sancho on our hands.
Saka and Guendouzi are examples of young players who aren’t afraid to put their print on a game and try to impose their personality on the pitch.
Nelson is an example of a young player who doesn’t yet have the confidence or mentality to do the same. He should be sent on a 2 year loan at the very least.
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