Sokratis is by far our best CB currently so I don’t really get how anyone can criticize him.
He was okay today after a long absence. He isn’t the problem in this defense.
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agree with the three of you, he had an alright game, made some crucial interceptions, but also ended up a bit off the mark a couple of times. There seems to be a good CB in there imo, let’s see if he can just get back into form and prove it. I would love to see a Kos-Sok pairing eventually, they could perhaps be great together.
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Hes no solution to a on going problem. Could of been adjudged to have given a penalty away today. That and another occasion he was turned inside out of central defence.
He is only suited to park the bus defending type of football. Liability of a signing in an essential position for this side.
You’ve got to think about why we signed him though. Our only fit CBs were Mustafi who’s generally shit and Holding who’s still very young. Sokratis isn’t meant to be our next great leader at the back, he’s a solid and experienced defender who we needed to come in this season and do a job. I guarantee you we would be worse off right now if we didn’t have him in the side.
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Well we would if we hadnt bought anyone else. It was and is an essential signing and we settled for adequate and average imo.
But why did we need to sign Sokratis? Why couldn’t we invest the money in a better CB when there are clearly better CBs out there.
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Mhki and this guy have been really disappointing signings. Sven just signing them cause he knew them from Dortmund is so lazy
Because they cost 70m now and we are out of the CL. I’d rather buy the B option who will be solid for a season and hopefully go for the top CB when we can actually get them.
What top CB was available in the summer who was within our budget and would have wanted to come?
If we’re not playing CL football next season, this transfer will be a flop and poor investment.
There were plenty of young CB’s out there with plenty of upside we could have brought in whilst clearing the dross like Mustafi out. I would have been willing to sit out the CL for a another year or two if we were building a younger team
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Yep this was a signing for the sake of it.
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I have to credit Mustafi that he is so bad that I don’t mind Sokratis anymore
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Maybe they chose to spend a bit more conservatively and they felt the need for a more experienced defender since Koscielny was going to be out for half a season. Mislintat-bias surely played a role.
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This is exactly what I think happened, I don’t get why people are so baffled by a short term signing like this lmao
We spent years moaning about Wenger never doing the business and bringing in cover for certain areas, and then when we do it people complain that the player isn’t world class. That will come once we actually have the tools to complete that signing, but I’m totally fine with Sokratis so far for what he’s supposed to be.
But why did we need to make a short term signing? This wasn’t the January transfer window this was the summer transfer window for a new manager after years of our defence clearly being weak. A new CB should have been a priority and that means signing someone who is good enough to fill the void left by Kosh and the fact that Mustafi is shit.
Sokratis was a poor signing and one we never needed to make.
The club new well before the summer that we needed a new CB so had ample time to plan for it too. It’s just really poor squad management because we’ve spent £16m on a past it CB who’ll be gone in the next two years. It’s money wasted
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We had been down this road with Gabriel and got nowhere with it. Its the same level here and leaves us with the same problems.
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Who would you have signed? How do you know that a CB as good as the one we wanted was within our budget or wanted to join a Europa League side?
It’s easy to say “we should’ve signed this player” but sometimes it isn’t possible. Instead of settling for nothing, we got solid cover imo.
I’m completely aware of our need for new CBs, but I don’t think it’s as easy as saying that we should have done better in the summer when we weren’t at all a desired destination and were working on a thin budget.
And how do you know that there wasn’t a CB that was within our budget? I’m not a football scout and I’m not employed by one of the richest clubs on earth. It’s not my job to speculate on who we could have signed instead but we have a team of scouts who’s job it is to identify talent from across the globe. I’m sure there is one football player out there who would have joined Arsenal for a reasonable fee and been a better CB option that Sokratis.
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Nah ah not true 
The guy we should have got was Diallo who is balling it for Dortmund, who they bought to replace Sokratis
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I don’t know that there wasn’t another option, but that’s why I’m not criticising the decision.
Do you even think Sokratis has been bad though? I think he’s been our best CB overall and has been decent for the most part.