Mavropanos close to a £7m move to Stuttgart. Once again the fee feels low or at best totally reasonable.
It’ll be annoying if I’m a depressed market we manage to do a classic Arsenal and sell all our players on the cheap and get fleeced and over pay for our signings.
Mavropanos is 23, a full international and had a full season of top level German football last year. £7m just feels far too measly.
Ask yourself if for some reason we wanted a Mavropanos replacement who at his level could we get for £7m?

No. Just no.

I think it's his injury record combined with him only wanting to move to Stuttgart that lowers the fee. As good as he seems to have been when playing, he only started 19 out of 34 league games last season, and he's had trouble with other injuries in the past too.

Seems a reasonable fee. He never impressed at all for us really.

I think because we had to give away Sokratis, Özil and mustafi to get their wages off the books our fans now think we are making an error not getting more for these players.

I think also the club need to Aggressively move some of these non contributors on to rebuild so may consider lower offers than they usually would.

I posted this on Azeez awhile back for David's benefit. Seen nothing on a new contract yet.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/05/14/r ... azeez/?amp

Guess there isn't another lamb up for the slaughter instead of Emile Smith Rowe then Los Blancos might want instead.

Likely nonsense writing. If true, hope Arsenal don't make the dumb decision to agree on this.

Emile Smith Rowe home grown, and has established himself as a trusted first-teamer. Much more driven player than almost the entire squad (something we need in abundance).

Ødegaard, I'm still not convinced he can make it happen for us. Pulls away from tackles too quickly. Not anywhere close to Özil, Cesc or Carzola level to warrant this swap.

I agree, it’s probably nonsense journalism and I wouldn’t want to lose Smith Rowe for Ødegaard either. But can’t you find ways to say that without slagging Ødegaard off? Ødegaard is an elite talent and potentially a truly elite player. I suspect that’s why Real Madrid, in my view the world’s biggest club, not only bought him but probably want to keep him. I bet he ends up achieving more in the game than Cazorla, sadly as I don’t see it being with Arsenal.

Just to clarify, my last sentence was relevant to club careers, not international football.

Spurs hunt for a new manager goes on
Nagelsmann, Rodgers, Flick, Ten Hag, Pochettino, Conte, Fonseca, Gattuso.....on to the next one. Scott Parker?

It is interesting that last year we had the 3rd best defence but 9th best attack. Creating chances and scoring goals was our problem (alongside a number of individual errors in defence) So most people would think we need more attackers. I read an interesting article about how actually better defenders can help the attacking output if those defenders bring the right skillset. The defenders themselves aren't creating or scoring goals but they are progressing the ball forward more quickly and more accurately and are more press resistant. Quite simply, get the ball forward quicker and retain possession better to keep up the intensity of attacks and we present our forward players with better opportunities to create chances.

I was certainly someone amongst many who bemoaned the lack of creativity in our side particularly at the start of last season, but have seen more to the argument than a solution being the simple option of buying more creative players.

A comparison was made to Pep and City in his second season, Pep went from 4th to Champions, conceding fewer and scoring more on the back of the summer business being a full defensive revamp. The big signings that summer for City were Ederson, Walker, Mendy, Danillo, and Laporte following in the winter. The only major attacking signing was Bernardo Silva.

At the top level these centre backs who do all the good things defenders do but also have the technique and passing range of a central midfielder are absolutely crucial

I am not sure I take much pleasure in this as if it all goes wrong before Christmas we will have a number of the same names on our shopping list.

Spurs built a credible team with Pochettino, gradually improving so much so they made the CL final and were over achieving - the slightest hint of that over achieving diminishing and they sacked him and got in Jose Mourinho. They deserve every problem they have.

Our situation is a bit more different for a number of reasons. Without being arrogant I think managers are less likely to turn Arsenal down than they are to turn Spurs down - no matter that they've finished above us in the league for 4-5 years now, on a global scale we're simply a bigger team. Also, I don't really get the impression Arsenal will move Arteta on in a hurry, especially if there isn't a credible candidate available.
Someone like Rodgers - I don't blame him staying at Leicester, but they've had champions league football snatched away in the last two seasons, yes they won the FA Cup and continue to punch above their weight but Rodgers will surely be tempted by another chance at a really big club - I don't know if he'd see us as big enough but my bet is he might.

One should take one's pleasure where one can, Gaz

Slightly daft and maybe naïve question, but I'll ask it anyway.

In modern football, what's the essential difference between the number 10 role and the number 8 role?

I’ve always seen the number 10 role as the deep creative central forward role. A sort of Cantona or Bergkamp player. I’ve always seen the number 8 as the creative central midfielder role. A sort of Cazorla or Fabregas type of player, even if they don’t have the 8 shirt.

Depends on the coach and the set up.

generally accepted the number 8 has more defensive duties than the 10. The suggestion is Partey is best played as an 8

Thanks Bern & TG. I see what you're both saying and I wouldn't disagree. Tricky one.

In terms of 8 or 10, how should we view Saka and Smith-Rowe?

Traditionally I’ve always seen the number 4 as the defensive midfielder.

Emile Smith Rowe is a 10 who can also play wide left if the coach wants to retain possession a bit more (maybe in a big game) . Ødegaard is clearly a 10 and likewise Maddison. The type of player we need to invest in this summer in my opinion

Saka is neither and looks best wide left or right i think.

Cazorla and Fàbregas we’re good enough to be played in either position. Actually cazorla was so good he could play anywhere apart from defence or striker I reckon

Saka number 11 and Smith Rowe 7 maybe, as I see those as the wide midfielder numbers which is probably a decent description of them?

In sum, I’ve always seen the numbers as closest to these roles. 1 goalkeeper, 2 right back, 3 left back, 4 defensive midfielder, 5 strong in the air central defender, 6 ball playing central defender, 7 right midfield, 8 creative central midfield, 9 centre forward, 10 creative central forward, 11 left midfield.

EDIT: The numbers above have lost relevance to modern formations (for example, many teams don’t play with a traditional centre forward these days). Squad numbers have made them even less relevant as well. I wonder when the last time was that Arsenal’s starting eleven had the shirt numbers 1-11?

It’s not really numerical anymore as squad numbers have chucked all that out the window but people refer to 8 and 10 as numbers still for some reason to determine the roles of the 2 more attacking midfielders. Just a form of terminology people use for some reason

Agreed. Reported as being bought for £1.9m, so if this sale happens a £5m profit does not seem too shabby.

I think I'd agree with this TG, and with your last 'Edit' Bern. The numbers and their designations haven't made a great deal of sense to me for a while.

2?

Historically some of the time at Arsenal some of the more defensive midfielders wore 8 a lot. Paul Davis (a favourite of mine) and Kevin Richardson for example.

Ian Wright certainly broke that and made the number his own.

A right back?

Amid my moaning on the pitiful transfer fees we receive, or supposedly receive the acid test will be if Willock and AMN are sold.
You could make a case for a lot of our players who might be sold that we aren't in a strong negotiating position, be it contract length, age, injuries, attitude or ability of the player - each of the likes of Xhaka, Lacazette, Nketiah, Elneny, Kolasinac, Mavropanos and even Bellerin have circumstances where it might be difficult for us to get top whack for them. But Willock and AMN we do not have to sell, as young home grown players on the up they are a rare commodity and will have plenty of suiters. We must not sell either on the cheap if they do depart.

Agree. It is a question of formation I think
In a 4-2-3-1 you have a definite 10 behind the striker. If that player goes deeper and therefore becomes an 8 the formation changes to 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1
Ina classic 4-4-2 you could have an 8 and a 10, with the 10 slightly off the main centre forward but not many teams play like that nowadays and ironically those that do tend to be scrappy teams who wouldn't field an 8 or a 10 - they tend to go with 2 No.4's in central midfield and 2 No. 9's up front. Think of Burnley and you'll get my thinking.

Taking it further someone like Pep plays with 2 No.8s (De Bruyne and Silva for a long time). With a single holding midfielder this formation is 4-1-2-2-1 with 2 wide men and 2 8's behind. I think this is the sort of thing Arteta would like to implement at Arsenal it is a kind of very attacking 4-3-3

This is exactly how I see shirt numbers on the classic english 4-4-2. I think other countries have this a bit different. Some have the 6 as a holding midfielder, and I'm sure I've seen some national teams have 3 as a CB - whether that came from player preference or not I don't know.
The one I recall was Brazil when Roberto Carlos at left back wore 6 and Lucio the CB used to wear 3.

I played no 4 for my primary school team.

That was right half in a 2-3-5 formation. And we played in heavy mens’ rugby shirts. And used dubbin on our boots.

Presumably you used jumpers for goalposts.

Proper goalposts. No nets though.

https://twitter.com/adamvoge/status/1405880764953206787

This guy on twitter does some great chart and stats analysis of players.
This is a selection of central midfielders ranked on their attacking and ball retention. He's pushing Auoar again, if he's available for less than last year that is a good example of extracting value from this market

At school we had school issue rugby shirts that were reversible. plain on one side and hoops on the other. We'd spend half the lesson doing various rugby drills then half the lesson playing a match where half the class had to reverse their tops which were now nice and muddy. The feeling of putting the muddy side against your skin was not a nice one

Yuk. I can imagine that feeling still living with you.

Sorry, can't help it. It wasn't over-the-top slagging. Just don't like the way he plays. I prefer him to be tougher, like Cesc. Agree, he could potentially be a magician in the middle of the park. But I've not seen enough to be convinced he is able to bring up his game to match the opposition when needed. Well, I've been wrong before (don't we all?), and if he stays with us, hope he proves me wrong.

The number 9 role

Czech to beat Croatia