Nketiah to stay at Arsenal

Eddie Nketiah was on the verge of a loan move from Arsenal to Bristol City when Mikel Arteta stepped in an killed the deal. According to most reports, Nketiah will stay with the team this season.

On first glance this seems a bad idea for the youngster. Conventional wisdom suggests that a loan with playing time is significantly better than just sticking around the training center.

While at Leeds, Eddie played quite a bit more than I had expected. FBref lists 19 matches and 697 minutes this season. And Leeds play a style of football similar to Arsenal – or at least similar to what most folks want Arsenal to play. Nketiah had also been deployed by Bielsa as a center forward in his last two matches for the club – an 81 minute start in the 5-4 win over Birmingham City and a 45 minute start in a 1-1 draw against West Brom. All of this seems perfect for the youngster so, the decision to haul him back off loan is a curious one.

But even odder was the decision to then ship him out to Bristol City. Bristol City’s style of play is very much old-school football: passive without the ball, lots of crosses, set play goals, and headers. They also have two forwards over the age of 27 which they already deploy in their starting lineup and who take the lion’s share of their shots (101/281). And Bristol City already deploy a right-footed wide man in Niclas Eliasson – who supplies the majority of their crosses. Where, exactly Nketiah would have fit into that system is a huge mystery.

Thankfully, Arteta saw something from the young man in training and decided to stop the loan deal. While this may mean a lot less on-pitch time for the young Englishman, it means more hands-on coaching with Arteta and his team, and more time playing with guys like Auba, Laca, and Pepe.

Maybe another loan deal can be arranged, to another club which play a similar style of football to Arsenal. But if not, then I think staying at Arsenal is the best thing for him.

Qq

25 comments

  1. I’ve seen around 10 Leeds matches this year, Nketiah came on as a sub in about half of them. Very energetic and speedy, takes guys on and gets the corner on them, lifts his head up and can pick out teammates. Very similar to Martinelli, including size-wise, he’s slight of build.

    I think – given our dismal finances – we have to sell off Auba, Laca, Xhaka and Mustafi this summer. Nketiah is going to be the future.

    Glad to read the link to Bruno Guimaeres this morning, a player I might have mentioned a few weeks back as a potential signing because he’s still in Brazil and they’re on break right now. I think with Edu’s links to the Brazilian national set-up we’re going to be getting a lot of young U23 Brazilians coming through, which could be a good thing.

    1. Did you notice if he was involved in much of the high pressing game Arteta wants our forwards to do now? Being not so big might limit his effectiveness in this area, but Arteta must be impressed to hold him back from another loan deal. We’ll soon know what he’s all about I think and I’d love to see the three youngsters; Eddie, Pepe & Gabby lining up together

      1. Oh… he pressed high and had the speed to be effective. You can’t play for Bielsa and not press like your life didn’t depend on it.

        A front line of Martinelli, Nketiah and Nelson would press the crap out of the other team.

      1. In clips, he looks (excuse the comparison) like a more mobile, more defensive-minded version of Xhaka – he can deliver some real killer long passes from deep.

      2. wikipedia says he’s 6’0″.
        transfermarkt says he’s 182 cm. i’m 183 cm and i’m only 5’10”.

      3. As stated previously, I ban anyone who calls me “Timmy” which you do in almost every post. Also you followed my Instagram and started making dickhead comments there as well about my daughter so you are banned for life.

        Good bye.

  2. How about that full page ad for Mustafi currently on Arsenal.com? This looks to me like a pretty clear message that he’s staying…which, I guess, whatever, we’re in a bit of a crisis with defender injuries right now, and no chance we’re buying a marquee player in Jan… Would Boateng be any better? That Lewis Ambrose piece would suggest, “no.”

    My guess is we’re keeping Mustafi until the summer. He’s basically covering for the loss of Chambers, and then he’ll be off to Turkey.

    1. Jesus.. heartstrings.

      About halfway through I could hear a bit of tinny reverb and realized that they are interviewing him in some little booth. Like an isolation booth or something. Maybe they have him doing sensory depravation training?

  3. Five goals in 23 appearances with too many subs as opposed to starts, does not give me a great deal of optimism about Nketiah’s long term future as an Arsenal striker. I told Shard at the start of the season that Martinelli was ahead of him, and so it has proved.

    He’s a poacher… has a nose for being in the right place. But unless youre an Eduardo level poacher (the best goal opportunist Ive ever seen at Arsenal), the game asks more of its front men today. He’s good. Is he good enough?

    I disagree with Jack, in that if we sell our two senior strikers we simply bring in Eddie. We’d have to go to the market. And getting the quality that we want would be more expensive (id wager) than the combined total of what we’d get for Auba and Laca… because (1) Auba would be in his final year (2) Laca has not had the impact or productivity that we expected when we bought him.

    1. I think the two of them, combined, could fetch 60-70m on the market despite the one year left and Laca’s form.

      Do we need to replace them with players other than Nketiah?- surely. But if I have to guess, we’re going to move towards a younger more energetic forward corps; Pepe, Martinelli, Nelson, Nketiah. For 60-70m and a little extra we could add in an Everton Soares (age 22, 32M rated) and Moussa Dembele (age 23, 45M rated). Perhaps the scoring gets more distributed then rather than relying on one superstar and we have depth.

      1. I can see the logic in selling Laca but not Auba. I get that he is older and has a year left in his contract but if we can get him to re-sign I think he will still have decent transfer value in another year. Any of the top Italian clubs will gladly pay good money for him at 32. If we sell him this year we will be heavily reliant on our young players to make a major step up next season and as promising as some of them are I’m not sure that’s a realistic expectation. I also think any sales proceeds will go to strengthening our midfield and defense we we need more balance both in terms of age (central defenders are aging and 3 of them will probably get phased out/sold over the next two seasons) and skill (too many specialists in midfield and no versatile players that the likes of Willock and Guendouzi can learn from).

  4. So Ashley Young off to Italy for the price of a limited edition supercar. But hey at 34, he’s in free transfer territory.

    https://news.sky.com/story/james-bond-producer-says-007-will-always-be-male-11909785?fbclid=IwAR0suGM4BqkqIueRShQoHFb0neVLpgFH7qAe0FrEliIyWtAm1BTp1hbceIE

    There was a guy who maximised his limited gifts. Tim talked the other day about one-footed players? Exhibit A. Still, I reckon his best goal was the one he scored against us in the 8-2, a curler from outside the box. It was a beauty, and the best of the lot.

    1. You really think so? I would bet most men would be attracted to a woman like that. Not to settle down with, but to have a short term relationship. Think women are attracted to 007 types by the same rules of engagement.

  5. jack, since the summer, you’ve seemed eager to sell arsenal’s primary source of goals and only center forward. who in that lot is ready to do what aubameyang is doing right now? who’s ready to do what lacazette does? eddie’s got 5 goals in the championship and couldn’t hold down a regular starting spot. lacazette has that many goals in the premier league and he’s been injured half the season. also they would be supported by a bunch of 20-year olds in midfield. who’s gonna lead that group? is the 20-year old gonna get guidance from the 21-year old? sorry, bother but that’s a relegation waiting to happen.

    i know many are ready to see the end of him but arsenal were fortunate to keep mustafi. i think he’s been fairly good this year for a backup. clearly, he’s ready to play as he got a new agent and sought a move away. however, i can’t watch sokratis at right back or a way out of form rob holding again when arsenal have got a healthy mustafi.

    1. IIRC? Everytime #20 stepped onto the pitch for Arsenal in a PL match he was central to dropping either 2 or 3 points. Literally.

      Have you forgotten his attempted US football tackle of Teemu Pukki from behind? Well to be fair– he whiffed on that one too.

      Have no idea what anyone sees in a ticking bomb like him.
      I’d have my head on a swivel just having a beer with him.

  6. jack, a few threads back, we had a discussion about strategy. you mentioned bielsa and an approach he employs. my approach is much less sophisticated using principles of play, some cruyffian methods, and a bunch of stuff i made up; it works for me. a great discussion, though. i like to learn from other people.

    1. I posted the link below on that thread – 9th paragraph down – in this author’s analysis, one principle of gegenpressing is that the press is ideally done outwards:

      https://spielverlagerung.com/2014/10/07/counter-or-gegenpressing/?doing_wp_cron=1579239191.4298329353332519531250

      My other favorite form of procrastinating at work (the first being to come here and post unsolicited opinions backed by zero authority on subject matters) is reading tactics and coaching blogs.

      Cheers

  7. I hear we’re linked with Layvin Kurzawa from PSG. This would be an amazing coup, were we to bring this player in January. Cover for left back to free up Saka for the wing. He’d be a great addition to the squad as well.

    1. No way Jose. Injury prone. A new Tomas Rosicky or Abou Diaby. A Joorabchian client. Suck up more payroll space for a player we will barely see. He’s basically free for the asking.

  8. Laca needs to score more goals, and now would be a good time. Josh, he’s been injured some, but not “half the season.”

    His numbers have been low since he arrived. He has 32 premier league goals in nearly 3 completed seasons. He’s got 5 so far in the league (1 more in Europa), Theo Walcott numbers. Let’s project and say he’ll get 8 this season in the league at the rate he’s scoring. That’s a tick under 12 a season league goals.

    Let’s look at season by season in the EPL
    1st… 32 games, 6 as sub, 14 goals.
    2nd…. 35 games, 8 as sub, 13 goals
    Current… 15 games 3 as sub, 5 goals

    Returns in Europe were 3, 1 and 1 over the years. That makes it 37 all comps. let’s project 2 more in Europe at that rate. That’s 42 goals in 3 years in all comps. Average 14 all comps, based on a projected 5 more goals in all comps from now till season’s end.

    OK with hold up play and all round contribution leading the line, and he is a superb contributor in that respect on his day. That output had dropped by late Emery, and thats why Freddie benched him. But he has looked rejuvenated under Arteta, and all who argued that that is where he should play and start were correct.

    My problem with Laca is his goal output, which to me has been disappointing. You dont pay supercar money for a car to regularly do pickup truck duties. Sometimes you need your expensive supercar to do expensive supercar things, and Laca has looked woeful in front of goal.

    I like the bloke, I like his chemistry with Auba, but I am increasingly coming around to the idea that we havent got out of him the value that we had expected. Him I’d sell in a heartbeat, and go to market for a Tammy Abraham type CF. Yeah yeah. I know that those are unicorns, but thats why we have scouts.

    Unless we win Europa (we’re not getting top 4) I think that Auba is gone. Elite forwards don’t waste their years playing Qarabag, and at his age, he’s got 2 years left at the top. In fact, he’d be stupid to stay if Arsenal did not qualify for CL.

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