Hey folks. Couple of quick things this morning but first let’s talk a bit about the football.
Looks like Guendouzi has officially signed on loan to Olympic Marseille for a year. There were a lot of rumors that this deal included a “must buy” option in Summer 2022 but the Guardian are reporting it as an “option to buy.” Either way this looks like the end of his Arsenal career.
I saw an interesting stat about him this morning from Twitter user @HarveyDownes92 –
He was used 48 times by Unai Emery in his debut season at Arsenal. And most of the names on that list are legends. Which is quite incredible and just shows you how much faith Unai Emery placed in that young man.
Another player on that list, and further up, is Lucas Torreira. I guess I didn’t realize how much they were being used in that first season for Unai Emery but again, like Guendouzi, another player that Unai Emery put all of his trust in. He brought those two players in to revamp the Arsenal midfield and it failed spectacularly.
I think both players suffered a little bit from the same problem: they hated being pressed. When they were pressed, both would fall over and claim they were fouled. Lucas Torreira was 3rd in the League in fouls drawn per game and Guendouzi was 8th. Arsenal were the most fouled team in the League that year, almost all of them between the two midfielders!
And it’s genuinely a terrible strategy. Falling over to win a free kick in midfield worked a lot but when it didn’t work, it’s a turnover in a dangerous area, the player was taken out of the game entirely, and he’s now exposed his teammates to a quick counter attack. I believe it was one of the non-negotiables that Arteta drills into his midfielders, they aren’t allowed to do that and in fact, I believe he refuses to call fouls in training in order for the players to get used to playing with pressure. Both players continued to play that way while out on loan and it’s not a surprise that Arteta didn’t want either.
I always saw a lot of potential in Guendouzi. I thought he was brought in to replace Granit Xhaka and with his passing range and tireless running, it seemed like he could do it. But he struggled with the physicality of the Premier League and also seemed to have a problem listening to orders and staying in position. More than once, Emery showed frustration with Guendouzi as he would run all over the [place, vacating huge swaths of the pitch so he could be closer to the ball.
None of those things are irreparable. Guendouzi could still go on to have a great career as a top footballer. But he’s got a lot of work to do. Talent will only get a player so far.
With Torreira, there was a lot of talk a few weeks ago that he was going to Lazio but I haven’t seen any movement since. Maybe it’s going to happen, maybe it won’t.
We have two players coming in this week (according to the Guardian) Tavares and Lokonga. Data for these two players is practically non-existent. I can see both players in Whoscored and I suppose we could draw some conclusions from that.
Tavares: dribbles a lot, turns the ball over a lot, doesn’t win a lot of possessions, does create chances, doesn’t have any errors for goals or conceded a penalty last season (though he has 2 errors for shots and 1 for a goal last year, but also had a goal and 4 assists last year.. so). Seems like a decent enough backup.
Lokonga: decent long % completion for a 21 year old. Good looking defensive stats, scored three goals, all from outside the box, created just 1 big chance but had 2 assists. Another good, young, backup player.
Ok, that’s transfers out of the way. What else was I going to talk about…
Euro 2020 rumbled on yesterday as Spain fell to Italy in a penalty shoot out. Meanwhile on this continent, Argentina beat Colombia, also in a penalty shoot out but the two games couldn’t have been more different.
England are the team to beat in these Euros. They have it all: speed, power, skill, and a bunch of players who can create and score. Their only flaw is that the midfield is a bit underwhelming. Henderson is just returning from injury and Phillips and Rice aren’t bad but they are just, workmen. 2nd tier players in my mind. Meanwhile, the starting midfield for Spain was Busquets, Koke, and Pedri with Thiago and Rodri on the bench. That’s an absurd amount of midfield talent. Italy have Jorginho and Verratti and brought on Locatelli (plays for Sassuolo). That’s not a bad midfield by any stretch but they were utterly outplayed by Spain.
Spain and Italy was a bit of a foul-happy contest. Most of the action seemed to be centered around Dani Olmo – who seemed to foul every time he didn’t have the ball or get fouled every time he did have it. He committed a game high 7 fouls and also had 11 turnovers.
There were a series of fouls by Spain which I felt needed to be penalized more. They kept backing into Italian players in the air and undercutting them – the Harry Kane foul. This is a foul which is rarely called and yet it’s one of the most dangerous bits of play that a player can commit. The guy in the air going for the ball is utterly at the mercy of the guy on the ground. This foul fits all of the criteria for a straight red card – it’s intentional, it’s dangerous, and it’s done with blatant disregard for the safety of the opponent – and I feel VAR should be used to punish these offenders. It’s crazy to think that gently touching someone’s face is a red card but undercutting a man in the air and potentially breaking his neck isn’t even a foul.
After Spain equalized both teams played a bit of football but we all knew where this was headed: penalties. And Italy winning on pens was about as predictable an outcome as was ever written in Grimm’s fairy tales.
But the fouls in Euro 2020 were nothing compared to the agricultural challenges in the Argentina – Colombia match. This was a brutal affair from the start with both teams going in studs up on nearly every challenge. I guess you could say that the referee did well to keep the game under control but the first half was incredible: 20 fouls and just 2 yellow cards. The 2nd of those was for Juan Cuadrado who went in on (can’t remember who) with a Shawcross-style scything tackle.
After the break, the ref cleaned the game up and handed out 8 yellow cards. But not before Messi was rotationally fouled to the point where he was bleeding through his sock.
The match ended 1-1 and instead of the pretense of overtime – like they do in Europe – they skipped right to pens. I’m thinking that FIFA ought to amend the rules and let the captains of each team decide if they want to play the added time or go straight to pens. If both captains agree to skip to pens, then that’s what happens.
The real hero for Argentina wasn’t Messi and his bloody sock, it was Emi Martinez in the penalty shootout. Martinez was full of confidence and you could hear him trash talking the Colombian players. It’s one thing to talk trash and quite another to back it up, which Emi did, making two stunning saves to see his team through to play against Brazil in the final on Saturday.
It was a good day of football and today should be as well. England play Denmark in their semi-final with the English team huge favorites. The Danes are a very good team and are in the semis on more than just the emotions of losing Eriksen in the first game. The English would be smart not to take this match lightly or think that the Danes are just playing on emotion.
And finally, I wanted to make a post about how to make Ciabatta bread. It’s one of the easiest of the high hydration doughs out there but it is a several day process. To get started measure out 100g of cold filtered water, 100g of bread flour, and a pinch of dried yeast. Mix them in a bowl and let sit on the counter. I’ll post the rest of the recipe tomorrow!
why is the post titled “buendia”? i thought for sure you’d say something about him.
i believe guendouzi was brought in to replace ramsey, not xhaka. in fact, he did replace ramsey. the number of appearances on the chart proves that whereas ramsey hardly featured. i loved the fact that guendouzi was an arsenal player. he was young, talented, brash, and unafraid of the big moment…and arsenal got him for cheap. he reminds me most of adrian rabiot. it’s a real shame arsenal don’t have a manager capable of dealing with his personality. i think it was devlin who quoted the bayern manager saying that 70% of management is dealing with personalities. that’s absolutely right. arteta has yet to prove he can deal with players with big personalities other than with an iron fist. for £7 million, this was a good signing by emery.
i watched torreira during the last world cup and was like, “nah”. he wasn’t a bad player, just not suited for the premier league…especially for £26 million. i figured he’d either burn out or remain injured. that was a bad signing by emery.
for me, yesterday’s highlight was the shootout last night. you’re absolutely right, emi martinez was talking big trash to everyone who stepped up…and it was nice that you could hear it. it’s clear to see why wenger held on to this young man for so long. however, it’s strange to see how ospina ever played ahead of him. if memory serves me correctly, i think emi saved three penalties last night, not 2. i’m happy for him but i’m sad that he’s not longer an arsenal player. we also missed out on buendia because martinez convinced him to sign for aston villa instead of playing for arteta; sticking with the thread title.
good day
The Harry Kane foul “is a foul which is rarely called and yet it’s one of the most dangerous bits of play that a player can commit. The guy in the air going for the ball is utterly at the mercy of the guy on the ground. This foul fits all of the criteria for a straight red card – it’s intentional, it’s dangerous, and it’s done with blatant disregard for the safety of the opponent – and I feel VAR should be used to punish these offenders.”
Perfectly stated. Agree totally. And you can see Harry looking at his opponent and not the ball, before engaging in this cheap piece of cynicism. It’s why, even though I favour England, I find it hard to root for the success of their captain. The racial abse by a boneheaded minority of Sterling — who at one point had 100% of England’s goals — and the jeers for players taking the knee, also turn me off old England, but hey. I expect they’ll have too much class for Denmark, and, as you said, theyre the total package. Their depth in forward and wide areas is something. As much as I don’t want to root for Harry Kane, I want Saka to have mad success. Sigh.
btw, anyone seen the video of an England journo asking Kasper Schmeichel what it would be like for Denmark “to stop it coming home” (to England)? Cringeworthy.
It usually takes about four to six months for players to lose the tendencies brought upon by a prior coach and , and start resembling what the current coach will be trying to implement. It’s also why teams have that jump in performances after hiring a new coach whose tactics or style of management is the opposite of their predecessor. The players either gain more structure or freedom, and about 3 months in, the marriage I the two systems provides balance and usually good performances and/or results. After 6 months though, the team is completely in the mould of the current coach. This is also the reason I feared after winning the FA Cup, that the way we won might have actually been Arteta’s preferred way of playing instead of him making do with what he had.
Emery’s fir season had very interesting start and the football was even more peculiar. Arsenal still had Arsene’s passing moves and combinations, exemplified by some lovely goals in that unbeaten run. But those disappeared after the six month period.
Now I say all of that to ask this. I can see the stats about the fouls for both players, does anyone think that those stats are a part of their natural game and they came with it to Arsenal? Or was their insistence on falling over a symptom of opposition sussing out the chinks in Emery’s tactical set up which is very easily exploited by an aggressive and targeted press?
Not many spoke of these tendencies at the start of that season, which was understandable. But our whole team was shit under the press, from the goalkeeper and trying to play it out. Especially when we were trying these rehearsed moves to get out, as with under Arteta, we exposed our midfielders and offered no viable options out except to dribble out. Which is why we brought Ceballos in Emery’s second season.
I think these designed patterns of play that Mikel likes, and the directing of players is a huge reason why Guendouzi isnt to his liking. The boys positioning, as Tim points out, can only be described as chaotic at times. What Guendouzi does however do, is play everywhere and anywhere, collecting and distributing or driving with the ball, which in an Arteta team need approval from the bench first. And being hard headed, it was probably and insult to the young man to take orders on almost every move in game. It is certainly not a work rate thing because the boy is a serious hardworker.
Torreira is the wierd one, and based on what he had done before joining us, was the one who was supposed to replace Xhaka. Torreira played as a regista in a midfield diamond for Sampdoria and really shined. He was able to collect the ball and quickly distribute. The Kante comparisons didn’t do him service and typecast him into the wrong type of player. His defending at Sampdoria was restricted to zone 14, where players don’t have much time , space and micontrol a lot. In this small, congested space, it’s not muscle or brain that usually wins, it’s timing and blocking, which he did well. He also played the same role for Urugauy at the World Cup in 2018. Knowing this and knowing how Emery loves big defensive midfielders (to protect the holes his teams leave in the middle), it wants a surprise when he played Torreira as a defensive attacking midfielder. That right there, was for me, the end of Torreira at Arsenal.the box to box and attacking role just looked forced and ended up exposing him to big runners who charge through the middle (An Emery coached team’s weakness).
It’s a shame that people think Guendouzi failed because he didn’t replace Xhaka or that Torreira was not good because he didn’t match up to Kante. I was surprised by the number of appearances, but their performances in the time they spent as key players for Arsenal provided the best midfield performances since Wenger left. Say what you will about them, but they were never a reason for our worst performances or our low league finishes.
I can see why we would sell them and I appreciate what I witnessed because, just like with Ozil, Alexis, Ramsey, Santi and etc, you never know how much worse things can get, so appreciate the good while it is still good. But life moves on and these boys have to leave to make room for other set of talented young players. I just hope that if Arteta is let go, we will not be having a similar conversation about how Lokonga wasn’t as good as everyone thought and we need to move in from him. There has to be a plan beyond Mikel. Sign up the takented players that are not toMikel’s liking so that if he leaves, the next coach will not have to demand a purchase if he can choose form what we have on loan, in the academy amd lastly in our first team squad.
I remember that game at the Emirates two nil down to villa,guendozi on his dragged arsenal back in that game,most didn’t call him dickhead or against United when felliani pulled his hair yet arteta comes in with this PR thing and everyone forgets.i wish guen the best and really hope arteta gets his plans right cos no PR will save him this season.
Devlin, I see folks like Arseblog holding Guendouzi to a standard they almost never held Xhaka to in his 5 years (or Elneny, Ceballos, Partey or any other central midfielder for that matter)… how many goals and assists he had. It’s like early Arsene and his red cards count… a statistical category for one. It’s not necessarily wrong, but they dont do that for everyone. You explained very well on Tim’s previous post the value of his play.
Emery played Guen in a ton of games because he judged the player to be good enough to start or come off the bench. Deschamps picked him to the senior France squad. He CAPTAINED the French junior team. Yes, that same d***head. Captain. So thoughtful as Bill’s argument was that he ran around a lot and had nice hair, Im sticking closer to yours.
It doesn’t mean he was the finished product. We both spoke on the previous post about his defensive shortcomings. But he’s overall a really good footballer IMO, and a player with plenty of upside.
But I guess we’ll stop talking about him soon enough. He’s done at Arsenal. His goodbye shows much he loved the club and how long he’s been a gooner. Reporting varied about whether the clause in his contract is an option to buy or obligation to buy. It looks like if he hits certain performance targets, it automatically triggers a purchase.
I wish him well. Marseilles in Europa and with big exposure on French TV is potentially good for his career.
Yeah man, its hard to understand why this type of judgement is being done. We are speaking about Arsenal’s best midfielder for about 12 months of Emery’s time here.
The judgements are also right by the way. Most of those are true, but its only the negatives and they somehow reach the conclusion of him not being as good as touted before. A player who was 19/20 years old when he played his games for Arsenal.
But like I said in the last post, Guendouzi for some reason has a very different measuring standard than other (recently) 22 year olds. If its not that way, there is an expectation for him to have been some sort of assisting or scoring midfield beast.
A player does not have to be horrible or overrated to be OK with him leaving. The boy really did some exceptional things and is probably the most memorable and influential of all our midfielders in the last 3 seasons. He is the same age as Eddie, Reiss, Willock, and is only a year older than Smith Rowe, and yet look what he was doing 2 years ago. I think rating him was on merit and not an exaggeration of his talents.
The boy was and is still good for a young player with room for growth. We can debate on whether he will, with his well known shortcomings, and if he fit into where we are headed, no problems. What isn’t debatable though…
We are letting a talent go on the cheap after tanking its value, without trying to rebuild the player’s confidence or providing what young players need the most, guidance.
He might make it, he might not make it, but he was good for us and we had the opportunity to build with a young player who wasn’t out of place, and was actually thriving, in the league at 19. Its a shame, a real shame.
For all of his promise Devlin, would you say that he was ready to hold down that starting place for 48 games?
I don’t think any neutral would have ranked him as one of the league’s top midfielders during that time. Impressive prospect, sure.
I’m not sure Emery did him any favours there.
I never got the insistence with stretching the net so wide when having to judge Matteo, or many of our players. It is an easy way to dismiss players. The question should be, was anyone better for Arsenal? Performance wise, since his arrival, was he the one to sell? Was our midfield so good that Guendouzi is surplus to requirements?
We are the 8th best team in the league (for two seasons running, and mostly without him), why are we judging players on a league wide basis? Are we only going to keep those who qualify as being among the best in the league? Then we should be basing our judgements on everyone in our squad similarly, especially in midfield.
If we are going to ask if he was ever one if the best midfielders in the league, wouldn’t the same logic apply in the signing of Ben White at 50 million? People are accepting it because of what he is supposed to bring to Arsenal, not whether he is among the best in the league.
But like I said, the boy did very well for Arsenal. Probably our best midfield performer since Arsene left. Usually the opposition will let you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, and everyone I know who supports a different side did not like their team facing Guendouzi.
He is leaving now and its because he does not fit what we are trying to build, and that’s fine. But acting like he fell off or was never good is uncalled for. If he was not good, what does that say about our midfield in the last 18 to 19 months?
In short I would say Guendouzi was ready to start 48 games for Arsenal at 19 because his performances proved it so.
In any other top 4 side, I don’t think so. But that is not what we are, and we are further away from top 4 without him than we were with him. Looking at our current midfield performances, he probably deserves play in this team too.
I dunno about that standard, Greg. Is Elneny ready to hold down a starting place for 48 games? No, he’s not. He’s not of that quality. Yet you can argue that he’s a valuable member of the squad.
It’s a squad game. Ideally, you have at least 2 players per spot. When everyone is fit (which is rarely), the manager has a nice problem. Ideally as well you have horses for courses. For some games, Willock’s b2b attacking will be more valuable than Elneny’s disciplined conservatism, and vice versa.
The standard for Guen (or anyone esle) shouldnt be starter or nothing. Particularly for young players who have room to grow. But even they have a time, and Arsene generally had impeccable timing about when to let go. It’s clearly Eddie’s time to leave, for example.
Shard, I hear you on not that bothered about Guen’s departure. I see the pattern more than the individual case. I like the player, and hope that he prospers at Marseilles. Torreira, to me is a better player than Elneny, but the decision to let him go is fine by me.
All of this makes the case for DOF/coaching stability, because Torreira and Saliba together cost almost 50m GBP, and the club hasn’t been getting attendance revenue, and wont be getting UEFA revenue. Think of what we could have done with that money. From the standpoint of financial prudence, you cant have a new team coming in every 1.5 years and ripping up the script. That may be part of the reason that Mikel got a reprieve.
Devlin, yes, I remember that Villa game.
Tim, do you ever deviate from the standard recipes when baking and put your own little twist on things?
I have been making Ciabatta, but adding a bit of cinnamon gives a really nice alternative and smells really good after coming out if the oven.
I have never liked guendouzi or torreira.
I am happy to see them leave
It seems we are signing backups first and a replacement for David Luiz.
The Signings that would actually move the needle would be in CF, #10,RB positions.
I hope we sign quality players there.
Xhaka has to be replaced properly also.
I like both Torreira and Guendouzi as players, and I like that lots of Gooners seen to have taken Guendo in particular into their affections.
I don’t really care about his goals and assists per se, but I do care whether or not Guendouzi can run the midfield for Arsenal, and over 50 games, he just didn’t quite have enough. He has a lot of talent and a lot of heart, but he looks like one of those who mature slowly. He needs to focus on the tactical, mental side of the game, to the point where he really starts to own the park and hurt opponents with his decisions. If he can then I’d love to have him back, but I have a feeling that’s basically wishing he was someone else.
In the meantime, he’s a perfect fit for a club like Marseille where they like passion and will be much more tolerant of mistakes. He could be a cult hero down there.
Most aware moment with impact by Matteo Guendouzi– that stands out?
With Gabriel Martinelli positioned near the far post– just prior to Willian’s corner for Chelsea– physically dragging him across the box and pushing him out to the 18 near-side. Where Gabriel brought down Mustafi’s clearing header on the sprint– going length-of-the-pitch past a stumbling Kante, then slotting home past Courtois on Martinelli’s Run— the equalizer for 10-man Arsenal.
https://youtu.be/Suls_qZlm2U
Very much liked Matteo early-on. Sometimes the time, place, and situation isn’t the right one. That time for Arsenal was like the Island Of Misfit Toys Some decent players. But many miscast in roles. A decent manager, at first, whose ability to communicate was limited. Fostering an inherent erosion in team discipline. Matteo, I’m led to believe, was one of the mutineers. An adolescent lack of maturity it seems.
Every other rising teenaged or twenty-ish Arsenal starlet coming of age recently– has been consummately professional. It’s expected, not excused.
Best of to Matteo.
I’m not Guendouzi’s biggest fan, but it’s undeniable he has talent and a desire to win. He’s a bit of a loose cannon, which would be a perfect marketing play for our club. But he’s gone now and we’re hoping Lokonga and maybe Miguel Azeez can be young starlets for the team. Marseille is a good place for Guendouzi at this stage.
It really could have, and maybe should have, been different, but with all the goings on at the club, this doesn’t rank all that high on my list of disappointments. He’s a great talent but not irreplaceable. It’s just not a great use of club resources, which is the norm for us now.
Mal Dia. What I was extremely disappointed with, even annoyed about, was Arsenal announcing they would charge for streaming pre-season matches. It may not be a big deal to many of you, and I suppose it is the modern way, but it again points at a club so focused on money (in the short term) that they fail to consider what they are doing. 8 pounds for one pre-season game? That’s just excluding millions of fans.
People will find streams I guess, but more than the money, which frankly is absurd based on what I pay TV for the PL, it’s the club saying you don’t belong. Not unless you pay to watch games. It’s the sort of thing I’ve heard from English fans who live near the stadium say over the years. Happens less often nowadays, but now it feels like that narrative has official sanction. Brexit Arsenal? Just when I was getting excited about the build up to the season as well, sans signings I might add.
i thought i saw that the other day. who charges for pre-season games? it looks like the club we once knew might be gone for good…once morals and values are allowed to be compromised, they never come back. i won’t be participating.
is it me or is the list of players that edu and mikel have signed are simply unimpressive?
Great post again Tim. thanks.
Good luCk to Guendouzi. Interesting posts from Devlin and Claude. Myself I think Guendouzi is just another in a long long list of players the fans over rate because his playing style is eye catching. He has technical skill and energy but that does not mean a player is effective and I believe Guendouzi was never that effective.if Claude is right and he has been the best midfielder we have had in the last few years it certainly tells you how talent poor we have been and it goes a long way towards explaining why we have been a mid table team.
To blame the lack of success of players like Guendouzi and Torriera on the manager also seems off the mark to me. Many considered Arsene to be a great manager for developing and nurturing players but if we are honest about his record he had as many or may be a lot more failures then successes especially with younger he tried to develop. Fergie is the most successful manager in PL a history and he had plenty of players that did not develop. Were all of those failures Arsene’s or Fergies fault? If success or failure is based on the manager then almost all of those player should have succeeded. That seems totally unreasonable and blaming Emery or Arteta for what happened to Guendouzi and Torriera is just as unrealistic. The manager can only do so much and success or failure for the vast majority players is based mostly on the player.
“if Claude is right and he has been the best midfielder we have had in the last few years…”
I never said that. Or hinted. Or suggested
This is a really bad take.
A lot of fans loved Guendouzi’s energy. passion and his style and a lot of fans loved the bulldog like tenacity of Torriera. However, together neither was great at facilitating our attack and together I think they made for a really bad midfield defense. Pair them with Xhaka and midfield defense was truly disasterous. You can’t build a solid PL team capable of competing for a top 4 if you start with building blocks like that.
Are we going to talk about how Saka couldnt get into the game much, but provided England’s biggest moment of quality in regulation time? It was either going to be an OG, or a Sterling tap-in. Saka’s great gift is his final third decision-making. The really good players can have a mostly indifferent game, and one moment of decisive quality
I was about to post here at around 100 minutes that I was mystified by Denmark’s decision to basically stop playing and defend for dear life; and then the penalty happened. A lot of folks said in mitigation that the Danes were tired after a trip to Baku, but they found some energy after the soft pen.