Can't blame playing too much football for his injury, same as a lot of the other players injured early in the season, are we just unlucky ? or is it down to something else ? it's getting really serious now, this is not the time to get injured, 8th place and squad decimated with injury to key players and a new manager struggling to cope with it.

Just now, coco said:

Can't blame playing too much football for his injury, same as a lot of the other players injured early in the season, are we just unlucky ? or is it down to something else ? it's getting really serious now, this is not the time to get injured, 8th place and squad decimated with injury to key players and a new manager struggling to cope with it.

Broja, Fofana, and James all aggressively went into challenges due to our pressing game I believe. 

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Broja, Fofana, and James all aggressively went into challenges due to our pressing game I believe. 

Well that's not going to change anytime soon by the looks of it.

If it is that it's worrying because more or less everything we have won in the past 20 years has been from winning the ball in our half and counter attacking, watching Morocco nail it has me missing our old style.

7 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Broja, Fofana, and James all aggressively went into challenges due to our pressing game I believe. 

A lot of modern teams press like this, but it's only our players that keep breaking down. Our players just don't seem to be physically capable of playing 90+ minutes of intense football. It's not just the injuries either, you can see it in their performances. Very often I see us play a decent half of football only to then see us completely drop off in our intensity levels in the other half. It's like they just can't maintain these levels and when they try, they break down with a serious injury that has them out for months. I'm worried just watching out players sprint.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

I'm starting to get a bit concerned we're going a bit too far the other way with this youth project.

I wouldn’t be. Experience is overrated in modern football. Barca have Pedri & Gavi, 18-19yrs potential WC players starting in their midfield. Anyone big club bold to have taken a chance on either Haaland or Bellingham would have potentially saved £100m, and the trio of Rowe, Martinelli & Saka cost Arsenal £5m when they became regulars at 18.

Moukoko isn’t any ordinary 18yr old, he has already played over 50 games for Dortmund. We buy him at a low fee now, and we are potentially saving 8 figures.

15 minutes ago, ducavis said:

I wouldn’t be. Experience is overrated in modern football. Barca have Pedri & Gavi, 18-19yrs potential WC players starting in their midfield. Anyone big club bold to have taken a chance on either Haaland or Bellingham would have potentially saved £100m, and the trio of Rowe, Martinelli & Saka cost Arsenal £5m when they became regulars at 18.

Moukoko isn’t any ordinary 18yr old, he has already played over 50 games for Dortmund. We buy him at a low fee now, and we are potentially saving 8 figures.

It's more the volume as opposed to any individual player.

As good as the players we have and may get are (and thankfully we have them to maintain some hope amoung the recent performances) there's a reason titles aren't won with an effective U23 team no matter how good the players are, even United's CO92 needed experienced heads alongside them. Arsenal have the likes of Partey, Zinchenko and Jesus to balance the youth element out.

Also if we don't win anything due to the lack of experience, as we saw with Arsenal in the late 00's eventually the best players heads will start getting turned by teams who can offer them titles.

Out for the season. Torn ACL. 

1 hour ago, Argo said:

It's more the volume as opposed to any individual player.

As good as the players we have and may get are (and thankfully we have them to maintain some hope amoung the recent performances) there's a reason titles aren't won with an effective U23 team no matter how good the players are, even United's CO92 needed experienced heads alongside them. Arsenal have the likes of Partey, Zinchenko and Jesus to balance the youth element out.

Also if we don't win anything due to the lack of experience, as we saw with Arsenal in the late 00's eventually the best players heads will start getting turned by teams who can offer them titles.

Bar Partey & Xhaka who are 29, 30, Zinchenko & Jesus are 25, with the rest of the team under 25yrs. That Arsenal squad actually has no experience of winning trophies bar Zinchenko & Jesus. Long term we have Kovacic & Sterling around the 27-28yr old mark, what we have going for us is lots of our players have experience of winning trophies even your James & Mount. Personally wouldn’t be signing players over the age of 27yrs, because we are realistically 3yrs away from competing IMO. That is what Arteta got right when he came to Arsenal; got rid of his ageing stars, and bought players mostly under 24yrs with the view of competing in 3yrs. That seems to be paying off now.

4 hours ago, ducavis said:

I wouldn’t be. Experience is overrated in modern football. Barca have Pedri & Gavi, 18-19yrs potential WC players starting in their midfield. Anyone big club bold to have taken a chance on either Haaland or Bellingham would have potentially saved £100m, and the trio of Rowe, Martinelli & Saka cost Arsenal £5m when they became regulars at 18.

Moukoko isn’t any ordinary 18yr old, he has already played over 50 games for Dortmund. We buy him at a low fee now, and we are potentially saving 8 figures.

Totally agree ducavis. How much would we have to pay to get Musiala back from Bayern Munich now?

7 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Out for the season. Torn ACL. 

Have seen that reported, also seen it reported it is ruptured rather than torn and his recovery is more likely around the 18 month scale.

Guess we see when the club confirms it.

It's been confirmed by the Club. He's ruptured the ligament and will need surgery. He's going to miss the remainder of the season.

Such a huge blow for his development, I hope that he comes back stronger. All the best to him and a speedy recovery.

8 minutes ago, RMH said:

It's been confirmed by the Club. He's ruptured the ligament and will need surgery. He's going to miss the remainder of the season.

Such a huge blow for his development, I hope that he comes back stronger. All the best to him and a speedy recovery.

Man thats sh*t news for us and horrible timing for him, just as he was getting game time. Hopefully everything goes well and hes back playing at the same level.

9 minutes ago, RMH said:

It's been confirmed by the Club. He's ruptured the ligament and will need surgery. He's going to miss the remainder of the season.

Such a huge blow for his development, I hope that he comes back stronger. All the best to him and a speedy recovery.

Noooooooo, not the coming back stronger cliche 

Poor Armando, we were all so hoping he'd get regular playing time and develop in a reliable striker.

6 hours ago, Valerie said:

Noooooooo, not the coming back stronger cliche 

Poor Armando, we were all so hoping he'd get regular playing time and develop in a reliable striker.

Yeah we were sadly I think this kills his chances of ever being a top player, cannot see him having that same explosiveness again.

41 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Yeah we were sadly I think this kills his chances of ever being a top player, cannot see him having that same explosiveness again.

Yep, very rare that someone survives an ACL rupture that well. Hopefully his surgery and rehab goes well.

Is there any remote hope we can get a new striker for Christmas?

Edited December 14, 20223 yr by Snedger

There have been worse injuries to footballers at this time of year…

2 hours ago, Snedger said:

Yep, very rare that someone survives an ACL rupture that well. Hopefully his surgery and rehab goes well.

Is there any remote hope we can get a new striker for Christmas?

Nope, window does not open until January 1st. Maybe a new year's gift instead? Lol.

 

Could always recall Lukaku...

As sh*t as he is, it'd be better than spending 70m+ on yet another dud in some sort of panic, who we then have to loan out cos no-one will want them.

44 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Nope, window does not open until January 1st. Maybe a new year's gift instead? Lol.

 

Could always recall Lukaku...

Ronaldo?

57 minutes ago, Zeta said:

As sh*t as he is, it'd be better than spending 70m+ on yet another dud in some sort of panic, who we then have to loan out cos no-one will want them.

Plus who is to say Potter is not as good for him as Conte and makes him look like a Billy who scores a good amount of goals again...it could happen...

16 minutes ago, Drogba1 said:

Ronaldo?

Recall Ronaldo? Pretty sure he is a free agent...oh you mean sign him...yeah would rather we bring back Lukaku in all honesty...

Think Ronaldo burnt his bridge to us with his antics in the last few weeks, can't have a player who is unmanageable, unless he's scores every game ( which he no longer capable of). But maybe Boehly is fancy a challenge, who knows.

15 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Nope, window does not open until January 1st. Maybe a new year's gift instead? Lol.

 

Could always recall Lukaku...

There is another free agent out there.......Dear god NOOooooooo

There’s only one man we should turn to…

On 15/12/2022 at 08:48, WhiteWall said:

There is another free agent out there.......Dear god NOOooooooo

Drogbaaaaaaa round 3. Make it happen, Todd.