2019/20 Alex Iwobi

[TheBigIguana]

The underlying issue, and one that he may struggle with, is the lack of players we get in the box. You can only retain that level of "pass rate into the box" if there are players in the box. We'll see, but you very rarely see two or three players in the box never mind the five or six he was probably familiar with at Arsenal. I don't want to be overly negative, because I don't feel as though we've had a bad window, or have a bad squad for that matter, but another striker/attacking midfielder who likes to make runs into the box more frequently would have been a huge help for Iwobi, I feel.

This actually isn't completely true. Between the striker, Gyfli, Richarlison and even Coleman when the ball goes down the left we tend to have plenty of people in the area. I can't speak to Arsneal but I genuinely noticed against Palace how often we would have the ball in a wide area and have 3 or more people in the box with no service to them. Which speaks to a lot of problems in our approach to attacking that we barely created a chance.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Don't see the problem, when I've seen him play he's been similar to Bolaise, did everything right apart from the final ball, now maybe when you've seen him play he's been similar to Messi, all about opinions at the end of the day, and now he plays for us I'll back him 100%.

Mentioning the name of our old #7 who we are trying to rid ourselves of in comparison to Iwobi should be a thread ban at this point. They are nothing alike.

 

[blueblue]

Let's let Iwobi at least play one game before we decide if he is brilliant or useless.

I cling to his last appearance against us at Goodison with Arsenal when I thought he was their best player and caused us lots of problems. I hope that is the player we will see.

 

[chippy1722]

I just hope he Is direct. For too long we have overplayed the tippy tippy stuff on the wing, as much as like Bernard and Digne together, Saturday showed how we overplay it instead of actually getting it into the box.
I hope he is more like Miralles used to be and cut in and shoot or actually get it across to someone in the middle.

 

[Lelouch]

Let's let Iwobi at least play one game before we decide if he is brilliant or useless.

I cling to his last appearance against us at Goodison with Arsenal when I thought he was their best player and caused us lots of problems. I hope that is the player we will see.

he was the only player who created or did anything that day and he came off the bench, Still think this is a fine purchase, Very young and experience at PL level.
Can only hope he does a Richarlison and scores more goals.

 

[TheDude19]

This actually isn't completely true. Between the striker, Gyfli, Richarlison and even Coleman when the ball goes down the left we tend to have plenty of people in the area. I can't speak to Arsneal but I genuinely noticed against Palace how often we would have the ball in a wide area and have 3 or more people in the box with no service to them. Which speaks to a lot of problems in our approach to attacking that we barely created a chance.

I didn't really notice this in the Palace game. Maybe once or twice a game. yeah. Sigurdsson is on the edge more than he's in the box. Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin and sometimes Coleman/Bernard depending on which side we're attacking from. However, I don't see our midfielders getting in the box enough, which was my main concern.

 

[TheBigIguana]

I didn't really notice this in the Palace game. Maybe once or twice a game. yeah. Sigurdsson is on the edge more than he's in the box. Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin and sometimes Coleman/Bernard depending on which side we're attacking from. However, I don't see our midfielders getting in the box enough, which was my main concern.

Yes the deep midfielders don't do it but that's kind of the system. Otherwise the fullbacks have to stay deeper and I think that's a bad idea with how much Digne creates. Some variation might be nice but I get what we are doing.

I don't think the creative play from the wings has been good enough since Silva arrived so Iwobi should help even if it isn't quite as good as at Arsenal.

 

[Blueclouds]

Basically Bolaise you mean.

These comments are quite concerning

 

[TheDude19]

Yes the deep midfielders don't do it but that's kind of the system. Otherwise the fullbacks have to stay deeper and I think that's a bad idea with how much Digne creates. Some variation might be nice but I get what we are doing.

I don't think the creative play from the wings has been good enough since Silva arrived so Iwobi should help even if it isn't quite as good as at Arsenal.

I suppose my point is, only Calvert-Lewin (no goal threat) and Richarlison really get into the box a lot, and thus Iwobi would struggle to play quick one-twos in and around the box, except maybe with Bernard (who he is likely to displace in the team). I hope I'm proven wrong and it works.

 

[Tubey]

I'm not going to pretend he's good and look for positives to make meself believe he's a good signing. Hope he proves me wrong is all I can say without sounding like I'm moaning.

Yeah same. It's not like I want a player who signs for us to be bad.

 

[TheBigIguana]

I suppose my point is, only Calvert-Lewin (no goal threat) and Richarlison really get into the box a lot, and thus Iwobi would struggle to play quick one-twos in and around the box, except maybe with Bernard (who he is likely to displace in the team). I hope I'm proven wrong and it works.

He will have the support of Digne just as Bernard did and I really really hope Gylfi starts getting involved more as well. Our attacking play is crying out for someone to both link things together and create chances so hopefully he can be that guy.

 

[GwladysBlue]

Hope this lad really proves everyone, including myself, wrong and takes the league by storm.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Hope this lad really proves everyone, including myself, wrong and takes the league by storm.

Not everyone is doubting him

 

[BernieH]

He's not even a bad player. It's becoming increasingly tedious to constantly read how crap all our players are and how we should have been signing Jadon Sancho or whoever the media have labelled as the new golden boy.

 

[TheBigIguana]

He's not even a bad player. It's becoming increasingly tedious to constantly read how crap all our players are and how we should have been signing Jadon Sancho or whoever the media have labelled as the new golden boy.

Agreed. It's strange to me when people talk about how we should have signed Lozano instead when he's older, more expensive and completely unproven in a league that Jozy Altidore didn't score 25 goals in. He could be better but it is far from a guarantee that he's even decent. Iwobi has just as much upside with half the question marks.