2020/21 Alex Iwobi

[Cool_Blue]

You know I don’t really get why people bang on about us spending mega bucks on him (not directing this at you - I mean in general).

he was £28m plus add ons. That’s pretty average nowadays.

benteke (palace 2nd time)
sahko
Slimini
Iheanacho
Xhaka
Soldado
Lamela
Sissoko
Sanchez
Luke Shaw
Batshuayi
Drinkwater
Zappacosta
Bakayoko
Rudiger
Jefferson Lerma
Wesley Moraes
Pablo Fornals
Ayoze Perez
Lucas Torreira
William Saliba

All in and around that fee in recent years.

Out of interest, how many off that list would you like to have seen here? Any?

 

[mill]

Out of interest, how many off that list would you like to have seen here? Any?

The point being that to get the top top players it costs more than 28m. It’s expecting a 50m player and spending closer to 30m. It happens but rarely.

 

[Lloydystark]

Turning out alright, assist from a cross, proving me wrong, work on them crosses and he’l be useful

 

[No8Bally]

Just seen this posted and it made me roar with laughter:

"Iwobi runs like he’s got diahorrea and constipation at the same time".

 

[TheBigIguana]

Turning out alright, assist from a cross, proving me wrong, work on them crosses and he’l be useful

If you ever want an example of assists being misleading Iwobi has gotten one against Leicester because he passed it to Richarlison before he scored from 3 miles out but did not get one for a good cross because DCL headed it into a defender for an OG.

 

[JMT]

His crossing is probably crap because he wasn't brought on to cross balls for Arsenal, He played them flicks and 1-2's in that team.

 

[TheBigIguana]

His crossing is probably crap because he wasn't brought on to cross balls for Arsenal, He played them flicks and 1-2's in that team.

I subscribe to this theory as well. He seems to be getting better.

 

[Tin-Tin]

His crossing is probably crap because he wasn't brought on to cross balls for Arsenal, He played them flicks and 1-2's in that team.

Yep. Can imagine in their academy under wenger they didnt practise any crossing in training as that wasnt their style. It was all 1 touch pass and move in triangles.

 

[Lanolin]

His crossing is probably crap because he wasn't brought on to cross balls for Arsenal, He played them flicks and 1-2's in that team.

I subscribe to this theory as well. He seems to be getting better.

Not sure it’s that to be honest. It’s basically a technical ability, you can either do it or you can’t. You can improve obviously, but you shouldn’t be awful at crossing just because you didn’t used to do it a lot, it’s using the same skills as passing/shooting really so it shouldn’t take 12 months of practicing. I think he’s just a really hit and miss kind of player, he does some great things (including crossing) but then some awful things. He has an alarming habit of playing loose passes right into the middle of the pitch for example. He’s very inconsistent, that’s the issue.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Not sure it’s that to be honest. It’s basically a technical ability, you can either do it or you can’t. You can improve obviously, but you shouldn’t be awful at crossing just because you didn’t used to do it a lot, it’s using the same skills as passing/shooting really so it shouldn’t take 12 months of practicing. I think he’s just a really hit and miss kind of player, he does some great things (including crossing) but then some awful things. He has an alarming habit of playing loose passes right into the middle of the pitch for example. He’s very inconsistent, that’s the issue.

He's basically given us the same level of performance for the last two months which isn't really inconsistent is it?

I mean he's just not world class. Some of the time he has space and hits a bad cross. Sometimes he plays a loose pass. But when he plays 90 minutes he typically does enough positive to outweigh the bad stuff.

And he sure as hell tries hard even if people for whatever reason used to not think that.

 

[Lanolin]

He's basically given us the same level of performance for the last two months which isn't really inconsistent is it?

I mean he's just not world class. Some of the time he has space and hits a bad cross. Sometimes he plays a loose pass. But when he plays 90 minutes he typically does enough positive to outweigh the bad stuff.

And he sure as hell tries hard even if people for whatever reason used to not think that.

He’s been fairly consistent this year (although Southampton was awful and Leeds wasn’t good so maybe you’re exaggerating) but even that wouldn’t make him consistent. Saying he’s had 2 good months so the consistency problems he’s had in the last 5 years are now over is a bit knee jerk for me personally. I’m not trying to have a go at him, I’m just saying your explanation of his crossing is a bit of a crap one.

 

[TheBigIguana]

He’s been fairly consistent this year (although Southampton was awful and Leeds wasn’t good so maybe you’re exaggerating) but even that wouldn’t make him consistent. Saying he’s had 2 good months so the consistency problems he’s had in the last 5 years are now over is a bit knee jerk for me personally. I’m not trying to have a go at him, I’m just saying your explanation of his crossing is a bit of a crap one.

Maybe it is. But I think it is clearly a separate skill from other aspects of the game. I mean Richarlison is pretty crap at passing but can shoot really well because those are also different techniques. So to say learning to pass means he should learn simultaneously to cross when it is quite possible he wasn't working on crossing isn't how I see it but I'll freely admit I don't train professional footballers.

As for Iwobi's consistency I thought he was fine against Leeds playing massively out of position. So one bad game in two months which also happens to be a game where we didn't show up as a team. And I also thought he was good before that just not playing as much. I mean that's a pretty long stretch now.

I also think he was far from as bad as people made out before this season so I'm not really buying the whole story to begin with. I get it, a lot of people decided very early that he was a lot of bad things and so changing minds won't come quickly, but he's legitimately playing well right now even if he isn't the perfect player.

 

[Goat]

Still a bit plop, let's be honest.

Looked a tad better last few games, but, meh.

 

[JMT]

Not sure it’s that to be honest. It’s basically a technical ability, you can either do it or you can’t. You can improve obviously, but you shouldn’t be awful at crossing just because you didn’t used to do it a lot, it’s using the same skills as passing/shooting really so it shouldn’t take 12 months of practicing. I think he’s just a really hit and miss kind of player, he does some great things (including crossing) but then some awful things. He has an alarming habit of playing loose passes right into the middle of the pitch for example. He’s very inconsistent, that’s the issue.

I agree to a point but if we wanted someone who was better at crossing we could have bought someone better but we didn't because we wanted him to play in the hole off the striker because the way Wenger brought Arsenal attacking players was based on 1-2's flicks and movement etc.

Maybe it is. But I think it is clearly a separate skill from other aspects of the game. I mean Richarlison is pretty crap at passing but can shoot really well because those are also different techniques. So to say learning to pass means he should learn simultaneously to cross when it is quite possible he wasn't working on crossing isn't how I see it but I'll freely admit I don't train professional footballers.

As for Iwobi's consistency I thought he was fine against Leeds playing massively out of position. So one bad game in two months which also happens to be a game where we didn't show up as a team. And I also thought he was good before that just not playing as much. I mean that's a pretty long stretch now.

I also think he was far from as bad as people made out before this season so I'm not really buying the whole story to begin with. I get it, a lot of people decided very early that he was a lot of bad things and so changing minds won't come quickly, but he's legitimately playing well right now even if he isn't the perfect player.

He wasn't crap at Leeds just ineffective I mean you could say it's the same thing but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the first time he's played LWB in his career.

 

[Lanolin]

Maybe it is. But I think it is clearly a separate skill from other aspects of the game. I mean Richarlison is pretty crap at passing but can shoot really well because those are also different techniques. So to say learning to pass means he should learn simultaneously to cross when it is quite possible he wasn't working on crossing isn't how I see it but I'll freely admit I don't train professional footballers.

As for Iwobi's consistency I thought he was fine against Leeds playing massively out of position. So one bad game in two months which also happens to be a game where we didn't show up as a team. And I also thought he was good before that just not playing as much. I mean that's a pretty long stretch now.

I also think he was far from as bad as people made out before this season so I'm not really buying the whole story to begin with. I get it, a lot of people decided very early that he was a lot of bad things and so changing minds won't come quickly, but he's legitimately playing well right now even if he isn't the perfect player.

No I agree, he was never that bad. But then I don’t think he’s been that good recently either. He’s been decent, a functioning part of the team, but I don’t think he’s really shown anything that’s made me think yes what a great player we’ve got on our hands. When I talk about him being inconsistent I’m talking about within games. He had a pretty good game in general at Burnley but in the last couple of minutes he had 3 great opportunities to put the ball in the box and he failed to manage it on all 3 occasions. That’s not good enough really, in the long run.