₦airaland Forum

Spy360:
It is obvious that fans underrated White.


There are three categories of skills for footballers. They are physical, technical and cerebral.

Physical - stamina, speed, endurance

Technical - ball control, dribbling, crossing, shooting (especially curling the ball), finishing

Cerebral - positioning, movement, spacial awareness

Every player has all three but one or two will dominate their skillset. When you look at Gabriel, you know he is more of physical. When you look at Saka he is more of technical, when you look at White you see that he is more of cerebral.

Please note, that a physically or technically inclined player may even be more cerebral than a cerebrally inclined player. For example, Rice is a physically inclined player but is more cerebral than Elneny who is a cerebrally inclined player.

Cerebral players are the ones the manager uses to determine, control and direct their onfield tactics. At Arsenal, Arteta uses White to a great effect in controlling how he wants the team to play. Other players include Havertz, Jorginho etc.

The reason why you would almost certainly see White and Kai in an Arteta line up is because they are the brain of the team. The likes of Gabriel, Saliba, Rice may be the bone, while Saka, Martinelli, Jesus, Zinchenko are the hands, White and Kai are the brains. They will always find a space in the line up.

Yeah White is very much underrated and underappreciated with respect to what he brings to this team

But

While your analysis of different categories of skills in football is beautifully crafted, I don't quite agree with it.

1. In your categories, I believe it should be only two (physical and technical) and that the categories of cerebral should be given to technical cos that's essentially what technical skills is all about (spatial awareness, positioning and movement).

2. You concluded by calling Havertz, Jorginho and White "the brains" of the team.
Hmm, We all know that title belongs to Odegaard presently and to some extent Rice.
This duo are the ones that's making this system tick cos they involve much in the buildup, control, shape and press of the system, transitioning of attack and understanding the use of space well.
Calling them hand and leg or whatever is a great disservice to the work they're doing at arsenal.

Take out Odegaard and put Havertz (your brain) in his position and take out Rice and put Jorginho (your brain) in his position and let's see whether this system won't crumble.
The only person who can confidently replace Rice in this setup for long is Partey and that's because he also is another brain of the team.

Meanwhile the people you termed as Cerebral or the "brain of the team" players are the players that can be easily be replaced without feeling any huge drop in form. Everyone knows this. White for Tomi, Havertz for ESR/Trossard, Jorginho sef na bench player.
There's a reason they're called "brains" to start with.


3. I would love to see any article, site or blog (or even videos) where you at least referenced this write-up from, for clearer understanding, cos I've searched and searched and I didn't see any Cerebral skill in any category of skills for footballers.
I will be expecting.

Realtord43:
Ferdinand was been nice with his words on Saka. We all know what he meant except you choose not to.

He wasn't using nice words when he said he a isn't world class player but he's suddenly using nice words when he called him top class and an unreal player.

Na so..

Just kon-t-nu

iamoyindamola:
I think he will serve in Netherlands that's where he was sentence

That's if he decides to go back to Netherlands.

Read Russia have no extradition laws with Holland and since the crime happened in Holland, then he won't go to prison unless he decides to step foot there

Realtord43:
Any Player been regarded as a Top Player is just little above average.
no much gap between been average and top player.

Why didn't you bring the "top player" Ferdinand called Saka?

Why did you censor it to "just a little above average"?

Trying to be clever by half just so that you could win an argument shey?


Ferdinand called Saka unreal. Called Saka Top player but because of agenda you rush claim say both of them meant "just a little above average"

Thank you English teacher

OasisX:



..........Ivory Coast GK against Super Eagles. LOL!

Lol, the way people can believe anything sha.
Someone would just paste nonsense on social media, write something and people will just carry it out free of charge, believing it

You bringing it here, I don't want to believe you believed it but it's surprising especially you that's the campaigner of not believing everything you see on the internet without cross checking.

You watched that match, I watched that match, does that look like the dressing of the goalkeeper that day in the final??

Nigerians are really sore losers, smh

mostob:
On the contrary, I don't just want them to be playing 5 minutes or so. I want them to reach a stage where they will push the starters. We need to look at the size of the squad before we can determine if the coach is wrong for not giving them playing time. In midfield alone, we have about 8 players vying for 3 positions. There are some first team members that are not getting their chances sef.

Although, it is normal to call out the coach to try the kids but overly criticising him doesn't make sense. That's it.
And training with the main team every weeks is another way of integrating Allow the coach do his job.

How can dey push the starters if they don't start little by little to see what they can offer?
Did Saka immediately push Pepe?

That's how we all thought ESR wasn't ready and was forcing Willian as Am by force until injury forced Willian out and there was no more options. Inclusion of Esr that fateful season made us start getting improved results.

Wó, everyone with their opinions sha. If you feel Arteta is doing it right, good for you.

We feel Arteta is doing it wrong and that's why we're voicing our displeasures. Nobody is overly criticizing Arteta here in this matter

mostob:
I don't just understand all these shameless pundits. All of them don dey craze Against Liverpool, they criticized us for celebrating too much. And now, Alan Shearer (shey na him sef) dey criticize Rice for not celebrating against West Ham. SMH

Lol...
Na confused lots dem be

mostob:
Well... everybody gets their own opinion sha. But for me, inasmuch as I also want to watch those kids play, let the manager make his decision. Arsene was fond of using kids that year and many of us still blamed him for that. And now, reverse is the case. We all want him to start playing academy boys.
There will be a time in near future when we would start calling for his head because he is playing too many kids. Na here we dey.

For me o, he should get us the trophies first.

The mistake you're making about our thoughts is you thinking that playing kids means making the fulcrums or core of our teams with "too many kids".

Arsene did that and he was rightly criticized and we won Zilch.
Chelsea are doing that now and we see how it's panning out.

What will just say is "integrate one or two kids into the squad" and blend them with experience players.

See how Nwaneri played when coming on as a sub. He played well.

The team will play badly and be inconsistent if we play bunch of Nwaneris as our first 11.(exactly what Wenger and Chelsea did/is doing)

In Summary, you thinking we want these talented youngsters to play doesn't mean we want Arteta to fill the teams with them. If you notice, most of us are clamouring for only two (Nwaneri and Duberry) and let them start as bench players. That's just what we're saying. Simple!!

Realtord43:
Rio ferdinand just reaffirm that 'Saka is still not a World Class Player'
But a little above average!

cc jodera, remember we talk about this.

Asked if Saka is indeed world-class, the ex-centre-back said, “not yet, not yet. Listen, I think Saka’s been unreal…But I think, it’s almost like ‘what is world-class?’ He hasn’t done it in the Champions League…Saka’s top, don’t get me wrong, he’s not world-class yet…Salah’s world-class. If you’re talking world-class, he’s got to be sitting around them boys..... (FERDINAND)



Was it not the same "Top player" I told you months ago that Saka is?
Where did you get "a little above average player" you claimed Ferdinand said?

And if you look at it well, the only reason Ferdinand says Saka's not a world class player is because UCL(and/or other prestigious he hasn't won yet).

Y

mostob:
You should know the reserves i.e. the bench players will always come first before the youngsters. There are those coming back from injury that need minutes to get back into shape. Let him do whatever he wishes to do...

Like I said, it'll be like killing two birds with one stone. All these won't stop him from fielding bench players and the youngsters would been getting experience.

Let's use Saka and Pepe as example. If Saka wasn't given much game time by Emery, nobody would have known how good Sake is more than Pepe. At a point that same season, we even preferred Saka over Pepe.

Even Liverpool, 2 of my friends who are diehard Liverpool fans are telling me they prefer Bradly over Trent and they just want Trent to be moved to Midfield permanently. Since his introduction, Bradley have won 4/5 motm he's played this season in Liverpool including against Chelsea

Kobble is another example. You'll say "oh they're midtable" but it's just 6pts that separates them from top 4 and one of the chief reasons is the inclusion of Mainoo in that Midfield which stabilized them

You'll think most of these boys aren't ready but actually most are. For our bench to be clamouring for Nwaneri to play, it means he don show most of them pepper for training. Is it not time to blend them in, albeit slowly?

Nobody is saying they should start and nobody is saying they should give them heavy minutes from onset. Doing these won't harm the priorities in anyway.

Lastly, who would have known someone like Bellerin would oust Debuchy during his time here when the latter went to injury mid season?

Arteta can do what he feels he wants to do but that doesn't mean that in this academy aspect; him no dey really try for these players at all.

mostob:
Well, I think the fans need to define their priority for this season. Arteta is entering his 5th year and no league title. He has a squad of 25 players to choose from. Let me add that he paraded on of the youngest squad in EPL. This means he is under pressure to deliver because his employers have trusted him enough. If I were in his shoes, promoting youngsters would be the last thing on my mind. He is under pressure to win a silverware and it is only normal to trust the capable legs.

From your examples, what you're trying to imply is that since other teams are doing it, we need to do so as well. isn't it? Now let me ask, have you at a time tried to find out the motive behind the minutes those young players are getting in their respective teams? Can you compare the squad depth of those teams while also considering injury issues and the average age of the squad.

At least, these kids are training with the senior team every week. This alone shows he has plans for them. They need to be protected. They need to be carefully integrated if you want them to give you their best performance.

Although, I admit there are some games I would want to see these kids play because I'm eager to watch them too. However, if the coach thinks otherwise, it is his call. He is the one working with them at the London Colney. Calling Arteta out for not playing kids because other teams are doing so is just laughable.

Introducing youngsters once In a while won't derail his priorities this season (which is EPL and possibly UCL). There are matches he would have introduced them. We all know carabao cup is one of them, opportunity to mix some of these guys with experience.

We have Sheffield we were comfortably winning 4-0 at 80+ mins. That's another big opportunity, crystal palace 2nd leg is another big opportunity where we were winning 3-0 at 80+ mins too
Our last group stage match in ucl is another big opportunity

Then the biggest one is west ham of this week.
I mean, he didn't even have it in his mind to even put Nwaneri sef. C'mon na

I mean I want to ask,

Was it wrong to give Nwaneri a chance this weekend?
What's the difference between last match and other matches I just gave as examples.?


Nobody says they should be starters but giving them 10min here, 7min there in matches that's already done and dusted will give them that exposure and preparedness they need for growth and it won't hurt Arteta priority chances in anyway or any form.

I believe this is supposed to be Elneny and Cedric last season with us. Why is Elneny and Cedric given time in dead rubber matches or minutes when such minutes ought to be given to our future (Duberry Nwaneri and Walters dem )?


Come on na, nothing is laughable here.

BlueRayDick:
In other words , u are assuming fans are underrating him

Lol... You don catch me


But it's obvious na

BlueRayDick:
Na that " Aside " gan gan be the reason why he's not being rated like other players by fans .

U confirmed he was underwhelming for some parts of the season ; oya how do u expect him to be rated well like others ?

That's why I said he's not underrated , rather he's rated based on his performance over time which u urself has confirmed has not really been above 7/10 . Even that last season he still managed to have bad games more than some of his contemporaries .

I don't expect him to be rated like others tho esp their Saka, Rice and Odegaard dem

My whole point of 'underrating' is that most fans feel he's not good enough to be starting for us. Like if they were to rate him, it'll be like that 5-5.5/10 kinda player/performances whereby on an average he produces a 7/10 kinda performances. That's the kind of 'underrating' I'm talking about if you get what I mean.

Arteta no try for our academies this season sha.

Liverpool had Connor Bradley and Jarred Quansah that Klopp have introduced this season. Ben Doak would have joined them if not for injury

Manchester City have Oscar Bobb being introduced.

Even Man U get Kobble Mainoo.

Yet we had the chances to introduce Duberry and get done with this Saka replacement and he's not doing it. That guy just need exposure —that little exposure — being afforded to Teenage Martinelli and Saka for him to explode.

Imagine say he had to hear whispers and side talks before him introduce Nwaneri at 6-0 up.

That's just so sad!!!

BlueRayDick:
Nobody underrate white; he's the one that doesn't give consistent performance over a long period of time to make people regard him highly like other fellow arsenal players like Saka , Gabriel , Saliba , etc

Aside this early season in which he was underwhelming (ie that's due to him reportedly playing through injury) he's been giving consistent performances.

Last season when he started playing as a RB, he's been giving good consistent performances at least a 7/10 rating. He's not giving an elite rating like them Saliba, Rice and co(the 8-9/10 ratings) but he's been good. Since after the winter vacation, he's been back to his good form also.

Big reason I said he underrated. He's just executing his job well albeit silently.

Lush100:
Yeah...I read that part.

He heard repeated whispers from the bench to bring the young fella on.

U know Arteta don dey craze pass Pep small small.

Na even Jorginho been dey whisper am sef.
Lol
Arteta no try for this our academy players at all

mostob:
Tomiyasu and White sign new contracts. Announcement expected soon

Nice...
One of the most underrated Arsenal player.... Ben White

Realtord43:
Rio ferdinand just reaffirm that 'Saka is still not a World Class Player'
But a little above average!

cc jod.era, remember we talk about this.

I never claimed he's a world class player (as at then), I only said he's not an average player as you said.

Meanwhile, lemme see the link where Ferdinand says he's "a little above average" player

andrewbaba44:
You only became relevant by winning another energy cup when he was ousted or competing for league title ?

Maybe arsenal don turn girona who gained relevancy by competing for league title

I believe in process over a fluke win sometimes. Man u won carabao cup last season but most of them now no even send the carabao cup wey dem win cos they couldn't build on it.

Anybody can win a cup but it takes mental strength, growth and progress to compete in a league fight and with just a little more push, the league can be yours.

Wigan and Blackburn have won cups and entered relegation that same season and nobody is talking about them.

andrewbaba44:
I already said osimhen will come good if arsenal signs him ,I am sure you saw that when I quoted your guy

Arsenal is where I even want him to go where he might be the main man because I think all other big teams are occupied and Perez is only interested in mbappe or nothing

I am only defending you trying to degrade auba

Auba was shipped because of FFP and lewandowski,he deserved his medal ,at least he was among the players that took us from 9th place to 2nd place when he arrived

Auba is not on lewandowski level but I appreciate him a lot ,and you have no striker better than him

Gabriel Jesus una ,if awoniyi dey arsenal I no go surprise if e score pass that defensive striker

Xavi most important players when he arrived are below

Dembele
Gavi
Auba

The facts remains that Auba wasn't one of those who was instrumental to the trophy win either as a starter or bench player. That's facts!!

I'm not degrading Auba. Anyone who follows my post keenly knows that I'm all for the good of the team chemistry and cohesion over just a striker stats.

It's the main reason why I(and most Liverpool fans) like Love Firmino even though probably Origi is a better goalscorer statwise than him(in terms of goals/game ratio).

Fact remains that aside the fa win, Arsenal attack was bland when Auba played and while he gets the plaudits, arsenal as a club gets the trolling. We only became relevant again when he was ousted

andrewbaba44:
Thank God we gifted auba a league title medal at Barca ,because I don’t understand this your disrespect towards him just maybe because he and arteta had issues

Don’t forget auba rejected better clubs to sign a new contract with arsenal worth 350k weekly and delivered the fa cup immediately,I think you haven’t won it for some time then

Competing for title is not a trophy ,just take note of this ,if you win it this season you might have a say ,but this arsenal team is better than the one auba played at .

Auba dragged a weak arsenal team to the fa cup trophy,his master class sent man city parking at the semis and also Chelsea at the finals

You gifted Auba a league title while he was in Chelsea. Why him no dey among those wey dey give Una league title?

Competing for league isn't a trophy quite alright but it's a measure of the strength of the team. Ousting of Auba and putting in poor man activity former lacazette showed us that we're even stronger as a team that we didn't even know that we are before.

Buying the chief of activity former in Jesus lifted us from banters to one of the respected teams in the league. With Auba na we be correct banter club.

Maybe Osimhen the king of activity former will take us to the summit. Make him just come jeje!!

As for Auba, I'll appreciate him for what he did in winning that fa cup. But that doesn't negate the fact that we were still a banter club then and his presence was one of the big reasons.

iamoyindamola:
Why activity osihmeh score only one goal for afcon
Alaye missed most one on one too
How many goals firminho score for LFC when they won they UCL and league
All those parapo activity CF no wonder klopp got Jota and bin him straight 🤣

In which match During the knockouts lemme hear?

Since Klopp bought Jota and he's in their first eleven while Firmino is in bench, how many major trophies have they won?
No wonder Klopp had his worst season when he finally benched Firmino last season.
Someone who always have 90+ points on 3 occasions couldn't even meet 70+ point?

For your information, Firmino scored 111 goals for Liverpool while winning EVERYTHING. Not bad for an Activity player


Get me Victor "activity player" Osimhen biko.

andrewbaba44:
You expected auba to lead your former arsenal team to a league title ?

The arsenal team auba played with even Haaland won’t lead them to a league title

Brother man be serious

Who believed Arsenal and Arteta would compete for title last season with the acquisition of Gabriel Jesus and Zinchenko?

Two years ago, who believed Arsenal would still be competing for the league title this season with Klopp and Pep by this time?

If it takes activity former to do that, then I'll accept it all day long.

To put it more clearly, it took the ousting of Auba entirely for Arsenal to have a great run of form from where we were languishing in 8th and 9th with no hope of top 4 to start competing for top 4 that season before losing it at the death. Yes, Auba the non activity player had to be ousted out of the team.

iamoyindamola:
Shebi na you
Na activity player you like no wonder you stan firminho
Make arteta sha no follow your advise bring osihmeh come emirates

Everyone especially arsenal fan would love Osimhen. Except you sha.

Activity former in Firmino won all the whole cups that a player ought to win as a club player.

Activity former In Gabriel Jesus took us to our First ucl in how many years and almost earned us our first league titles in years against all odds. That's what we're building on for this season too

Activity former took Napoli to an unlikely first league win title in years I can't remember they won last.


We have Auba who isn't an activity former yet him deh win golden boot while I dey languish for 8th.

Please give me activity former in Osimhen all day long biko

andrewbaba44:
Turn your amala well next time

You know we don’t rate Paul onuachu and he is useless ,so you had to call him and ignore good players like moffi

You think say I no go criticize osimhen because na your favorite player like most of the naija crowd ?

A striker valued at 100M euros ,one of the best strikers in Europe and scored only 1 goal at the afcon and una Dey sugar coat things

Lmao you Dey play

Lmaoo, you make you dey play. Na the first time wey e deh happen?

If Madrid fans and debroslink attack Pedri for not churning out stats like them valverde and being overhyped, you go Sabi say eye test matter but e don reach Osimhen, eye test no matter again.

Eye test no matter when Messi(balon dor/ world best player)no dey score goals for world cup knockouts prior to his winning world cup.

Suddenly stats don dey matter for your eyes

Amala turner

andrewbaba44:
Na una Dey praise osimhen every match day while you ignore players like ademola lookman Simon and co who also helped us get to the final

Typical arsenal fan who sees arteta as the new guardiola for qualifying them for ucl for the first time in 6 years after spending 800M 😁

Shebi dem for put onuachu make the Simon and Lookman drag us go final na.

Osimhen had injury ystdy yet was still forced to complete the match while the Ademola was substituted while Simon didn't even start.

Lmaooo.

You think say I no go call you out because you dey always praise Osimhen before

You're on a long thing

andrewbaba44:
I be live scores merchant yet I Dey drag my player for Barca wey be lewandowski ,if you Dey follow those app you go Dey praise lewandowski on a steady ,you can say anything you like to make you sleep well

I have said what I want to say about osimhen and once you are done crying you will rest

Ekong wasn’t even green self ,despite him scoring yesterday e get him small fault ,but a well deserved player of the tournament and our best player at afcon

Like I said earlier you are an arsenal fan who sees Gabriel Jesus as a good striker ,then it will be wrong for you to criticize osimhen due to your standards 😝

Lool...

Livescores merchant doesn't know that reason why Osimhen had only one goal. Their only reasons be say "Why would Osimhen score only one goal"

It doesn't matter if he's isolated
It doesn't matter if he sees chances
It doesn't matter if the setup is wholly defensive.

To them, na to race to livescores guage a player.

Typical Andrew

andrewbaba44:
Missed the most chances at the afcon

Lewandowski missed the most chances at Laliga

I am sure if you are a Barca fan you will be praising Lewandowski because e Dey average 1 goal in every 2 games to deceive people like you

I love my bad belle abeg

Tell me the big chances he missed at knockouts.

Nothing concern me concern 1 goals in two games cos I don't believe in stats wholly. I watch my game and I deduce when a player plays badly even if he scores and vice versa.

Na Una wey dey drag Osimhen for scoring one goal while neglecting his other facets of what he brings to the team that dragged Nigeria to final.

That's something sofascores won't show you on the surface.

Typical Andrew

andrewbaba44:
You don’t know what you are saying

If you think I am criticizing osimhen because iwobi and co are being dragged then you are totally getting it wrong

If osimhen is your best player at this afcon then that’s fine for you .

He was not a bad player either but didn’t perform as I expected and I will criticize him ,if you no like am then ignore and walk away and don’t come and by crying here calling me a troll

Aina can do no wrong in my eyes but na me just talk say adringra cook am ,a whole livescores merchant like me

Why should I defend iwobi who was bad ? I am not like you nah

You are confused abeg

The only point wey you dey use drag Osimhen na to race to livescores go check orange rating. But the only green wey dey there na just two(GK and Ekong). Yet that's the right match you feel you should drag Osimhen because "you would drag anyone you feel you will drag"

Oga dragger, Oga generator.

Dragger of the universe, keep on dragging.

andrewbaba44:
Na you no Dey watch ball

Using emotions and sentiments

I criticize player I turn bad belle

You will be fine abeg

Na only bad belle go see Osimhen for this Tournament talk say him play like Lewy.

Bad belle mixed with a bit of sentiments garnished with emotions

andrewbaba44:
Iwobi was the one being dragged all over the media and not even aina ,people forget aina small ,the whole focus was on iwobi

Aina had a good tournament but was bad yesterday and deserve any criticism ,adingra cook am like asun

Iwobi is the only person I pity

Typical Jodera ,typical arsenal fan wey get positionless striker like Gabriel Jesus

Of course a player like osimhen can do no wrong in your eyes

What stops you from defending Iwobi if you feel he's unnecessarily dragged?

How does wrongfully dragging Osimhen does justice to those whom you feel unjustly dragged Iwobi.

Iwobi have been dragged since knockouts, yet you no pity am. The moment dem drag Aina with Iwobi ystdy, na that time you remember say Osimhen na fraud. Dey there dey tell pikin that your lamba

So guy just forget your mask, the only reason why you drag Osimhen is because Aina was dragged here ystdy and you have claimed he (Aina) can't do wrong in your eyes.

andrewbaba44:
Because I expected more from him

At least with this you will know I am serious than calling me a troll .

I am not like you who follow the crowd ,like I said I say it as it is ,you being my top 5 player at the afcon doesn’t mean I can’t criticize you

is Lewandowski among your top 5 performers this season?

When people criticize Osimhen for group stage, you see me talk?

No how anybody go tell me say Osimhen is not one of our best players this tournament and from Knockouts till final, Osimhen doesn't deserve any criticism.

Anybody who does is either a bad belle, livescores merchant or outrightly doesn't watch ball