₦airaland Forum

R2bees:
This is why we would remain where we are today.. If one your so called attackers gets injured now, we are back to Iwobi and co. Abeg lets stuff our team with best players joor. I think it's because we are not used to having top players that's why it seems the ones we already have are enough. Just look at Man city, Liverpool, Bayern etc.. Enough is Enough.

I noticed this from Arsenal fans a lot, we're scared of rotating or asking Auba and laca compete together, we want cebaloss and ozil at the same time, we forced Ozil and Santi on the pitch, in fact we want all our best and big players jampacked and that's the reason we play no bearing football..
We are Arsenal, This is a big club in England and Europe, I'm tired of seeing our bench and already giving up..
For me coutinho comes in, we sell Mhicky and he replaces ozil on the long term.
I want quality everywhere abeg.

iamoyindamola:
can you prove this?
LFC only have sallah,firminho and mane
Just look at their pre season games they struggle to win without these trio bros I think the attack is enough moreover we can't pay coutinho wage and we need defenders

We can pay, just get rid of one of Kola or Nacho, kosc or Stafi, jekinson,Elneny,mhicky and next year ozil and we've the money.

Fkhalifa:
We can pay, just get rid of one of Kola or Nacho, kosc or Stafi, jekinson,Elneny,mhicky and next year ozil and we've the money.

I'm talking about presently

You guys should face the truth we can't afford coutinho or pay his wages ATM.
We need defenders not some expensive shít sitting on the bench, even sane want our of city cod of playing time sane with coutinho.

Interesting statistical comparison of mustafi and Maguire last season performance in EPL.

Blocks - Maguire 18, Mustafi 17
Interceptions - Maguire 37, Mustafi 58
Tackles - Maguire 31, Mustafi 62
Tackles won - Maguire 17, Mustafi 45
Percentage of tackles won - Maguire 55%, Mustafi 73%
Clearances - Maguire 152, Mustafi 161
Headed clearances - Maguire 77, Mustafi 106
Aerial duels won - Maguire 118, Mustafi 123

It's either the stats are misleading, or that Mustafi is undervalued and easily scapegoated in Arsenal.
So, which is it?

Marcelini:
It's either the stats are misleading, or that Mustafi is undervalued and easily scapegoated in Arsenal.
So, which is it?

no bro, last season mustafi stats were also better than vvd

Mustafi is a fine defender, he is quite committed too and that is evident in the way he throws himself into tackles and blocks anytime he adorns the arsenal shirt.

His major undoing is that he loses concentration way too much for a defender.

..... Stats doesn't reveal everything.... You need to watch Mustafi and see why even the fans want him gone. This is a guy that will stop play without hearing the referee's whistle to protest something leaving his defense and keeper to the onslaught of the other team. He has done this repeatedly over the seasons and has his usual brain farts where he loses concentration but instead of taking the blame, he will blame someone else in the team. Any player who won't take blame, doesn't his errors and will never improve. That's the problem with Mustafi, he has failed to get better over the seasons and iron out his bad areas in football.

..... He is a very good defender, raking up the stats but actual play is something else entirely.

solomonbrown64:
..... Stats doesn't reveal everything.... You need to watch Mustafi and see why even the fans want him gone. This is a guy that will stop play without hearing the referee's whistle to protest something leaving his defense and keeper to the onslaught of the other team. He has done this repeatedly over the seasons and has his usual brain farts where he loses concentration but instead of taking the blame, he will blame someone else in the team. Any player who won't take blame, doesn't his errors and will never improve. That's the problem with Mustafi, he has failed to get better over the seasons and iron out his bad areas in football.

..... He is a very good defender, raking up the stats but actual play is something else entirely.

Good points. Nevertheless, I believe those aspects of his game can still be ironed out. And if we must sell him, then he should be worth at least £40m.

solomonbrown64:
..... Stats doesn't reveal everything.... You need to watch Mustafi and see why even the fans want him gone. This is a guy that will stop play without hearing the referee's whistle to protest something leaving his defense and keeper to the onslaught of the other team. He has done this repeatedly over the seasons and has his usual brain farts where he loses concentration but instead of taking the blame, he will blame someone else in the team. Any player who won't take blame, doesn't his errors and will never improve. That's the problem with Mustafi, he has failed to get better over the seasons and iron out his bad areas in football.

..... He is a very good defender, raking up the stats but actual play is something else entirely.

What exactly are u saying bro?

Where did mustafi grant interview and he blamed a teammate for any goal or loss?

You've said mustafi is good defender and evidenced by his stats. Then you further posited he makes mistakes that at times leads to goals. This is also true. But last season was like worst season I've even watch arsenal play. Arsenal's poor form last season was not solely caused by mustafi. Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi and even Mkhi were flops last season. Kolasinac had bad days too, so did Guendouzi, Mitland-Niles and even Torreira.

How u say actual play is different when talking about mustafi is what I don't understand. I watched him play last season and he had some good games and had some bad games. Arsenal's woes were only compounded by the fact that while mustafi makes his occasional mistakes the aging Koscienly is usually not close by to save the day.


Like someone said earlier mustafi is passionate which is evident in how he does some sweeping tackles and tries to win the ball, but we have an average midfield covering the defence which does not give room for any mistake from the defence hence why our keepers drink goal like Coca-Cola

BlueRayDick:
What exactly are u saying bro?

Where did mustafi grant interview and he blamed a teammate for any goal or loss?

You've said mustafi is good defender and evidenced by his stats. Then you further posited he makes mistakes that at times leads to goals. This is also true. But last season was like worst season I've even watch arsenal play. Arsenal's poor form last season was not solely caused by mustafi. Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi and even Mkhi were flops last season. Kolasinac had bad days too, so did Guendouzi, Mitland-Niles and even Torreira.

How u say actual play is different when talking about mustafi is what I don't understand. I watched him play last season and he had some good games and had some bad games. Arsenal's woes were only compounded by the fact that while mustafi makes his occasional mistakes the aging Koscienly is usually not close by to save the day.


Like someone said earlier mustafi is passionate which is evident in how he does some sweeping tackles and tries to win the ball, but we have an average midfield covering the defence which does not give room for any mistake from the defence hence why our keepers drink goal like Coca-Cola

..... You were not here last season when he let Zaha score and then turned around to blame Leno for his own error, asking him why he didn't come out for the ball.

.... Against Crystal palace last season, he made two grave errors: one where he caused a penalty and the other where he let Zaha score. Against Tottenham, he pushed Kane needlessly in the box, causing a penalty and making the score 1 - 1. Were these lapses in judgement caused by the team's play, coach style, average midfield, poor partner or just someone who just loses it sometimes?

..... Mustafi has been here for over three years and very window, Arsenal has always tried to sell him. This just shows that as a player, he has failed to impress two good coaches.

Marcelini:
Good points. Nevertheless, I believe those aspects of his game can still be ironed out. And if we must sell him, then he should be worth at least £40m.

.... That's the problem bro, he doesn't want to fix his mistakes and that's says a lot about him. No sane coach will buy him for that amount, Arsenal value at 25m because they know we won't make a profit on him. Good defender but a ticking bomb waiting to happen.

solomonbrown64:
..... You were not here last season when he let Zaha score and then turned around to blame Leno for his own error, asking him why he didn't come out for the ball.

.... Against Crystal palace last season, he made two grave errors: one where he caused a penalty and the other where he let Zaha score. Against Tottenham, he pushed Kane needlessly in the box, causing a penalty and making the score 1 - 1. Were these lapses in judgement caused by the team's play, coach style, average midfield, poor partner or just someone who just loses it sometimes?

..... Mustafi has been here for over three years and very window, Arsenal has always tried to sell him. This just shows that as a player, he has failed to impress two good coaches.

With his useless offside traps he always want to play...


When you raise your hand for offside, you don't stop for the opposition to continue...


You should try to react like it wasn't an offside...



Mustafi would rather raise his filthy hands and stop and then wait for the linesman to blow...



When he now plays it wrongly, we get punished cause of his concentration lapses...



This window still remain average for me if Mustafi is still among the first 4 choice Center backs...

BlueRayDick:
What exactly are u saying bro?

Where did mustafi grant interview and he blamed a teammate for any goal or loss?

You've said mustafi is good defender and evidenced by his stats. Then you further posited he makes mistakes that at times leads to goals. This is also true. But last season was like worst season I've even watch arsenal play. Arsenal's poor form last season was not solely caused by mustafi. Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi and even Mkhi were flops last season. Kolasinac had bad days too, so did Guendouzi, Mitland-Niles and even Torreira.

How u say actual play is different when talking about mustafi is what I don't understand. I watched him play last season and he had some good games and had some bad games. Arsenal's woes were only compounded by the fact that while mustafi makes his occasional mistakes the aging Koscienly is usually not close by to save the day.


Like someone said earlier mustafi is passionate which is evident in how he does some sweeping tackles and tries to win the ball, but we have an average midfield covering the defence which does not give room for any mistake from the defence hence why our keepers drink goal like Coca-Cola

This is my thought about it to, I believe our defence is fair and decent enough,not very good but not as bad as it seems..
We've got:
Ozil&Xhaka.. who are slow,immobile and bad at tacklings
Ramsey...Doesn't defend much and likes to be in opposition box
Guendozi...Not physical enough and gets bulied.
Torreria..He tries but gets tired and bullied alot.
Kolasinac, ...doesn't like to defend and average at it..
Niles...Good going forward,tries a lot but inexperience and makeshift affected his game..

So it was easy for oppositions to permeate through our paper feathered midfield, so CBs are bound to suffer..
We need midfield engine of Ndombele,Sissoko and Wanyama..they are good going forward ,very hard to break and protect defense very well.

solomonbrown64:
.... That's the problem bro, he doesn't want to fix his mistakes and that's says a lot about him. No sane coach will buy him for that amount, Arsenal value at 25m because they know we won't make a profit on him. Good defender but a ticking bomb waiting to happen.

Let him be a squad player, he has promised to buckle up, Mustafi tries but he's just too erratic, maybe be needs to chill on bench a bit.

solomonbrown64:
..... You were not here last season when he let Zaha score and then turned around to blame Leno for his own error, asking him why he didn't come out for the ball.

.... Against Crystal palace last season, he made two grave errors: one where he caused a penalty and the other where he let Zaha score. Against Tottenham, he pushed Kane needlessly in the box, causing a penalty and making the score 1 - 1. Were these lapses in judgement caused by the team's play, coach style, average midfield, poor partner or just someone who just loses it sometimes?

..... Mustafi has been here for over three years and very window, Arsenal has always tried to sell him. This just shows that as a player, he has failed to impress two good coaches.

Bros I watched Koscienly score own goals like it's no man's business, he caused panalties too, but at a point Koscienly was like the second best centre back in the whole league.

Maybe mustafi miscalculates and loses focus at times, but last season was a bad season for majority of our players and not mustafi alone. U may not agree but the stats says he did well compared to other defenders in his role. I believe that should tell u arsenal was piss poor and so many players failed at their job.

Dreamswayne:
With his useless offside traps he always want to play...


When you raise your hand for offside, you don't stop for the opposition to continue...


You should try to react like it wasn't an offside...



Mustafi would rather raise his filthy hands and stop and then wait for the linesman to blow...



When he now plays it wrongly, we get punished cause of his concentration lapses...



This window still remain average for me if Mustafi is still among the first 4 choice Center backs...

...... Raising his hands when play is still on and letting the opponent score is the fault of midfield na, abi you don't know....
..... The club is doing everything it can to sell him but it's hard to get him off. It's just frustrating.

BlueRayDick:
Bros I watched Koscienly score own goals like it's no man's business, he caused panalties too, but at a point Koscienly was like the second best centre back in the whole league.

Maybe mustafi miscalculates and loses focus at times, but last season was a bad season for majority of our players and not mustafi alone. U may not agree but the stats says he did well compared to other defenders in his role. I believe that should tell u arsenal was piss poor and so many players failed at their job.

..... He was better than a lot of defenders last season according to stats but in actual play, it's a different story. Everyone cannot be wrong about him na..
.... He makes so many mistakes that Mar the efforts of the team. Yes, when Koscienly first came, he made but he improved and his partnership with Mertesacker made a good shied for their keeper to win the golden glove even with a midfield without a proper dm.

... Mustafi has not improved, only getting worse. Most his errors are from and not the fault of others. Let's be real here.

Fkhalifa:
Let him be a squad player, he has promised to buckle up, Mustafi tries but he's just too erratic, maybe be needs to chill on bench a bit.

....Chill on the bench to be collecting 90k when his wages can be used to sign a sensible centre back.

Fkhalifa:
This is my thought about it to, I believe our defence is fair and decent enough,not very good but not as bad as it seems..
We've got:
Ozil&Xhaka.. who are slow,immobile and bad at tacklings
Ramsey...Doesn't defend much and likes to be in opposition box
Guendozi...Not physical enough and gets bulied.
Torreria..He tries but gets tired and bullied alot.
Kolasinac, ...doesn't like to defend and average at it..
Niles...Good going forward,tries a lot but inexperience and makeshift affected his game..

So it was easy for oppositions to permeate through our paper feathered midfield, so CBs are bound to suffer..
We need midfield engine of Ndombele,Sissoko and Wanyama..they are good going forward ,very hard to break and protect defense very well.

Spot on. You hit the nail on the head.

Last season was just not good and we didn't have the Sanchez that usually force his way into opposition halves when the going gets tough. We were just playing boring sideways football.

A game that sums up arsenal's problem last season was arsenal v Liverpool. We saw how everyone on the pitch was taken apart. Even our golden boy Torreira was poor in that match. We were overwhelmed.

And I said earlier, if we have a scenario like what Liverpool had where they have a not-so-great defender in matip partnered by a great CB in Van Djik; just look at how well Matip turned out to be last season..... In fact in the latter part of the champions league he was the better player between himself and Van Djik. An aging Koscienly would never bring the best out of Mustafi.

solomonbrown64:
...... Raising his hands when play is still on and letting the opponent score is the fault of midfield na, abi you don't know....
..... The club is doing everything it can to sell him but it's hard to get him off. It's just frustrating.

Almost arsenal players are guilty of this. I've seen Guendouzi refuse to continue play when he felt he was fouled despite the ref judging otherwise.

solomonbrown64:
..... He was better than a lot of defenders last season according to stats but in actual play, it's a different story. Everyone cannot be wrong about him na..
.... He makes so many mistakes that Mar the efforts of the team. Yes, when Koscienly first came, he made but he improved and his partnership with Mertesacker made a good shied for their keeper to win the golden glove even with a midfield without a proper dm.

... Mustafi has not improved, only getting worse. Most his errors are from and not the fault of others. Let's be real here.

You have a penchant for exaggerating things when it comes to players you don't like.

For educational purpose below is Mustafi's stat last season. For the records, Mustafi only made one error leading to goal last season.

BlueRayDick:
You have a penchant for exaggerating things when it comes to players you don't like.

For educational purpose below is Mustafi's stat last season. For the records, Mustafi only made one error leading to goal last season.

.... Oga, I watched most of Arsenal's matches last season, and I know what I saw. His penalty against crystal palace won't be counted as a mistake, neither did his push in our box during the Tottenham's match be counted as mistake in his stats. Stats are good but don't tell the whole story.

... I am not exaggerating, I already said he is a good defender; a sound header of the ball. Against Watford, he attempted to clear thirteen headers and succeeded. That match was one of his best last season, only to capitulate against Crystal palace few matches later. That's Mustafi for you; Erractic, passionate but very inconsistent. You never know which Mustafi will play the next match, how can a coach trust such a player?

Roland17 you see how good your MCM is

iamoyindamola:
Roland17 you see how good your MCM is

Suddenly, Mustafi is the 2nd coming of F. Baresi and L. Thurman in the eyes of many on this thread because of irrelevant stats that do not tell the entire story. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I have seen enough to know that we need to move on from Mustafi.
If he stays, I will have no option than to support him and hope he performs differently.

MrDojo:
I was just about to mention this. Tactics is the difference when two teams with similar strength meet. In fact, if used well, an underdog could blow away the favorite with 'good' tactics.

I'm surprised that some people think tactics is somewhat overated. Especially in modern football. If Barca had a tactically sound coach, there is no way Roma or Liverpool would have done that nonsense to them.

In my opinion, if you're not prepared tactically before a match, then you have lost that match already. Gone are the days, managers gather players and tell them to just play.

Bros tactics is short term solution, one game at a time, that is why it works for cups. Quality is long term, last you even beyond full season.

There are cases like Leicester, tactics lasted them the season and there are cases like Chelsea 2015/16 were it was just quality.

In all, both tactics and quality are required to keep you constantly afloat. See Fergie's Man Utd teams and Pep's Man City of two seasons now.

Roland17:
Suddenly, Mustafi is the 2nd coming of F. Baresi and L. Thurman in the eyes of many on this thread because of irrelevant stats that do not tell the entire story. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I have seen enough to know that we need to move on from Mustafi.
If he stays, I will have no option than to support him and hope he performs differently.

For me, the problem with most players is not absence of skill or ability but mentality and poor psychology. Mustafi falls into this category.

Defenders like DeLigt, McGuire, VVD are of the mould of Ferdinand and Vidic, Adams, etc. They are not there for their skills but the mentality and the attitude they bring to the team. That is why managers make them captains.

Defending is not stats, it's an attitude.

I just hope we get coutinho. I want to see him scoring those free kicks we usually have Torreira or Xhaka play over the goal post. Also I want to see arsenal some of his trademark whining goals like the one he scored against man utd in the champions league quarter finals.

I'm tired of seeing Mkhitaryan in an arsenal shirt. If someone wants to talk of a player who has not improved since he joined arsenal, then Mkhitaryan is one. I don't even know who got a worse deal between arsenal and man utd in that player swap that had Sanchez going the other way.

solomonbrown64:
.... Oga, I watched most of Arsenal's matches last season, and I know what I saw. His penalty against crystal palace won't be counted as a mistake, neither did his push in our box during the Tottenham's match be counted as mistake in his stats. Stats are good but don't tell the whole story.

... I am not exaggerating, I already said he is a good defender; a sound header of the ball. Against Watford, he attempted to clear thirteen headers and succeeded. That match was one of his best last season, only to capitulate against Crystal palace few matches later. That's Mustafi for you; Erractic, passionate but very inconsistent. You never know which Mustafi will play the next match, how can a coach trust such a player?

Well, since u already said he is good player I don't think we should be having a long argument over what u said immediately after that.

He's a good player that has made mistake in the past season. Guendouzi is a young player that made his own share of mistakes but we are being told he is still young and still developing. Mitland-Niles made errors too but we hear excuses like he is not a RB so we can't be too hard on him. Xhaka is a fine player that makes mistakes too but he usually win us game points with his rocket shots one of which left de gea rooted to a spot.

I guess the reason the hammer is dropping on mustafi is cos there's no excuse foe his bad run of games.

Fkhalifa:
I noticed this from Arsenal fans a lot, we're scared of rotating or asking Auba and laca compete together, we want cebaloss and ozil at the same time, we forced Ozil and Santi on the pitch, in fact we want all our best and big players jampacked and that's the reason we play no bearing football..
We are Arsenal, This is a big club in England and Europe, I'm tired of seeing our bench and already giving up..
For me coutinho comes in, we sell Mhicky and he replaces ozil on the long term.
I want quality everywhere abeg.

I Couldn't have said it better. Someone was even saying signing Coutinho would limit Ozil game time or Auba if played on LW. And so fuckinng what? We want consistent results, not flopping against top 6 teams only to dance when celebrating a goal versus 18th placed team in the League..

I know many would disagree with me, but i think defenders are overrated most especially Center backs. When you have players that than can take on opponents and a stable/tough tackling midfielders. Trust me it would be hard for opponents to get to our defence. If we can pull off Coutinho and Tierney without a CB i won't get mad. Unless we need a cover for Kolscieny if he finally joins Bordeaux.