You're trying to come off as this football savant but I genuinely think most posters who are pointing out weaknesses to his game understand the midfield role better than you do. The bolded part is either testament of that, or just of the fact that you didn't watch Keane play.
Literally nobody is expecting him to be one. Basic progressive passes have been beyond him for a tournament, not the elite DLP passes that no soul expect from him in the first place.
No, I think your criticism is fair. We basically paid £100m to replace Xhaka. When you look at it like that, we’ve overpaid. But he slotted into our team immediately and was as close to a risk-free signing as it gets. That’s why he was worth so much to us and that’s why most Arsenal fans would happily do it all again.
There's this weird narrative developing, mainly from Arsenal fans, that we're expecting him to become a sort of Xavi/Busquets regen or something. There's several, like many many, layers in between what he currently offers and this weird strawman, and we're still quite far from it.
Go through the thread, there’s dozens of comments about expectations for a £100m player.
Mainoo definitely had a "good tournament", all things considered, what are you talking about?
Is there? The “several layers” you described are what Rice was producing all season. He was an ever present in side that challenged for the title until the last day. That simply wouldn’t have been possible if he was as poor a player as is being made out.
Yes, absolutely.
I disagree. It's not what we're seeing in his performances, it's what his performances are.
He did well for 19 year old, but he wouldn’t have even got into the Spain squad (Rodri, Ruiz, Pedri, Zubimendi, Merina and Olmo all performed better). So if we’re grading on a curve, sure he had a good tournament. But in the cold light of day, not so much.
What the feck even is this?!
Yeah, I understand defending one of your own, to a degree, but by the objective metrics of being a dependable part of a midfield tasked with the basic duties of the role, he has fallen well short, and trying to defend that just makes it worse.
An assessment of a member of the England squad who I don’t think would have been selected for the Spain squad. I take it you disagree?What the feck even is this?!
Wait what. Hargreaves played at RB and RM in the latter stages of that CL run.
Stop being so dishonest in your debating, it was a post that was all over the place and that's what I was laughing at. It was frankly ridiculous. Of course he wouldn't get into the Spanish midfield but if you think that's some kinda gotcha point, you're mistaken. You went from "yeah he was good, but actually not as good as the best midfielders in the world, yeah he had a great tournament, but actually it wasn't great", throwing in a "in the cold light of day" for good measure as if it gave more gravitas to your post.
He has had a poor tournament, how poor is frankly not that interesting. As for the "more pressing issues", I wholeheartedly disagree in that I believe the midfield is the absolute priority - and I believe he has a role to play in that. I've been focusing on his weaknesses in the past few posts but I've also highlighted he has some strengths (obviously he does), it'll be up to the (next, hopefully) England manager to see how to maximise those.
It's strange, I also understand wanting "your" players to do well, but it comes across as blind love at times.
It’s not dishonest debating. I said Mainoo, like all England’s midfielders, did not have a good tournament despite playing well for his club this season. If you want to baby him and say he played well for a kid - go ahead. But pointing out he wouldn’t even have made it into the squad of the finalists he just played against isn’t dishonest. What are you on about?
This is a issue.
It’s a big issue. We seemed obsessed with midfielders that can “win a game on their own” or “grab the game by the scruff of the neck”. We seem deeply suspicious of players that dictate play more subtly. In fact, as mentioned earlier, we didn’t even really try to utilise Carrick, despite him being an anchor to one of the most successful midfields in British history.
Yeah apart from the assessment of Rice's tournament, we agree overall
Really? Something must have been lost between training ground and the pitch because the only time england actually looked compact and hard to break down was the second half against Serbia...ok, the first half against Spain, too. So that's 2 halves out of 7 games...
