Saka (Arsenal)

One of the few attacking players I can think of who can dribble any full back and has an end product. Nice to see his type in a world where you everyone seems to be risk adverse in wide attackers these days.
 
GoonerBear said:
To be honest, I think I'd struggle to name 5 right wingers I'd have over Saka in world football currently?!
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Saka does not play for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, PSG, City, Liverpool, Spurs and even Brighton, and these clubs are doing just fine. Saka is playing well for Arsenal but there is really no need to overhype a player.
 
ThierryHenry14 said:
Saka does not play for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, PSG, City, Liverpool, Spurs and even Brighton, and these clubs are doing just fine. Saka is playing well for Arsenal but there is really no need to overhype a player.
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I’m confused as to what you’re trying to say here. I don’t think anyone claimed that other clubs are doomed to fail without Saka
 
ThierryHenry14 said:
Saka does not play for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, PSG, City, Liverpool, Spurs and even Brighton, and these clubs are doing just fine. Saka is playing well for Arsenal but there is really no need to overhype a player.
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I know you're not trying to get too hyped on Saka but I don't get your point. As a United fan I don't see how what he said is that crazy tbh. The only teams you mentioned that Saka wouldn't start for is probably Bayern and Liverpool.
 
Idxomer said:
Only Salah is a better right-winger than him right now.
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Messi is still active. Saka is class. I like the profile of player he is. A top quality left footed right winger is worth their weight in goal. If Arsenal can keep the likes of Saka, Odegaard, Saliba, Rice, Martinelli probably Timber around. That may be a champions league winning core someday.
It shows good planning by Arteta, very intelligent manager. Madrid and doing similar with Bellingham, Vini and the likes. Arsenal will need to keep them though especially the foreign once.
 
Trex said:
Messi is still active. Saka is class. I like the profile of player he is. A top quality left footed right winger is worth their weight in goal. If Arsenal can keep the likes of Saka, Odegaard, Saliba, Rice, Martinelli probably Timber around. That may be a champions league winning core someday.
It shows good planning by Arteta, very intelligent manager. Madrid and doing similar with Bellingham, Vini and the likes. Arsenal will need to keep them though especially the foreign once.
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Nice you mentioned Timber, I have a feeling in 2 years he can be an elite player. I have been pleasantly surprised by him. Of that lot Saliba is the only one I am worried about.
Odegaard is our most important player but he seems commited and you can get a player of similar profile so it wouldn't be worth it to get them out of Arsenal. Same for Martinelli/Timber.
Saka/Saliba are unicorn profiles genuinely. Not getting into world class debate but its genuinely very difficult to find a player of similar profile.
Saka being academy graduate a bit less worried.

(Rice if it works out can also be a unique player but he is not there yet and he just joined so not worried currently)
 
ThierryHenry14 said:
Saka does not play for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, PSG, City, Liverpool, Spurs and even Brighton, and these clubs are doing just fine. Saka is playing well for Arsenal but there is really no need to overhype a player.
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I'm not overhyping. The discussion was if Saka could be classed as world class. People have their own definition in what world class means. I'm thinking if your are in the top 5 performers in your position in the world, you could be classed as world class?

Now, in the case of Saka, that might be because there seems a shortage of genuine class right wingers at the moment, and I can accept that argument. But my point was that there's not many out there I see better than him currently. Salah of course, but then who? Sane? Raphinha? Mahrez? It is pretty slim pickings out there.
 
It's evident if you watch him on a regular basis, as most Arsenal supporters would, that he's the real deal. 'Overhyping him' on an internet forum isn't going to diminish that.
 
Have to credit Emery, tbf. He realised that Sven and gang had got all the dross in the world for him when he had a rough diamond right there at London Colney (along with ESR, who I will continue to believe can still come good).
 
arsenalyouth.wordpress.com has been covering the performance of Arsenal youth for years.
When Saka was still rising in the academy and playing positions all across the left line (lb, lm,lw) and sometimes CM for both club and country, you could consistently see that what defined him was his level headedness, patience and all around try harder attitude.
when he finally made the first team under emery, long time arsenal fans rejoiced at his performances, even if they were inconsistent. But many could tell he was still developing and had much higher potential.
I still don't think he's fully developed yet, but happy to see that he's getting the financial recognition and support from the rest of the team.
all this without going through the hype of other academy players (wilshere, heck even afobe who bucketloads at academy, the beast JET, malen etc)
 
Donaldo said:
Have to credit Emery, tbf. He realised that Sven and gang had got all the dross in the world for him when he had a rough diamond right there at London Colney (along with ESR, who I will continue to believe can still come good).
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I don't credit Emery much at all. There was an injury crisis, and someone needed to go on to play left wing back. 17-year old Saka was happy just to play, didn't mind he was out of position, and took his chance. The rest is history, because he kept taking his chances. Contrast to Maitland-Niles, who probably had far greater talent at the same age, but all reports say was resistant to playing right wing-back because he thought he was an attacking midfielder. Saka has had some fortune (Arsenal injuries got him a chance before he would otherwise been brought into the first team; he's my favorite player, but he didn't earn his first England call-up, it was a race between England and Nigeria to see who would call him up first). But every chance he got, he seized with both hands. 95% of it is on Saka; Emery, and especially Southgate and Arteta, just got lucky.
 
Bucephalus74 said:
I don't credit Emery much at all. There was an injury crisis, and someone needed to go on to play left wing back. 17-year old Saka was happy just to play, didn't mind he was out of position, and took his chance. The rest is history, because he kept taking his chances. Contrast to Maitland-Niles, who probably had far greater talent at the same age, but all reports say was resistant to playing right wing-back because he thought he was an attacking midfielder. Saka has had some fortune (Arsenal injuries got him a chance before he would otherwise been brought into the first team; he's my favorite player, but he didn't earn his first England call-up, it was a race between England and Nigeria to see who would call him up first). But every chance he got, he seized with both hands. 95% of it is on Saka; Emery, and especially Southgate and Arteta, just got lucky.
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Sounds a lot like Kane’s story, Kane was literally on his way out of Spurs. Sherwood (who I despise btw) had no other choice but play him and the rest is history.

Back on track of the OP Saka is world class.
 
From the beginning, his football brain, technical consistency and maturity seemed to set him apart from other young English stars. He was always brilliant at making the right choice, but he has also managed to develop his end product. Now he’s such a complete player, certainly one of the best wingers in the world.
 
LilyWhiteSpur said:
Sounds a lot like Kane’s story, Kane was literally on his way out of Spurs. Sherwood (who I despise btw) had no other choice but play him and the rest is history.

Back on track of the OP Saka is world class.
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Same with Rashford, Lvg played him because about 5 others ahead of him were injured. Rashford took his chance and never looked back
 
Thought it last season when he did the Rashford celebration & just seen Maddison’s response post match to the darts one. He’s no deviant like Uniteds RWs but I’m not buying this nice guy act - you can tell Maddison wasn’t in on the ‘joke’ if it was one.
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
Thought it last season when he did the Rashford celebration & just seen Maddison’s response post match to the darts one. He’s no deviant like Uniteds RWs but I’m not buying this nice guy act - you can tell Maddison wasn’t in on the ‘joke’ if it was one.
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Yeah, he has committed a few pretty nasty tackles and did the Sergio Ramos arm twist move against Fulham this season, I believe. He may not be the angel we've been lead to believe he is.
 
James Maddison on saka doing the darts celebration

“He must have still been doing it when I turned him for the first goal”

gotta love that
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
Thought it last season when he did the Rashford celebration & just seen Maddison’s response post match to the darts one. He’s no deviant like Uniteds RWs but I’m not buying this nice guy act - you can tell Maddison wasn’t in on the ‘joke’ if it was one.
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I agree. Also, is there a more whiny, play acting little scrote in the league? He’s always diving and rolling around the floor screaming like he’s been shot yet 1 minute later is back on his feet running about like nothings happened, clearly trying to get players booked but is never called out on it.
 
CannonBalls said:
While I do agree we are risking overplaying him, but he has been very resilient till now. And we may think for his age he is playing too much but check how much the likes of Messi used to play when he was his age. Barca has been doing this for ages Gavi/Pedri/Yamal. While Fati did not work out Saka is past this stage.

If he wants to be the best player in the world he has to get used to playing every 3 days for the whole season. There is no other way of scoring 30+ goals a season for a wide forward.
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Pedri is a bad example as he's broken now after being seriously overplayed by Barca and Spain.
 
He's mastered the Suarez move of frantically waving your arm in the air after a challenge. Thought this career was over at that moment.
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
Thought it last season when he did the Rashford celebration & just seen Maddison’s response post match to the darts one. He’s no deviant like Uniteds RWs but I’m not buying this nice guy act - you can tell Maddison wasn’t in on the ‘joke’ if it was one.
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not sure what interview you watched but very clearly he was in on the joke
 
Nero said:
He's mastered the Suarez move of frantically waving your arm in the air after a challenge. Thought this career was over at that moment.
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It’s an Arsenal trait. They’ve been doing it for years. Giroud one of the early adopters. I started a thread about it.

Lacazette’s ear splitting screech in an empty stadium, after an “injury” he took all of 15 seconds to recover from, was another classic moment.
 
He’s a cheat, f..king disgrace
 
That is even worse than Elliott the other day in terms of initiating the contact to buy a pen. I'm so glad it wasn't given, but Keown and Rio making a holy show of themselves on TNT after crying about it. Hilarious.
 
Only seen the replay but it looks super weird. Why doesn’t he just shoot the ball into the empty net rather than searching for the contact?
 
He's absolute cheat but will never get called out on it because he's one of the England golden boys.
 
Crazy decision, he has an open goal. Not the only Arsenal player diving throughout the match
 
The most idiotic dive I’ve ever seen. He scores and they win with almost last kick of the ball and he dives? Mental.
 
I kind of think it wasn’t actually a dive, simply because it would be such a stupid decision with an open goal in front of you. I think he anticipated the contact, braced himself for it, and then it just didn’t come.
 
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