Ibadan
Thread Bump Police
I think people just always want to go to extremes. Maybe there was a stereotype of a typical big lad that would get opportunities at youth level to shine over smaller, more technical players.
So there was this negative against bigger kids and it was always assumed they just relied on athleticism and size, even when most were still very crafty and technically sound.
At out peak most of our players here over 6ft and very technical, strong mentally and could get down and dirty lol.
Once Wenger started trying to copy the Barca model a bit and got so many smaller, technical players, dirty teams started trying to kick us off the pitch, so many injury prone players and many could just be bullied by more physical teams.
I think there just has to be a balance of physical and athletic players with some little technicians, that have some grit too.
Definitely agree with this. Right now it's painful watching Xhaka, Ceballos & Torreira hobble around our midfield. Xhaka in particular annoys me, I don't want to derail this thread, but I always feel he should be so much better than he is.
Really hope someone like AMN gets a run in midfield next season. @MutableEarth Is it to early for Azeez to start getting cameos for the first team? Fixture congestion is going to be insane especially if we progress in cups.