Bukayo Saka: Little Chilli

[BigPoppaPump]

I am driving you closer to being "Arteta Out" every day, aren't I?

Myself and guys like @Makingtrax have been saying it for years, no one wanted to hear it when it was Arsène and Emery but now it's Arteta everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon lol. Just shows me how everythings a popularity contest with people.

 

[MikelHadADream]

yup .. we are half the team.. Let saka be in the middle and play with his head up and have freedom to attack. We are burning him up on the left

Saka is a 19 year old kid that's never played in the middle professionally, and probably never at youth level (although I'm not sure about this). I think asking to play him week in week out is bad enough, but out of position as well may be too much for the kid.

 

[MikelHadADream]

How are people turning on Saka already?

This forum is a shambles sometimes.

Don't think people are turning on him, and if they are they need their heads checked.

Its just there is too much pressure on him at the moment. He is basically Arsenal's main creative player at the moment which should not be happening, he isnt ready for that.

People are bringing Cesc at 19 up, but Cesc was in a far better team and was also a far better player at this stage. We are setting Saka up to fail, I've seen it too many times before with young players.

 

[kash2]

Saka is a 19 year old kid that's never played in the middle professionally, and probably never at youth level (although I'm not sure about this). I think asking to play him week in week out is bad enough, but out of position as well may be too much for the kid.

thats the managers call.. with xhaka partey behind him and pepe/willian, auba, nketiah/laca in front he can play with less pressure and more influence.. bloody laca played there.. kids still can learn.. and can always rotate with the wide players or midfielders during game .. he is our only player with inventiveness .. lets save him for important stuff instead of running him up and down a flank.

He has had a long enough bedding in

 

[Geofranco]

How are people turning on Saka already?

This forum is a shambles sometimes.

I think some criticism is fine. He does need to work to improve his finishing, but I am impressed that he is getting into those dangerous areas.

We all saw how Sterling used to struggle with his finishing when he was at Liverpool and even still misses some easy chances now with City.

Sterling is still not a great finisher, but puts up really good numbers cause of the number of chances he gets every game.

That's what happens when you play with world class players. I remember 19 year old Cristiano missing a lot of chances, over dribbling, taking long range shots at ill-advised times.

But Ferguson didn't lose faith in him. I never expected Ronaldo to become such a potent goal scorer when I saw him play as a teenager.

Although Saka is not on that level of natural talent of a teenage Cesc, Cristiano, Hazard, Messi and Rooney, he reads the game just as well as those guys do.

I said it in the Willock thread that it is a double edged sword giving young players opportunities.

Cause of the way Arsenal has been managed in the last 10 years, first team players will be injured or shambolic, young players get chances, are either overplayed or get scrutinized very harshly for every missed chance, poor touch or lack of positional awareness. I believe Saka will be fine, it's part of growing pains.

 

[Trilly]

Was just thinking about Bukayo. Does he deserve a bit of criticism? Love him and he's still young so has time to grow. But he doesn't seem all that clinical to me.

From what I can remember he's now had three key chances in front of goal and fluffed all of them.

1 against City
1 against Leeds
1 against Wolves

They are very very good chances as well. Could be the difference between 1 point and 5 there. Madness, he's obviously not the main problem. But worth a talking point.

Yeah he’s quite a bad finisher imo. I’ve noticed it for us and England but that’s okay he’s good at other stuff.

As others have mentioned it’s something he can work on and improve, don’t think he’ll ever be a ‘killer’ in front of goal as Wenger used to say.

 

[Geofranco]

Arteta overplaying this kid. I don't get why Arteta never uses AMN in the league anymore.

When the team played well in all those big games to end last season, AMN played a big part. If they weren't gonna use him, then they should have just sold him to Wolves.

Saka will be burnt out mentally and physically very soon if care is not taken.

Seeing how Arteta and the club rushed back Partey for him to get inevitably injured, it shows a lack of experience and some desperation.

A club of this caliber should not be relying so much on teenagers. Even when Messi was 19, Barca still had a lot of talented veterans and leaders to carry the bare the burden.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

We overplaying him because we got nobody can put similar performances we'll have to rotate him when pepe back and i mean Nelson is available too

 

[Tir Na Nog]

He's a kid, he's gonna be inconsistent, he shouldn't be a guaranteed starter but here we are. It all stems from the horribly mis-managed summer of 2019 where we went into the season with only one senior winger. In a proper functioning team he'd have been loaned out for a season to develop. Obviously he's an exceptional talent but I don't feel like we're actually developing him in the right way.

 

[Monstar-Gunn4r]

Thought he had some good moments, especially when the ball was delivered to him he was able to turn quickly and run at the S*ts defence. Wasn't as quick in the box as you'd like him to be but that will come in time, training and experience of actually getting the ball in the box.

 

[Maybe]

Did his job really today, put some crosses in and attacked constantly on the left side. Had a few naive passes in the first half but nothing major

 

[Geofranco]

He's a kid, he's gonna be inconsistent, he shouldn't be a guaranteed starter but here we are. It all stems from the horribly mis-managed summer of 2019 where we went into the season with only one senior winger. In a proper functioning team he'd have been loaned out for a season to develop. Obviously he's an exceptional talent but I don't feel like we're actually developing him in the right way.

Nah I don't think he needs a loan. He just shouldn't be a guaranteed starter yet. We really need Martinelli to come back soon. Competition is always a good thing. Nelson, Martinelli and Saka competing for that LW spot will do them good. Saka should even be tried on the right, I'd rather see him there than Willian. He looks like more of a goal threat anytime he plays RW.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Nah I don't think he needs a loan. He just shouldn't be a guaranteed starter yet. We really need Martinelli to come back soon. Competition is always a good thing. Nelson, Martinelli and Saka competing for that LW spot will do them good. Saka should even be tried on the right, I'd rather see him there than Willian. He looks like more of a goal threat anytime he plays RW.

I don't mean now, I mean at another club like Chelsea for instance there would've been 2/3 wingers ahead of him at least and they'd have probably had to loan him for his development. Obviously there's no point in us doing it now, he's probably the best option we've got but we've also got to accept he's gonna be inconsistent as he's still developing.

 

[rich 1990]

He was absolutely shocking today. Did nothing right.

 

[Monstar-Gunn4r]

He was absolutely shocking today. Did nothing right.

Disaster of a post

 

[truth_hurts]

Saka was decent today. Him and Tierney on the left was one of the few things keeping me sane today.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

He was absolutely shocking today. Did nothing right.

Yes but we really asking too much from him.

 

[Wrighty4eva]

Definitely stalling in development under Arteta, I'm just not confident at all in Arteta's ability to integrate the youngsters into our team with how he's handled both the Saliba, Guendouzi and AMN, Emery seemed to understand how to do it, Although you could argue Emery overplayed Guendouzi at times.

 

[Red London]

He showed willingness to pick the ball up in tight areas and take players on, unfortunately the actual application of his ideas didnt work out.

He's not in form right now but he has been showing his mentality which is top class. He still tries to fight for the team and doesnt shy away.

 

[A_G]

Credit to him, he kept trying even after the sending off.