Right, new season begins, it's all just too exciting, so who is in your first 11?

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

I don't think he can do that personally - not in today's game. Think Ray is one of the most underrated players of the past 30 years - extraordinary stamina that meant he could play wide as well as the physical strength to play CM. Wasn't too shoddy on the ball either.

Willock i see more as a Ramsey type (don't start WES), difficult to fit into the team, but you can reap the rewards if you do get him in. Maybe deserved more chances but ultimately I can see why Arteta was reluctant to play him. Decent fee - and for all the quibbling, it's only Newcastle who have come in for him, which perhaps says something.

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You say it's only NUFC but he wasn't going to go to a top team given he's barely played for us. Given that, given the Geordies loved him, he knew he'd be starter and how he fits with the manager, he was obviously only going to go there. No point in other teams wasting transfer time as he'd only leave us for them.

There was one game last season where MA gave both him and AMN a start. It wasn't great and that was that for the pair of them. However, Joe looked no worse than GX or Elneny, and he almost scored. He headed it to much into the ground and bounced up for the keeper to catch it. If he's hit it slightly less downwards, he'd have scored and been a hero. The point is that he was in that position. GX or Mo wouldn't have been. And as we've seen at NU, he's good at this.

If Pépé keeps playing well and improving and Saka and ESR hit top form, then we have some creativity. We now have Ben White to ping the diagonals that GX does. a MF who can arrive late in the box and score is useful. Arsène would probably have played him on the right like Freddie, to shuffle across when we're attacking down the left and to arrive late to score.

You predicted he'd play for England when he broke into the Europa side and kept scoring. I think we should have given him more of a go. Had we had goal line tech, he'd have scored the equaliser vs the Chavs. That's worth bearing in mind.

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

You say it's only NUFC but he wasn't going to go to a top team given he's barely played for us. Given that, given the Geordies loved him, he knew he'd be starter and how he fits with the manager, he was obviously only going to go there. No point in other teams wasting transfer time as he'd only leave us for them.

There was one game last season where MA gave both him and AMN a start. It wasn't great and that was that for the pair of them. However, Joe looked no worse than GX or Elneny, and he almost scored. He headed it to much into the ground and bounced up for the keeper to catch it. If he's hit it slightly less downwards, he'd have scored and been a hero. The point is that he was in that position. GX or Mo wouldn't have been. And as we've seen at NU, he's good at this.

If Pépé keeps playing well and improving and Saka and ESR hit top form, then we have some creativity. We now have Ben White to ping the diagonals that GX does. a MF who can arrive late in the box and score is useful. Arsène would probably have played him on the right like Freddie, to shuffle across when we're attacking down the left and to arrive late to score.

You predicted he'd play for England when he broke into the Europa side and kept scoring. I think we should have given him more of a go. Had we had goal line tech, he'd have scored the equaliser vs the Chavs. That's worth bearing in mind.

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He's nothing like Freddie and we play in a different way now - definitely would be an odd fit out wide and can't play as a two without seriously compromising the defence. A better comparison, like Ramsey, would be David Platt - another player who needed to be shoehorned into a side rather than being a natural in any formation. I hope he does well at Newcastle but even there he wasn't even starting every week

I think with Freddie we played more broken play and on smaller pitch, now it seems we're trying to be more of a positional and possession team. Willock's running is great but passing not so much, and losing the ball in midfield is quite dangerous as most sides in PL nowadays can punish you.

I like Willock alot but prefer we get money to reinvest and that Willock hopefully gets to be a star man at Newcastle signing autographs out of his car window leaving the stadium

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Originally Posted by Eboue's Boutique

I think with Freddie we played more broken play and on smaller pitch, now it seems we're trying to be more of a positional and possession team. Willock's running is great but passing not so much, and losing the ball in midfield is quite dangerous as most sides in PL nowadays can punish you.

I like Willock alot but prefer we get money to reinvest and that Willock hopefully gets to be a star man at Newcastle signing autographs out of his car window leaving the stadium

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Willock is a central midfielder full stop, he is nothing like Freddie. And he's a central midfielder who gives the ball away a lot, struggles to keep it when pressed, isn't a great passer by any stretch and is a liability defensively.

Which is just another way of saying he isn't very good even if he does stick the odd one away. Which is pretty much exactly what Aaron Ramsey was and is. Which is why he's available for anyone dumb enough to pay his salary.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

He's nothing like Freddie and we play in a different way now - definitely would be an odd fit out wide and can't play as a two without seriously compromising the defence. A better comparison, like Ramsey, would be David Platt - another player who needed to be shoehorned into a side rather than being a natural in any formation. I hope he does well at Newcastle but even there he wasn't even starting every week

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He was coming off the bench at the start up there, but I thought he'd made himself a regular by the end.

Hope the lad does well, and becomes a star up there. I just remember another young, black Arsenal home grown star that did really well up there and ended up wining shîtloads for Man Utd.

Joe's also nailed on to score against us,

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

He was coming off the bench at the start up there, but I thought he'd made himself a regular by the end.

Hope the lad does well, and becomes a star up there. I just remember another young, black Arsenal home grown star that did really well up there and ended up wining shîtloads for Man Utd.

Joe's also nailed on to score against us,

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Absolutely agreed with the last point