We all know how good Bukayo Saka is, Pires comment means nothing.
There’s been a barrage of criticism directed towards the former Arsenal player and member of the Invincible squad Robert Pires recently, The man was a key member of that squad along with him being a club legend. which makes his recent criticism of Bukayo Saka to be bizarrely confusing.
Pires said: “Bukayo Saka still lacks a certain level of consistency and experience, especially in the big games. Perhaps this season, especially in the Champions League, he will show a more convincing face than last season when it counts.”
The fact he’s someone of huge standing in our history made it an even more harsher assessment, and what bothered me the most was the alleged the “lack of consistency” Bukayo Saka still lacks – which we all know is not true, he even went as far saying Jeremy Doku of Man City was a more consistent player when he can’t even hold down starting role consistently not, to talk of him having poor end product.
The Arsenal man has shown, especially in recent seasons just how consistent he is, with him dropping a minimum of a 7/10 performances week in, week out over the course of that time. To put it into stats, the England international has kept a steady increment of his goal and assist tally over the last four seasons, in the 20/21 campaign he had 13 goals contributions (7 goals, 6 assists) followed by 19 G/A in the 21/22 campaign (12 goals and 7 assists), this was followed up by another improvement in the 22/23 season where he ended with 26 goal contributions (15 goals and 11 assists) and lastly by another improvement last season where he finished with a whopping 33 G/A(20 goals and 13 assists).
It is clear to see just how consistent he’s been over the years with him establishing himself not just in our starting eleven but in the England set up as well. Anyone has the right to express their own opinions, but we gooners know just how good he is, and I pray that Saka uses it as fuel to fire the flames in his eyes so that he will be extra motivated to have an even better season.
How many goals and assists do you all think Saka will score this season gooners?
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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I do think Pires has a point, but not for the reason stated.
At times Saka was exhausted and even played with knocks. He also gets fouled alot.
This is where Arteta has let us all down. He really resist squad rotation except for injuries and cups.
To win the league we need squad depth and rotation. To win cups we need to play our strongest available team. Squad players will only be match fit if they play matches.
Injuries and bookings are inevitable. Rotate!
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Robert Pires has said that most fans don’t already know.
Sometimes we fans are blinded by our love for these players that we fail to accept what’s real. Saka has been inconsistent over the years and it’s true that he should improve more on that this season to attain the next level. Criticism helps us grow and I hope Saka can take the important message he’s been passed to improve more.
We all want him to succeed so as the team .
Thank you
Pires will always be a legend for arsenal and one of my favourite players so I will just chalked these comments of his to be a sort of reverse psychology motivation is his trying to put on saka to make him go even further this season.
I have no bad words or blood towards Pires or any of our ex players and I’m hoping this is not Pires still brooding about how wenger took him out of the ucl final in 2006.
Pires is down right. Saka gets more than his deserved minutes even when he limps. There’s no doubt that Saka is our star boy. We should be careful to know which matches he can best fit in. Saka hasn’t got the speed but he is perfect in ball possession. We have to rotate our players to build on partnership.
Pires may have a point but I find the Doku comparison laughable. Jeremy Doku is nowhere near Saka in terms of consistent output.
Sometimes I feel like people,including pundits are blinded by an aesthetic bias. Doku is the more flashy player with a bag of tricks and dribbles.
Saka on the other hand is simple but more efficient. People tend to conflate flashiness with being a good player
It’s like the discussion around Haaland vs other strikers. He is a pretty boring player who doesn’t do much outside of his goals. But is the most efficient in the box.
Even Man City fans complain that Doku frustrates sometimes – how he does so much dancing while everyone is waiting for a delivery & sometimes just loses the ball or gives a poor delivery
When you watch someone week-in week-out you know him so so well – such that familiarity brings contempt
Compared to when you watch someone once in a while then think he’s super
I believe he watches Saka more than Doku that’s why he thinks Doku is more consistent
Bukayo is super consistent
U can all say he needs to improve
But don’t even say Bukayo is inconsistent
The only down time of Bukayo i remember was towards the end of last 2 seasons (our first title challenge under Arteta)
Bukayo had worn-out in those last 4 matches & that’s on Arteta
Liverpool lost yesterday
Should we say Salah is inconsistent for not able to produce something for his team
And Mo Sallah is the only person i can say is more consistent than Saka – Not even Luiz Diaz, not even Phil Foden
Foden use to have a period with a red hot burst of form – But Saka is always the main-man for his team from beginning to end of season – that’s consistent
Pardon me – it’s now arguable that Cole Palmer is more consistent than Foden even – always trust worthy for his team, always to Go-To Man
Arsenal is relying upon Saka (and the likes of Havertz come to that) too much in my opinion. I can see why Arteta is tempted to play Saka so often – he does get the goals/assists. His most recent stats really put Jesus (a “proper” CF) to shame, don’t they.
However, as others have said the downside is clearly fatigue and/or injury across the season. The addition of Sterling should help but let’s hope everyone stays fit, nevertheless.
Even Trossard is more consistent than Doku
Rubbish
With all the respect, Pires lost it in this context. Saka is among the most consistent players in the league.
When our iconic No7 talks then people would do best to listen. I suspect behind his comment that he’s merely suggesting bona fide (proven) world class performers distinguish themselves in the big games, the games that matter and these caliber types do it consistently (emphasis) in short Saka needs to distinguish himself from his peers. Personally i believe Star Boy has met this level but whether he does so routinely (or not) only time will tell. Why? because our team is still in a state of transition – we’ve shown we can ascend to being in the conversation of being a top tier team the next stage is winning trophies and then doing it over and over again.
I believe that other big teams will try to poach Saka in the interim before we show our winning mentality (ie winning trophies). His appeal shows us Saka is rated, already, by the best sides in the world.
Greater consistency will be a natural part of this players journey as he’s young, hungry no doubt and in a state of growth – with this said only a fool(s) would bet against Saka developing into a better performer than he is today. Robert Pires’ has shown a winners-mentality expected from this young player – after all Pires was once a big game changing player too for club and country.
Perhaps consistency in the big games where we need big players. Bayern in CL comes to mind where he missed another opportunity.
Saka is a great player, but not elite as some arsenal fans believe.
Who scored for us against Bayern ???
Who also failed to score? Good player, but not elite.
Saka can drift in and out of games, but he’s so often decisive – even when not playing well he can pull out a brilliant cross or beat a defender and score at any time. I find his consistency quite hard to judge because of that.
To be fair, I remember thinking pires was over the hill early on in what turned out to be his highest scoring season – he’d just become more efficient. We saw similar with van persie, who, I think, made himself incredibly efficient later in his career so he could impact games as much as possible without wasting energy and to reduce his risk of injury. Maybe that’s part of saka’s game already?
To say that Doku is better than Saka is absolutely irritating.
What is Doku’s goals contribution in his team? Saka on the other hand has been the highest goa creato for Arsenal
I got some codswallop from my local Chippy last night. Yummy
I’m not going to argue with points made above. It is worth noting that both Saka and Martinelli are the same age – 23 which is still relatively young. As we are referencing Saka, he has somehow managed to escape serious injury, gets picked regularly for England as well as being the first name on the team sheet at Arsenal. European club football at the highest level has evaded us for years so I’d like to think that last season’s experience will improve not just him but all the squad and of course, Arteta who makes the decisions on the night.