Martin Odegaard has comfortably nailed himself down as Arsenal’s first choice in behind the striker, and he really can be a joy to watch.
The Norwegian joined the club from Real Madrid in the summer, having impressed during an initial loan spell in the six months prior to that, and has come on leaps and bounds as the season has run on.
While manager Mikel Arteta did opt to switch up the formation once again in order to accommodate him in behind Alexandre Lacazette, the move did bring an immediate upturn in our fortunes, and quickly saw us reap the benefits of his ability.
Odegaard now appears to be playing with freedom, and is proving to be our main outlet when switching from defence into attack, with his ball-carrying, dribbling and hold-up play key in allowing us to switch from defence into attack.
As you will see below, he isn’t one who is lacking confidence any longer, and isn’t one who can easily be dispossessed or put under pressure easily, and I don’t believe his improvements this season are spoken of enough.
Do you agree that Odegaard is now an important part of our gameplay? Is his role in our side underrated?
Patrick
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Maybe with pundits but not on this site, there are a ton of comments here giving him praise on match day and rightfully so.
Yes most fans badly underated him all season. Only now we are closing in on 4th place have fans suddenly found their ‘love’ for Odegaard. Similarly if we make top 4 millions of Arsenal fans will suddenly realize how they ‘knew all along’ Arteta was the right man for the job. 90/90 hindsight comes to mind 🙂
Pat well done. Care to explain why my comment was deleted on “Arsenal ucl hopes being boosted by the Russia?
I don’t likepolitical discussions on here. Sorry…
Okay understood
No he is not underrated and in my opinion will be favourite to get the captains armband over Tierney.
Odegaard is one of our most hardworking high presser and he usually initiates it. He is also one of the few attackers at Arsenal who can make incisive diagonal passes and frequent take-ons to the left side of the field
His work rate is great for the team, but I wish he could control the tempo as Cazorla did from the deep midfield area. Hopefully Hutchinson or Patino can give him a strong competition next season
First of all,I need to say that I always had high hopes for MÓ and he hasn’t disappointed me.i remember last season when you could see that he had turned a corner,he 3/4 where he played well and even scored but as luck would have it,he got injured in international duties, after that he was playing catch up. Some people point out to his lack of goals and assists but MÓ is often the pass before the assist, having said that if he could add fee goals to his game that’d be great.the reason I like him is that he reminds me of old school playmakers/number 10,dictating the tempo,either starting attacks/counter attacks or when needed,keeping the ball to ease the pressure on the team,lastly,his passing range and off the ball work rate and pressing is not bad,he must be of our players that constantly cover the most ground.
Not at all, getting better and better. He’s made for success like most Norwegians 😉
Oh really?😊
Love this Kid he has all the tools to be captain of this team at such a young age speaks volumes… I remember a young gun called Cesc Fabregas who he reminds me of alot, even the way he runs and moves with the ball.
Cesc was better imo at this age but Martin has only really been here a year in the league and will get better each game. He creates alot too, in tight spaces he cab get out of and pick a good pass.
We need a out and out goal scorer to compliment these young guns even more as Eddie/Lacas 3goals between them show we create alot, finishing is the problem.
I rate him highly
Me too 🙂
When fans were saying he would be a waste of money and saying the manager was wasting another huge sum.
I remember those of us who actually watched him play in the La Liga refused to judge him by his 6 months with us.
I made a comment that he never had a steady club to call home and I was happy he would be getting that with us.
Now I’m so glad he’s proving others wrong and making us who backed him highly confident and proud too.
He even said he has never enjoyed playing football this much until now.
Believe me the best from him is yet to come from him
Odegaard is not even at his best yet and that’s the serious thing. When his confidence is at the max he will be imposing himself more on the game.
While he has improved over the last month or two I still have my reservations.
his footballing side of things was never in question,great eye for a pass and does link up well but it’s his lack of pace that worry’s me ,he gets away with it against the smaller sides but I’ve not yet seen him dominant against the bigger sides , with him and Xhaka behind our middle of the park will continue to be lightweight IMO .
I feel we could have got better and my opinion as not changed .
But I suppose he fits the way Arteta as moulded this team .
A more realistic comment. I was looking in the comment for someone to say this. He has gotten more consistent recently, prior to then, he has been just meh and hopefully he can build on the consistency or better yet we get someone better. Personally, I would go for better but let’s hope he develops into a finer player
as you’re well-aware, we share the same concerns regarding this particular player. which are rather disconcerting issues IF, and that’s a big if, our actual objective is to compete with the best and not simply resurrect the Wenger Cup era under a different namesake
there’s no doubting that he’s got some game, but I think, at times, he negatively impacts the effectiveness of others around him, like the shoehorned or frequently benched ESR or the fact that he provides little help for Saka, as he rarely if ever protects him with overlapping or dummy runs, and the lack of passing options he provides for Partey in the middle of the pitch due his overly static positional script
now this could be remedied if we change our formational tactics to one that only requires us to have a singular deep-lying midfielder, which doesn’t include the underwhelming Xhaka playing further forward, but I just don’t see this happening under our current manager except maybe against lesser light clubs
I’ve replied to you on the thread about Auba. My problem is not with anyone rating Nketiah or calling him useless like most do. My problem is the cheap reasons used to slag him off as if he’s got no talent. I also stress that I am judging him from my eye test and not passing my comments off as fact. Anyone can call it wrong but that is me and I’ve applied to many players at Arsenal and been proven right about them and at times wrong. As for all this Auba talk as I told you he’s a limited player and always has been since Dortmund. There’s nothing excellent about his game apart from his positioning and instincts.
you say that like “positioning and instincts” are relatively unimportant traits for a Striker…no need to answer here as I already responded to you on our previous thread
I’m surprised you say that considering I have on several times in my reply to you called Auba’s positioning and instincts excellent which is more or less like saying his positioning and instincts were world class but many other parts of his game weren’t. I am still expecting Auba to score more goals at Barca because of that unique quality of his. I use to read here that he was finiushed and what not. Its a real shame because a Laca and Auba combo into one would’ve been the ideal striker for this team and even for the recent ones.
I was referring to the manner in which you said your comment, almost like those traits were largely secondary considerations for a Striker…btw if you look at the way in which Auba has scored, since arriving in Barca, minus the somewhat controversial deflection, they’ve come in a variety of different ways…once we stopped protecting Auba with dummy runs, so he could find some space in crucial areas, like at the left top-edge of the box, where he’s potted a lot of goals for us, it became an exercise in slim-pickings and thusly the focus shifted to the always problematic realm of “missed” opportunities, which are commonplace and largely ignored when you’re scoring 20+ goals in a season
Martin Odegaard can either be a perfect 8 as he is now or s perfect 10 interchangeably with Smith Rowe.
He will get to chip in more goals if he works on his weaker foot just like he attempted against watford earlier this season which was goal bound if not for auba,he is no doubt a top player which best is yet to come.
Yes he is highly underrated, he will be more appreciated the minute we get a marquee striker and a dominant number eight like Declan Rice or even Neves
👍
I-‘ll like to see how an Arsenal starting XI team that contains Odegaard playing behind Lacazette and Pepe jointly leading the line. And ESR operating from the left side in the front line, and Saka playing at the opposite left wing front line. While of course Partey and Xhaka take control of the midfield as central midfielder and holding midfielder. And a back-three defence of White, Maglhaes and Tierney will pan out at away to Watford next Sunday.
And with Nkethia introduced early in the 2nd half of the match to replace one of Saka, ESR or Pepe. But hopefully one or two of the trio forwards or even the trio have scored before Nkethia replaces one of them in the 2nd half to make an impact in the form of assist like he gave to Pepe in our last Wolves home match. Or even score in the match by himself.
But will Arteta accepts this my back-three defense-line starting XI team proposition and adopts it for our next Watford game? A back-three defence which he could revert to his preferred back-four if the need does arise for hm to do so during the match.
I think If Arteta have his starting Gunners team at the Vicarage Read play a back-three defence, the Gunners should be capable to get round and beat the very experienced Roy Hudgson’s Hornets team. Which could prove stubborn for the Gunners to beat them. But they have to beat them in this their next MUST win match next Sunday.
Martin Odegaard has done well and is definitely part of our creative force. He is still a bit inconsistent and needs a year to physically strengthen…but needs to play regularly to reach his peak. A very good player.
Honestly I wasn’t excited after his loan spell last season and he was signed permanently I thought he’d be nothing more than an average squad player.
How wrong I was!
He doesn’t quite have the class of Ozil but he fights like a lion which makes him a much better fit for the PL.
He’s improved a lot this season and hopefully he’ll keep getting better.
Great player!
He has been fantastic for us! Amazing some on here would prefer to still have Ozil though!
Fantastic is stretch. More consistent for sure. Ozil rightly has moved on as he declined physically, but he’s still one of the best players Ive seen at the Emirates. Not taking anything away from odegaard
I always believed Martin Odegaard would be a good fit at Arsenal, if he was able to be given the opportunity to at last settle at a club, after various loan spells. Now all Arsenal needs is to further strengthen the midfield and the Kroenkes to come good on their promises and foot the bill for Odegaard to approach his Norwegian mate Haarland.