Gabriel Magalhaes’ position in Arsenal’s starting 11 could be in jeopardy.
Although the thought is that Jurrien Timber is in line to take over the right-back spot or the right spot in central defense, there’s speculation he could force himself into Arteta’s defense as William Saliba’s central defensive partner.
William Saliba is undroppable at the right side of Arsenal’s central defense, and White, after a perfect summer rest, may make himself undroppable at right back. As for Gabriel, yes, he’s been played more and was undroppable last season, playing all 38 Premier League games. He was calling the shots when Saliba was injured, but even so, he had his fair share of errors and mistakes. Problems that Gabby Aghbonlahor says the Brazilian should avoid, or else he may find himself benched by Timber, whose brilliance we’ve been singing ever since he fell onto Arsenal’s radar.
“I think for the start of the season, Gabriel should keep his place,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider.
“When they played him with Saliba at the start of the season, they were both phenomenal. He has got the odd mistake in him, Gabriel, but even with a mistake, he is better than Holding.
“But bringing in Timber really puts the pressure on him. It says, First mistake, and you’re out.
“We can’t afford for you to do your trademark conceding a penalty, your trademark lack of concentration—because these are the big boy competitions.
“The Champions League is tough every single week. It’s going to be a case of one mistake, and Gabriel is out.”
There are questions about whether it is realistic to think Timber could play in Gabriel’s position. The graph below shows that he has featured as a left-sided defender in 5% of his minutes at Ajax since the 2019–20 season. That’s not a new position for him, but we will have to see if it’s something Arteta will consider.
Daniel O
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We have up to 60 games this season, which means about 40 games per squad player. ….isn’t that enough???? They play so many games that they need R&R. Nobody should have to play 50 games. That is beyond what the human body can give. Look at Saka and Gabriel…..crazy amount of games!!!
At 5ft 10 I would be surprised if he comes In as a CB especially in a physical league like the Prem ,but not knowing much about him I could be wrong .
Personally thought our 2 CBs player well together last season and will only get better with time .
Dan Kit, I perfectly agree with you I think Timber would replace White while White deputise for Saliba since White is originally a CB. While also struggled against pacey and tricky wingers last season. I guess Thieny will be sold. In my opinion Arteta wants to try Kiwior there in case Zichenko get injured.
Timber is a fantastic prospect, he’s a modern defender. Good on the ball, very good passing skills, good pace and technical skills. He is a top international prospect and bought to be a future asset, which I believe he will be. He’s a versatile player mainly a centre-back, but he can also play as a right-back.
In the Europa League he averaged over 100 passes a game, with 93% completed. In the Champions League, he completed 94% of all his passes (across 6 group stage games). Timber is also not a sideways passer. He ranks high amongst centre backs across Europe when it comes to forward passes and runs (progressive carries).Source The Atlantic
I like Gabriel, it’s great to have a large dominating CB in the team again but he does have the odd rush of blood to the head. Competition in the team is great as long as the manager decides to drop/reward players based on form alone.
Gabriel was unfortunate as often times it was Zinchenko’s poor positioning that led to him being caught out. Additionally, because of the inverted LB system teams would target that side more often because a) it was more likely to be open or 2v1 against Gabriel, and b) Saliba isn’t on that side.
Very good point Ben
Arteta has now spend about £580m that’s a
record if he doesn’t win any major trophy next season then the project is a total failure excuses will no longer be used as a route to escape every failure by Arteta lovers i like him to but good results plus trophies should now be inserted to arsenal DNA
You cannot rush phase 7!!!!
Yeah that’s the thing, season after season the process.
The process that has clearly been working year on year you mean and replacing pretty much an entire squad… Not just a few players here and there…. Get a grip man.
🎯
It you mean the process worked because we qualified for Champions League then you might be wrong arsenal has been their before it’s not like it was our first time in like 30 years like Newcastle.
agreed he should now start winning trophies. he should have won Europa or EPL to convince fans that the process is heading well
We are currently giving time to Arteta to rebuild the team after a long time of suffering. It has been for years without us playing in the champions league and this time we have the opportunity so let wait and see how we gonna slot into this competition.
If we still have the capacity to strengthen the squad, let us continue doing so. We need to have a good bench players if we really want to compete at the highest level neck to neck with top clubs like Man City.
Napoli,lille,Feyenoord, Leicester, and ac milan have won in their respective League without any process needed, it must be wonderful to be an arsenal manager maybe arsenal will win it at vision 2030 by next season maybe the likes of Tomiyasu,Elneny, Nelson,Marquinhos, Tierney Nketiah, Karl Hein,Turner will be classified as deadwood by some fans here so again we will undergo phase 7 of clearing more deadwood and the process again repeat.
Imagine comparing the French, Italian and Dutch leagues to the PL 🙄.
Btw, when Leicester won it in 2016, that was our biggest chance, but we bottled it.
Yeah just like last season it was also our biggest chance to win it but we bottled it and if you think Seria a is a small League then you are wrong AC Milan were in Champions League final last season and it was not their first time they have been there before and they have won it almost 3 time if am not wrong Inter have won it Juventus have done it before the likes of Chelsea and Man city what of our beloved Arsenal playing in the best League in the world how many has it won give me the number no League title in 20 years no Champions League since it was started.
The difference between last season and the 2016 season, is that in 2016, we were the only big club vying for the title. Last season it was us and the best team in the world, Man City.
Where do you get that I think the Italian league is a small league ? It isn’t, it’s just not as big as the PL.
It was Inter Milan that played in last seasons CL. AC Milan got knocked out by their city rivals in the semis. While AC have a proud record in the competition, they haven’t won it in many a year, much like Inter.
Yep, 19 seasons in the CL and only 1 Final, terrible record. There again, we haven’t got an impressive record in European competitions, considering the amount of finals we’ve been in. Copenhagen though was wonderful in 1994.
Btw, if we don’t win the PL next season, that will be 20 years.
If it’s trophies you so desire, then maybe you don’t understand football, only one club can win, why did you start to follow Arsenal? was it because of the success of Wenger? was it that they were the first club you went to see as a kid with your dad or mates, or was it because you were born in North London? if it was because of the trophies Arsenal started to win and you wanted to be part of that
We didn’t bottle it, we simply were not good enough, the term bottling is an insult to players, the fans, and the club, only one team can win, so does that mean the rest of the PL bottled it, did France bottle the WC final even though Mbappe scored a hat trick, a feat not done since 1966. No just not good enough to do it, lost to the better team
Yes, a bad choice of word, considering how I don’t like it when it was used for the last 2 seasons. We should’ve been good enough to win it in ’16 considering all the other big clubs had their problems and we beat Leicester home and away, but who would have thought that our CF, Giroud, would fail to score for 3 months.
Imo, Kiwior, being left footed, will be the one who steps in deputies for Gabriel.
After Timber comes, I think it’s Zinchenko who needs to worry about his place in the starting lineup
I believe Timber, White and Tomiyasu will rotate for the right CB and inverted-RB roles
Gai, I think Timber would replace White while White deputise for Saliba since White is originally a CB. White also struggled against pacey and tricky wingers last season. I guess Thieny will be sold. In my opinion Arteta wants to try Kiwior at left back in case Zichenko get injured we saw him play there last two games last season.. Zichenko in my opinion would keep his place. Because Gabriel is left footes Arteta won’t change him he will get better this season.
I don’t think White will play second fiddle to Saliba, because his aerial ability is inconsistent and Holding/ Kiwior have been tasked to deputize Saliba last season
I think Gabriel and Saliba are good combination. They should carry out the job they started last season.
Agbonlahor is way off the money, Magalhaes won’t be missing a minute sleep as far as where is place in Arsenal team is concerned.
Gabriel Magalhaes is the most physical and imposing defender on the gunners team sheet his Aerial prowess is second to none.
Arsenal will be more concern with PSG coming again, to tempted this left footed center back which is the hardest sets of players to find, the player will be a Brazilian international soon.
This is the last player we can afford to lose going into phase 4 of the process.
Bro, left-footer CBs are ten a penny at the moment. Good ones are harder to find but not impossible. And if we are playing 3 across the back Tierney or Tomiyasu are perfectly capable of playing that role, too.
Gabriel needs not to worry, it’s Zinchenko that’s at risk,I think Kiwior will be used as LB in top 6 matches, he is good with the ball, he’s fast,strong and tall, means we are well equipped from midfield to defence,
Lol, Saliba will taste the bench before Gabriel ever does!!
My feeling is that Gabriel is one of Artetas “undroppable’s” with some rest in less important games. Arteta, just as Pep loves players who take risks (Stone in City).
Players who take great risks combined with being aggressive and commanding doesn’t grow on trees, especially not top 10 CBs in PL and I find Gabriel to be just that. Worth a note is also that Gabriel has that “die for the team” aura which I would say only Xhaka has in this team, along with Rice who takes Granits place in that factor.
Cheers
Formation change? 3 at the back, zinc push forward more where he’s not the ultimate defender but his ability to create and make things happen offensively is great! Imagine the number of creative players we can have in the midfield that great passing ability, ability to find the pass!
Do some people want to eat their cake and have it at the same time? Most of us have been bemoaning how Saliba’s sickness greatly caused our capitulation last season. Why then should anyone complain that we are making contingency plans to avoid a similar scenario next season? What is being done now is to ensure that we don’t descend into desperation when a player gets sick or is injured. Man city has always thrived despite injuries because of squad depth and that is what Arsenal is aiming for. Instead of applauding these efforts some people are busy undermining them by pretending to sympathise with individual players who might be affected by the changes. What is our interest? Is it the convenience of individual players or the interest of the team? Let us get our priorities right.
The only players that will play LCB are Gabriel, Kiwior and Tierney. Because Arteta prefers left footers over there. As Arsenal fan, I know more of this than an average pundit at Talksports.
Healthy competition is good for the team, Mahrez score a hat trick in the FA Cup semi-final and is benched for the final, it keeps players hungry, with no complacency.