Alex Iwobi is our most recent youngster to breakthrough into the Arsenal first-team, but is he doing enough at present?
I cant help but feel like he is going to be a great player, but his form of late has not impressed me, and I would hate for fans to call for him to be dropped. I also can’t help but feel we are in an important part of the season, and he could do with a rest.
The Nigerian has featured in nine of our 11 league outings this term, and I feel he would likely have played in them all had he not picked up a thigh injury on the opening weekend of the season.
Iwobi broke onto the scene early in 2016 and was thoroughly impressive in his link-up play as well as proving confident in front of goal, but has struggled to show that same guile this term.
His miss in the weekend’s crucial North London Derby with Tottenham with the scores tied at 1-1, leaves me to believe he may have gotten too comfortable in his first-team role, and could do with the extra pressure of fighting for his place.
I’m not blaming the youngster for our failure to win in any shape or form, but this attempt was dire, and has stuck in my mind.
Arsene Wenger has already stated that the 20 year-old must improve his finishing, labelling him as ‘nervous’ in front of goal.
Does Iwobi deserve his spot despite his goal-shyness? Or is his role more than about scoring?
Pat J
That’s up to Wenger and Iwobi
All regular players should get rest when needed and when possibl
If needed Lucas can play on the left as well as Alexis and Ox
So, I am not too concerned
Iwobi has been fantastic this season
He was earlier.. Last few games have been disappointing. Nothing against him as a player just looks to be lacking confidence and off the pace the past few games.
It would’ve given him a huge boost if that lovely ball in to Xhaka had been a bit more precise.. Alas it wasn’t meant to be.
Yes, he cost us the game! If we had started with Giroud at CF and Sanchez at left wing we would have won the spurs game and the vital three points….Just imagine how OG would be feeling when in last game he opened up the stubborn sunderland defence and then he is dropped this game. It was OG with the second goal that made the difference – we were all so anxious in the sunderland game. Please re-call..
He still should’ve buried that header though 🙁
Agreed though… Could be a big difference with United’s defense looking far from great! put some crosses in, stretch them and see what happens!
I disagree with him being too confident within his role had anything to do with his miss… Quite the opposite IMO. He was very off the pace in the NLD, personally I think he took the shot far too nervously… It was like time stood still though in that sequence, beautiful work from Sanchez and Ozil, kinda wish it was Theo on the end of it!
Perez is still injured isn’t he? I’d love to see him slot in… My personal preference is to give G-train the start against United. Their fullbacks are looking trash at the moment, start our strongest wide-men to run at them and try and get in behind with the big man trying to cause problems in the box.
To be honest we could have lost the game and thank God we did not there was holes every where on the pitch Arsenal balance was not there for some reason we could have lost the game early on but for a missed pass and we didn’t score it was an own goal mind you I still think it wasn’t a penalty and monreal saved the day I am glad to have the break and I hope the break will revitalize our form and MR wenger can have a good think about the man u game wounder how lucas is doing would he be ready for man u ???
Starting Iwobi means benching Giroud for Alexis which in turn gives us flexibility and fluidity in attack…i just want Cazorla to return so that everything will return back to normal.
He was struggling right from the start.Wenger should have taken him off in the first half instead of waiting until the customary 70th minute. I would have started with the Ox and I think that he was hoping that also. Consequently he too was disappointing. I’m not sure about Iwobi. His close ball control can be brilliant. But what is his best position. He’s too slow to be a wlnger and he’s not busy enough for midfield. Without being too cruel he could do with loosing a few pounds.
To me, Iwobi looked much more dangerous earlier on when he had more of a free role and did more damage from more central positions.
However, since the last few games, he has stuck to the left more, probably under instructions to provide more cover to the left-back (an earlier criticism against him) and has looked less effective in the attacking third.