Midfield Partey by Icewalker
Arsenal Football Club has been known for producing great midfielders. The likes of Song, P.Viera, Fabregas, S. Nasri, S. Cazorla, A. Ramsey. M.Overmars, Ray Parlour, Freddie, R.Pires, the list goes on and on.
These ones could stroll into any football club, I mean, the biggest football clubs, and they had high resale value. They were the standard.
At least, every generation, AFC produced one or two outstanding midfielders.
Presently, facing reality, we do not have an outstanding midfielder yet; we have no one – no outstanding DM; no outstanding CM; as for AM, still watching, Odegaard and ESR.
From the academy, we have the likes of R.Azeez, O. Hutchinson, M.Flores, C.Patino. They have hardly been given the opportunity to play.
As for Lokonga, I don’t know how long it would take for him to fit into the squad.
Back to reality, we have Xhaka and Partey, our so-called experienced players, who are supposed to lead the younger ones. As for Xhaka (King of Reds), it is needless to talk about him.
Bought from Atletico Madrid, Partey has not found life easy in England. He was used as a midfield pivot in Madrid. He would defend, link up play and push forward, if need be. He was the heart of AM’s midfield.
Ever since he stepped into England, life has not been the same for him. Some say, he is adjusting, the team is not up to his standard, others say, MA wants him to do more than he was used to. I for one don’t believe he is playing even half of what he was used to at ATM. I mean, we all watched him (maybe, Simeone knows something MA does not know).
Of course, the big matches and Partey, like bread and butter. I can attest to the fact that he performs in the big matches, I mean, against Man Utd (his only outstanding performance, according to him) and Man City, he was on fire; his interception of play is always outstanding. But we need more than this to hit our target. He seems to get lost in the other games (against smaller opponents).
Scoring goals, laying of passes, defensive duties, giving assists, free kicks, creating chances, physicality are all the duties of an all rounded midfielder.
AFC needs to produce someone this era; we have no one, the middle of the park is just flat. Solid teams are built in the midfield. If the midfield is playing, then the problems of that team is more than 50% solved. We need to do more.
As at December, 2021, no AFC player was on the top 10 chances created in the Premier League, I doubt those stats have changed.
Should MA use T. Partey as a one-man midfield? Should he stop giving him more responsibilities? Do we give him more time? How long? I can’t tell.
Icewalker
To be an Arsenal legend, a player must win at least one major trophy for us. Winning EPL or UCL will be a bit of a stretch next season, but an EL trophy will be a possibility
Rubbish, Alan Shearer never won anything at Newcastle but he is a legend there, Matt Le Tissier legend at Southampton never won anything
Some fans just love some players more than others. I just don’t consider anyone worth the legend status if he never wins a major trophy for us
Alan shearer was one of the best to do it in the league and Le tissier was a joy to watch ,Partey as been a massive let down since signing ,shame really as he was one of the worlds best before coming here and playing under Arteta but not many players have kicked on since he took over ,you only have to look at Leno,Auba who were two of the best players in the premier league to see where the problem lies
I think Partey is a box-to-box midfielder who needs a good DM behind him, to retain the ball if he loses it when dribbling. We don’t have one and Torreira was too slow for that
Xhaka/ Pepe/ Smith-Rowe/ Saka have been playing better since Arteta came and Saka has attributed his improvement to Arteta
Leno didn’t seem to be allowed to make long passes as many as Ramsdale did, so his problems might’ve likely been caused by Arteta’s insistence to use short passes from the back
Aubameyang is a man of statistics like Ozil, who focused on shiny stats such as goals at Arsenal. Unfortunately his other stats such as duels-won stats aren’t good and hence Lacazette is a better team player than him
Give it up got one idea. As mentioned two amazing players who never won anything. If Partey produces as much on the field as Le Tissier, Arsenal would definitely win a title. Problem is, he has rarely stamped his authority playing for us and demonstrated only glimpses of what he may have achieved while playing in Spain. At this stage the jury is still out on whether he was worth the money.
Partey was good at Athletici because Athletici were in the Champions league for several years and competing for La Liga every season. They had an experienced manager who knew exactly what he wanted had complete loyalty and got the most from his players. Arsenal is still in transition. Wenger stayed too long. Emery was sacked too early. Arteta is a rookie who took 2 years to realise Arsenal is not Man City. But in the summer a rebuild was launched. 6 new profile players came in. Underperformers are being moved on. The team is four points off 4th with 3 games in hand. Partey has been a top performer despite the struggles. In the summer another 9 will leave. Six more will come in. The next two seasons Arsenal will be a top 4 contender and Partey may well become one of the best Arsenal midfielders.
reported on here by our very own Fairfan
From my own observations since he has been here. He is absolutely overrated. Average player that we overpaid paid, ridiculous wages too.
Even Alex Song was better than him and we got him for about £6 million back then.
The tranfer market has absolutely gone mad since Abramovich and the City owners showed up. Average players are being bought for ridiculous prices and put on ridiculous wages.
He needs a better partner in the middle…
If he had a Douglas Luiz or Bissouma next to him, i think you would see a better Partey.
You need a player to compliment him, Xhaka has too many flaws imo to get the best out of TP
Definitely
He should just stay consistent and injury free then he will become a legend by helping to win more than enough games to win trophies at the end of each competition.
Yeah, I know what you mean Icewalker, there are one or two in the current squad that I’m not quite convinced about yet and Partey is one of them
He came with a big reputation and unlike the guys we brought in last summer he wasn’t one for the future, we needed him to hit the ground running and boss games from that position and he hasn’t really done that so far, I think that he has admitted that himself, which is encouraging
We need some big performances from him between now and the end of the season and then like everybody else in the squad have a good look at him in terms of what we do for next season
I am very much convinced about Partey.
Hè is a quality that we added to our team and the quality is there for everyone to see with mention made to his ability to come to the party when playing the big team’s.
He has not been abysmal against the smaller ones taking into consideration, his injury record at Arsenal as well as the transitions.
As to whether he can become one of our greats, only time will tell.
A nice attempt by Icewalker to try and rate Partey vis a vis other legendary Arsenal midfielders. But hey your forgot to mention one most famous name, humble and hardworking, agile and athletic, our very own Gilberto Silva. That said, I still have lot of hope on Partey to make it big, specially if he is paired with another high quality midfielder to get the best out of him. Also Partey has to remain injury free and be more consistent in his games, but certainly he has the quality to be one of Arsenals great midfielders.