That’s the cynic in you 
3 Likes
I don’t agree at all with this. Our defense as a whole was leaky because Wenger admittedly didn’t put emphasis on that side of the ball. Yet Kosh, and Nacho for the last 3 - 5 years have still consistently produced fine defensive displays individually, so much so to the extent they were roundly being lauded by most Arsenal fans as two of the best defenders in the league at their respective positions (last season it seems like age finally caught up with them). The same can’t be said of Hector sadly.
5 Likes
Maybe the coach does affect a player’s certain attributes, but we can’t simply blame Wenger on this. Wenger should not be responsible for Bellerin’s passing, dribbling, controlling, shooting stuffs… you train with the whole team and don’t freaking tell me Wenger had to show players how to bend the ball and how to make a proper pass.
For long time, I already accepted that Bellerin is a bang average player. BANG AVERAGE. He is just lucky to have the speed that Per dreamed of.
If you are bang average, that is fine, and I am also fine that he got a side job, a hobby to make himself under the spotlight.
HOWEVER, if you are already a bang average footballer, PLEASE, make your side job/hobby good, and do it good.
Bellerin is not just a BANG AVERAGE footballer, but also a shit dresser. He does not have ANY FASHION SENSE as he does not have any defensive sense on the football field.
IF you are short, DON’T WEAR BAGGY, it makes you look shorter.
3 Likes
That’s the one. He’s a bastard.
What even happend to his pace these couple of seasons? He seems trapped in mud when running these days.
1 Like
Change of diet…
1 Like
Point taken but they’re also much older and more experienced. Younger players tend to need a bit more guidance and won’t self-coach themselves into performing really well.
1 Like
Man bun and longer hair. Less aerodynamic. Science bitch.
11 Likes
While the man bun is defo the biggest factor, he has also added some KGs of muscle to his weakass pussyframe.
2015 Hector was miles better than this sorry excuse of a man.
And that’s a great point too. What doesn’t add up though is that he went from being a promising youth defending like a prime Maldini against Bayern 2 or 3 seasons ago in the CL, to whatever the fuck he is right now.
1 Like
It is okay to sacrifice some speed for muscles and strength by bulking up…
If you bulk up, I am expecting you to play a lot physical and win more one on one duels, better protecting the ball, get into more hustles… I am looking forward to that.
Most importantly, it makes your bum look great in hipster sweatpants.
1 Like
Now we’re finally getting around to the real issues!!
5 Likes
Found this post on another forum, which i think is spot on
I think the main problem is that he’s actually a far worse footballer than everyone initially thought. He was exciting with his pace and youthfullness going forward - but in the long run he couldn’t add to his game.
Concerning the defensive side by now his lack of positional awareness has caught up with him and as he seemingly lost just a tad of pace this makes him a liability. His allround defending - not relying on pace and last man tackles but actual defensive work - has always been dodgy and he couldn’t really add to it.
He’s still very dangerous if he can get into the final third and close to the box, but his crossing is still awful and he makes less use of his pace to take on players, which actually gets him less into the area where he can be dangerous than when he broke through - he seems too concerned with not loosing the ball which in turn makes him too timid to try and break up field. He really doesn’t do anything to get the ball higher up the pitch and if he actually ends up in the final third it’s 'cause play didn’t progress through his right side.
Going back to my initial statement that he’s a worse footballer than fans thought: I think it’s clear when you look at him during build up phases - he’s virtualy useless. He doesn’t help to progress play up the field in any way. He doesn’t make runs anymore - neither off nor with the ball - his passing is too bad and him constantly trying to hit one touch passes but misplacing them doesn’t really help, his go-to pass is the backwards pass to the right CB, which, when a team sits high to press Arsenal consistently pressures said CB, and he’s actually technically too limited and slow in his head for intricate passing solutions in such situations. He basically stays wide and is a pure passenger, receiving the ball from CM or CB and only shifting it right back. Opposition teams love to press him since one or two seasons, more so than Monreal on the other side and he was clearly more targeted than Kolasinac yesterday.
He’s turned from an exciting talent into a very average rightback up until now, and as someone just shortly before me stated his career does have similarities to Walcott’s. The guy really needs to step up in all regards or he should be sold as long as his name has some valuation to it. With Lichtsteiner’s CL and WC performances and Bellerin’s preseason in mind, the Swiss guy should be ahead of him for now.
5 Likes
We have said this again and again… all he has is speed.
It will be another difficult task for Emery to turn him into a true defender.
It’s kind of weird that all this alarmism is coming off of one pre-season performance where he actually gave a really nice goal pass to Aubameyang and had another decent cross I saw that almost made it to Smith-Rowe inside the box. But main point in that sentence being pre-season.
I guess it’s probably tied up in the fact that he’s one of those players people had blamed on Wenger and who people thought was going to make some magical transformation under Emery, and all it’s taken is a couple pre-season games for them to at least subconsciously start to realise that it isn’t going to work like that.
Look-- he’s not the player he showed he was at the beginning and it will take a manager a lot better than Emery, one who can really encourage him and give him confidence–especially in the offensive side of his game–and give him a very strong framework around him, to make him look anything like that player again.
That said, he’s still an average RB and less of a problem than our LBs, Kolasinac and Monreal, who are bad and past it respectively. And I rather doubt Lichsteiner is going to be an improvement upon him.
Nonsense. Bellerin is nowhere near the class of Nacho.
1 Like
Monreal is done, can barely jog nevermind run.
4 Likes
It’s not tho. Sure his shitty performance reminded us just how bad he is, but I’ve been calling for him to be dropped since last fall/winter at least.
3 Likes
You can tell the people that lost a lot of interest in watching us halfway through last season, all those people rave on how Monreal is still a quality defender.
2 Likes