oh so you hate Zinchenko 😂

I'm floored by the fact that we actually have a well rounded squad now instead of just 11 great players, haven't felt this way about the team in a good while 😅

Zinchenko is an elite player, but has his flaws in defensive play and defensive awareness. Reminds me of Trent in a way, not in terms of play style, but in terms of being elite and being targeted specifically knowing there’s a weakness defensively.

Tomeasu is criminally underrated. It’s like you guys forget the start of the season. This guys work rate was unbelievable. He’s relentless in defence.

This is slowly becoming my favourite arsenal channel….

My only disagreement is that I think Zinchenko is more versatile and can pull forward into that 8 role. He’s playing for the team he loved and supported growing up. I’ve noticed there’s more capacity to be a rotation player when it’s for the right club or manager. His early quotes about joining Arsenal and Arteta seemed to indicate that was important but it could also have just been the thing everybody says when switching clubs. For some reason though, Arsenal players seem genuinely happy to be here with this group.

The fact I forgot about Zinchenko and Tomiyasu in preseason just shows how class our depth is

Zinchenco is essential to Arsenal period. So is Thomas Partey. Hope they stay long here at the Emirates...

Kiwior is so exciting now that we have some samples of him, and his technical ability from the MLS weekend was so fun to see. You don't really see defenders who can pick out corners like he does. It kind of reminds me of Alex, the free kick taking CB who I think used to play for Chelsea? He was incredibly technical on the ball as well, was big and broad, and could pick out a pass/corner of the net like it was nobody's business.

Zinchenko is also an option for the LEFT 8 Position... probably the Best suited in Terms of Retaining Possession..I know we have numerous options from Havertz ESR Trossard and Possibly Declan Rice ... but in terms of Controlled Possession Zinchenko would be my Number one Pick in the Left 8 .... The good thing now is Arteta has so many Options.. more Squad Depth .. Arsenal can Rotate our Starting lineups without having the Drop off we saw last Season...We just need to give enough minutes to Squad players to keep the TEAM FRESH and SHARP

Zinchenko plays 8 for Ukraine. Without any defensive responsibility he is devastating. He isn't leaving Arsenal he loves Arsenal fans and the way we welcomed him when he joined, and he will miss a lot of games through injury. He has always been injury prone.

I don’t see Zinna leaving but I can see him moving into the midfield, maybe when Ødegaard is out he rotates in and we already have 3 or 4 options for the LB for more defensive options

Zinchenko can probably fill in at midfield or left back depending on the game. Flexiblity in a player is good for the squad.

Great video! Love the closing line…absolutely astute thinking there Alex. Arterta is an unknown book with unknown number of chapters and nobody knows where this story is going; but it’s one phenomenal story in the 3 chapters we’ve covered so far.

I honestly think that Left back position should be rotated as something like, 35% Zinchenko, 35% Tierney, 20% Kiwior, 7.5% Timber, 2.5% Tomiyasu. I don't want Arsenal to rely on very specific starting 11 like how peak Liverpool was, but a team thats able to rotate even its best players comfortably, like City.

I’d suggest we move Zinchenko to Granit role and have him compete with Havertz till he settles properly

Damn I love your analysis. It is very detailed and informative. I don’t care who starts as long as we finally lift the Premier League trophy.

After watching todays game against luton and the last 2 or so games, i instantly thought of this video. Our left backs zinchenko and kiwior are now playing as a traditional lb inverting in very few occasions. We are now building up with a double pivot of rice and odegaard dropping deep. And what you said about rice having a left sided bias was spot on. Crazy how closw your predictions were, keep up the good work

The only person kiwior will replace is Gabriel if he keeps making unnecessary mistakes

Excellent commentary! I've recently discovered your channel and have yet to be disappointed. You are thoughtful and clever. Also, your spare use of humor that actually makes me chuckle is, in my experience, a unique quality on a non-comedy channel. Good job! Thank you.

Alex, as long as Zinchenko is at 100% fit, he’ll be Arteta’s first choice; this is because Arteta prioritizes ball possession. Dominating teams with possession means you need all your most technologically astute players and in Zinchenko we have the most elite in that position. If the team we face proves to be able to find possession and threaten Zinchenko defensively, we now have Kiwior or Timber. Both can step in and offer a more solid, yet similar inversion. The idea this season is to start cutting minutes for EVERYONE. So paying attention to all the profiles of players bought, and those already there, you’ll immediately appreciate that we will be able to cut minutes of a lot of our roles; see like this, that’s the ONLY THING City fit better than us.

But you make a valid point of consideration I agree with. If Harvtz was to play at left and goes into midfield then you would need Zynch tuning into midfield also and that's why you need someone like Kiv. A man as strong as he is that can support the midfield with his passing abilities, composure and he can defend also. Not only he can defend but he can make the back 4 stronger especially if it consist of Saliba, the Dutch, and the English as number 2. This would make a strong no nonsense defense. It's a valid point. We all know Zynch is a wonderful player but he lacks defensive capacity which led to other teams targeting his position as the result, we lost a few point due to that and one of these games is Liverpool second league were he was beaten easily. It seems to me that his issue is shadow making. He almost is unaware of his mark most of the times.

Keep u the good work

Especially, at the end of the season, I had the feeling that Zinchenko's bad moments happened after returning form the inverted position. That didn't work out frictionsless enough. Then, he appeared unconcentrated which you've never seen before in the first half of the season. We know somewhere in between a war broke out. If this distracted him, I think no one can blame him therefore. Undoubtedly, being world class in his position means he needs to add more physical strenght and concentration in the defensive work. He is athetic enough and has the willingness to fight. If you compare him to Philip Lahm. This guy wasn't too tall and bulky but with the mind of a warrior and the highest level of discipline I've ever seen he became a wall. I still see a lot of potential in him which needs to be freed. Furthermore, in the first half of the season we just conceded 17 goals, in the second half 26 (+50%). I had the notion that the spirit has changed when finally all needed to acknowledge that this team is a title contender. We've been no dark horse anymore. I think somewhere in the back of the minds there was a thought: Hell yeah show them how good we are! And the focus got shifted from the defensive solidity to score goals.

Tierney is definitely staying. I think the Havertz and Rice signing both need a more solid traditional LB in order to maximize both their potentials. Plus you don’t see any concrete links for him moving anyway, which is normally a big sign.

You are spot on bro; Zinchenko's glaring and patently dangerous defensive flaw is a big worry for our team! Arteta and the player himself should work out to rectify it soonest!

I think zinchenko deserves a chance in the left 8 role. he finds himself there a lot and produces real moments of quality from there

You are my new favourite banter channel, you speak articulately and have a good understanding of the game. Your bias is admirable whilst misjudged, will enjoy you getting 80 points and finishing 3rd.

Honest analysis right there mate...we have some sense of depth this season...if we can get that Lukaku guy upfront with the kind of supply we already have,,not even city will stop us

I feel this season might be rough for us. Only because of how many options Mikel has now. Both in defense and offense.

Wow! Come again? Kiwior has broken the short sprint record at Arsenal? You mean faster than Walcott and Bellerin? No way!!!? If that's true then I'm really excited by this guy as he has everything else to become a top player.

the left back position and midfiled swap over is so important to us - every time KT went forward these last 18months...we expected Xaka to suddenly be a high speed left back and through Xaka under the nus when he made an error or bad tackle running back.........against ManU in that friendly, they just waited for us to press and then floated the ball over in the to the left third of our pitch and we need to address this..........get Big Sam in for a training session, he made us suffer the longball for a decade!

Glad you made this video. I've been saying this since we signed Kiwior. But the backlash I got for even brining up the replacing of Zinchenko was odd. The most memorable reply I got was that, "we're not a defensive team" to which I replied, "the team up north won the treble playing four centrebacks in their back four". Like you and I say, Zinchenko is an excellent player but prone to lapses of concentration and in the defense that costs you titles. I disagree though and think Zinchenko could stay with us until maybe his early thirties as he is an excellent rotation option for so many positions higher up the field; the 8, 10 and maybe even the right wing AND be an emergency option at left-back, so that's valuable squad depth. But yea, again, Kiwior is going to be the first choice left-back this season and it doesn't mean I'm saying Zinny is a bad player.

That was quite an outro for a great video! ❤

Can't believe he's so quick!

Other than his first game, Kiwior has impressed me. Happy to see him play

Love your analysis and have noticed Arteta is playing Kiwior more and more on left side. Wondered if Arteta planned on using him to platoon with Zingy. Question is what happens with White and Timber?

Thank you!

As others have said down below, Zinchenko will be very useful for depth and options just as Tierney will, although he may not like not consistent gametime like at city again. Who do we have as an option for 8? Havertz and Odegaard are the only ones who will really be consistently playing there, so as an 8/10 he will be useful, and still can be used to break the lines in the second phase.

Just discovered this channel. Brilliant analysis! ❤

This was very interesting, thank you for making me think about 20 new ways we could play.

Great video!

What a wonderful lad

I love this guy's analysis

Been waiting for another video. Liked before watching 😊

Kiwior is a good player, so far hes underated by the majority of the fanbase but he's going to grow this season

When we picked Zinchenko up there was a lot of talk about him potentially being able to fill in for Xhaka in the left 8. As it transpired this never happened as he was nailed on first choice for LB and Xhaka runs on uranium. Do you think there’s a chance this year to see that? If we’re potentially accommodating a free role for Havertz, Zinny has the capacity to do that as well albeit with a different profile

I completely agree. Last season, I felt he lost us a few games

At the back we have such a deep roster: white, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, Tierney, Saliba, Kiwior, Timber..

Thank God I found this channel😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

# trust the different knock

Great video, my prognostications stopped at Tierney + Timber would play together and Zinchenko + Rice, sometimes even Tierney + White but never Timber + Zinchenko unless we were going ultra attacking to chase a must win game. I never considered Kiwior as the one to perhaps surpass Zinchenko on the left. Certainly with Havertz having even less defensive responsibilities than Xhaka we need to be more defensively sound. Excited to see how we evolve.

This is how you do constructive criticism, what a great video. Fair play.

With the expectation to invert from right back has one very cruicial hurdle before it becomes a reality. The ability for Gabriel to play as a Central Centerback. Gabriel is a natural enforcer. He's not very aware of the space behind him most of the time, and his ball playing with play behind him is not very good. Unless Kiwior can prove a marked ability to do that, I believe it will be a while before we see an inverted RB. I'd trust Saliba more to defend a wide position than I trust Gabriel to defend a central one. We have the squad to do different dynamics, but I don't see how you play Gabriel and Saliba and invert the right back without having errors leading to goal galore.

yeah i have to agree with you, i also think that he ought to be the next one to go 👍

Kiwior could be a beast , I hope we see more of him!

What this video made me realise is that we're actually so flexible at the moment. Just looking at the left side, we have three clearly different profiles to use: Zinchenko (inverting and keeping possession), Tierney (being direct and will contribute at both ends) and Kiwior (can invert, is technical and will provide defensive stability). On top of all that, we still have Timber and Tomiyasu who can play there too. Wow.

Have to agree with this, people forget Zinchenko was not Arteta's first choice (Martinez was) despite having worked with him, he obviously knew his deficiencies. Plus he's on the edge of being injury prone. It could be your prediction turns out to be wrong about who will be out of the team first though, as if we sign David Raya it could be Ramsdale, who also has deficiencies that might become harder to ignore without the usual scapegoat Xhaka present

Great analysis as always

Brilliant shout that

Seems it's Ramsdale! Great vid all the same.

Kiwior excites me not in like a oh shiny new player who’s going to brighten my day and what not but more like someone we can rely on when we are playing

Fluid hips killed me😂😂😂😂

this guy never misses 🐐

We're obviously following the trend of center-backs used as fullbacks. We saw that it can be super-efficient if you use the right players there. In big games, you can't blindly rely on a Zinchenko or Cancelo type of player to stop ruthless attackers with the offensive responsibilities they already have. Kiwior has a great physique and an excellent left foot, but we don't know if he's tactically ready to play a major role in big games. He should clean his in-possession game too. He's too comfortable with the ball at times.

I totally agree with u, Kiwier has potential to be most proggressive player

I think you will see quite a bit of tinkering at the back by Arteta depending on the teams we are playing home or away. I'm thinking we may see 3 at the back more, I actually think White may be more sacrificed. It's a great problem to have, we have a very strong defense. Need to stop making stupid mistakes but it takes time for the new players to settle in.

I think potentially we may see Zinchenko getting minutes in midfield this season in games where we need a bit more solidity than Havertz can offer.

Tierney should play a half with high intensity imo, then the next left back coming in will have a full engine on our "weak" side

If Zinchenko is fit he starts every single game for arsenal. He had one slip up against Trent and that was it. He is the main reason why arsenal are at this level. If we don’t play Zinchenko then timber will play LB

Hey bro ... Will watch and comment again.. i was wondering if we can get uploads a little early?

I could see Zinny getting minutes in the "xhaka role" this season. #jameswasright

Zichenko isn’t a problem bro. He is a catalyst. Period. Imagine player like Tierney even learning from him. He should be moved to the midfield. Don’t forget he plays multiple positions including midfield

Prophetic

Indeed Zinchenko, his football knowledge is huge❤

Timber is a much better option as an inverted LB as he is gonna be the new Cancelo imo and a better defender than both Zinny and Cancelo. I can see Zinny moving to midfield as an 8 and playing LB in cup games which he would be happy with imo.

The supposed errors were when Odegaarde, Saka, Partey and White all dropped form towards the end of the season, and we lost control of matches. When we had control those errors were nowhere to be found. Arteta wants to have Control. For me Gabriel for lack of control and shaky progressing/rash defending. Kiwior for Gabriel.

If I’m brutally honest as an Arsenal fan Zinchenko is an extremely frustrating player when in defensive situations as a left back out wide. I’m the midfield when he provides cover as a block he’s perfectly fine, but when he’s asked to defend wide he has consistently been underwhelming and culpable for a variety of mistakes that have lead to chances in goal and even conceding. However I don’t think there is a better option for him that has both the midfield capabilities when it comes to passing lanes as playing a timber or a tomiyasu changes the way that we play and as much as I think tierney needs to start more games he is much more of a touch line full back and that reduces the spaces available for a martinelli, a trossard, or even a Jesus out wide

After this preseason, I can confidently say that Zinchenko is still our best option at LB

Kiwior will have great career ahead at any where because he is great player

I think Zini should compit with Harvert Zini is good at drifting and also technical with the ball which Harvert can't and he will complement with Rice that still learning arsenal mode of play. But arteta will have give up Harvert benefit of being plus at box 18

The 11 are alwayz the best... A best after the Best...

I also worry about Zinchenko, especially against Liverpool - if we took him off at 2-0, we win game. Gabriel is also a weak link, he makes a mistake a game, each time it leads to a goal.

Two things that is concerning about Zinchenko- defensive frailty and availability. I’m sure Arteta is aware too.

I wish Zichenko playing in xhakaz number

I mean it would be nice to have a left back that can actually defend to be fair

What do u think about David Raya and bitello ?

Well we have a perfectly good left back who knows how to attack down the wing but doesn’t get used.. think Tierney will leave before Zinchenko

I like Zinchenko but his defensive mistakes really bugged me last season...especially in that Liverpool game when he let TAA get past him so easily

Zinny will start every game he is available don't fool yourself he's a free roaming player who connects everything none of timber, kivior or Tierney can match his quality the rest are for when he isn't available

Bro went from wanting Tierney out for Zinchenko when everyone wanted to Tierney to wanting Zinchenko out for Tierney now that everyone wants Zinchenko 😂😂

I did not know that we never failed to win with that starting lineup. WOW! we are winning the league

He's been injured that's why he has no t played ARTETA keeping him in cotten wool so hopefully he can start the first game in the premier League 👍👌😁

internet has enough of "shock" to the point that it no longer qualified as a clickbait.

Trent Alexander Arnold wasn’t the greatest defender when Liverpool won the cl. Every team has weaknesses and so does every player, what’s more important is that we have we press effectively as a team, any full back will look weak if they are isolated one on one due to a poor defensive structure

It looks like it could be ramsdale now

Zinchenko is so underrated, hes one of the few players that make Arsenal have more control!

Thomas, Rice and Odegaard will be topclass in midfield this season, the mentality monsters of Arsenal will SHIT on every team swear down

It makes sanse because this year arsenal gonna have 5 diffrent competition, aleo each player will have comepetition with their nation like FIFA Qualifier, Uefa qualifier, Uefa nation league, afriacan cup.. Make sanse to have more tactical and option

0:07 I know. Why would you sell Xhaka? You build on top of that starting 11. With Rice, Havertz and Timber being gradually being introduced into the team.