So we were talking about Depay earlier and how he could be an interesting recruit for us and then I thought, did we have a similar player in our team in the last 10 years? And the only name that came to my mind was Podolski, although Podolski played more as a forward-striker than Depay.
Also, I was thinking about German players that played for us or players that joined us from Germany as we were saying goodbye to Ozil, Sokratis, Mustafi recently and, again, Podolski came to my mind. Like Ozil, Metersacker and Mustafi, Podolski was part of the German squad that won the World Cup in 2014.
Podolski played 60 EPL games for us, scoring 19 times and assisting 11 assists. So one goal or assist every 2 games BUT…scored 11 goals and delivered 9 assists in his first season and scored 8 goals and 2 assists in his second season. He also played a key role of FA Cup win in 2014, thereby contributing to ending our trophy drought.
Overall, Poldi scored 31 goals and delivered 17 assists in 82 games across all competitions including 8 goals and 1 assist in 12 Champions League games.
So was Poldi under-rated when he left us by both clubs and fans? Do you miss his left foot and his excitement when he scored a goal? And for @Sue – do you miss his looks?
Anyways…how do you feel about Poldi?
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As usual, a superb idea for a Post RC.
I think Poldi was a player whom most Arsenal fans would have liked to have seen more of during his time with us.
I was thrilled when we signed him but when he turned up at Arsenal I always had the feeling that Arsene ‘didn’t fancy him’.
Yet his stats – as you point out – are really very good.
And you even missed one very important statistic.
Of his 60 EPL games – which produced a goal or an assist every other game – he only started in 39 of them. In 21 of them he came on as a sub.
If someone were to have time to analyse his impact on a ‘per-minute’ basis it would look even more impressive that it currently does.
Great player, great character, great shame he was never used fully by M. Wenger.
Nice one, RC!!
Lukas… such a likeable guy, who always came across as one of us!
What a left foot.. that piledriver against West Ham 👌 My fave memory of him, was going to Craven Cottage – in the rain – and watching us win 3-1 with a Poldi brace 😍
Thanks a lot, RC, really appreciate it – what a picture!! Woah!!
such a nice brother lukask is.
Here is a video summarizing Poldi’s stint at Arsenal.
What I liked the most about Poldi was his attitude, the guy was a fighter. I felt that with Giroud, Sanchez and him up front, we had guys that were ready to battle it out with defenders.
He was also quite a decent dribbler but his left foot was just very lethal. I agree that Wenger should have given him more playing time but was he injured also quite regularly?
A decent player. Lacked a bit of pace and Wenger shoved him out wide, which probably wasn’t his best position.
He upset Wenger with his wolf howls after Wenger told the team to play like wolves. His days were numbered then.
In today’s team, would Poldi be ahead of Laca in the starting XI?
True that AW played him as a LFW but he was deployed there in many clubs
Seems Poldi was more popular than the post about him
Thanks RC
I really liked Lucas and felt we never got the best out if him. However, I’m unsure whether this is because we didn’t use him effectively and get him playing in the right position in the right set up, or whether to do this would have required too much accommodation elsewhere in the team so that effectively while we strengthened his role it would have been at the cost of weakening us elsewhere.
True