GK: RAMSDALE, Turner, Hein (sent Okonkwo on loan during the latest transfer period)

RB: WHITE, Tomyasu (sent Cedric on loan during the latest transfer period)

CB: SALIBA, Holding, GABRIEL, Kiwior ((arrived during the latest transfer period)

LB: ZINCHENKO, Tierney

Double-Pivot: PARTEY, Jorginho (arrived during the latest transfer period), XHAKA, El Neny (injured, sadly) (sent Lokonga on loan during the latest transfer period)

CM: ODEGAARD, Vieira

RFW: SAKA, Trossard (arrived during the latest transfer period), (sent Marquinhos on loan during the latest transfer priod)

LFW: MARTINELLI, Smith-Rowe, R.Nelsson (injured, sadly)

CF: JESUS (injured, sadly), Nketiah,

Starting line up given current injuries:

Ramsdale – White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko – Jorginho (or Partey, hopefully), Xhaka – Odegaard – Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli

It seems the team is well covered in almost all positions. With Lokonga gone on loan, it would have been good to get another DM/CM in case Xhaka also gets injured…Also, it would not have hurt to get a CF in case Jesus takes longer to recover…BUT overall, the Edu-Arteta combo has managed to trim and bolster the squad quite nicely with the arrival of a promising player (Kiwior) and 2 established PL players in Jorginho and Trossard. Marquinhos and Lokonga need playing time to grow to see if they can eventually become solid squad members at AFC so the loans are great for them and then Cedric really needed to move forward with his career so a good option for him to also go out on loan.

As you know, I follow the EPL but also other leagues, especially the Ligue 1 and truth be told, Balogun is on fire at the moment. He is showing great spirit for the press and defensive duties and he is becoming more and more clinical in front of goal. He is definitely improving as a player and by the end of the season, we will need to make a call on him because he will feel like he deserves regular playing time…Let us see what we do with him but our CF options next season could be JESUS, Nketiah and Balogun – not bad but also they all have similar qualities so might be worth also getting someone like Giroud in the team but then we would have 4 CFs…so another loan may on the card for Balogun next year or maybe the club may decide to sell Nketiah or Balogun with a buy-back clause…In any case, the summer will be interesting in terms of our forwards…

COYG!

Ins: Kiwior, Jorginho, Trossard

Outs: Cedric, Lokonga, Marquinhos

This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2023 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.