After watching Eddie Nketiah bag a third goal in five appearances, Leeds United manager Marco Bielsa has labelled the Arsenal striker a ‘complete player’.
The 20-year-old made another telling contribution off the bench, this time crashing home a late close-range effort to break Barnsley’s stubborn resistance as the Elland Road outfit went top of the Championship with a 2-0 win.
After the match, Bielsa said of his loanee: “Nketiah is a striker who scores goals. Some players get involved a lot in finishing moves, more than creating them. He is a finisher.
“He has good characteristics to combine with his teammates, to play in this side and give more options. He is a complete player.”
Obviously, it’s great to see Eddie thriving. That said, he’s helping Leeds. And everyone hates them. They are very grubby.
Also, we’re starting to wonder whether letting him go for 12 months was a good idea given our heavy over-reliance on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the now-injured Alex Lacazette.
Especially when we’re going to need to score seven goals just to win a game because we’re absolute doughnuts in defence.
Can we get Bielsa as manager?
Many big manager’s talk about Bielsa as their inspiration.
I know. It was not a sarcastic comment.
I didn’t think so either, just wanted to point it out for those who don’t know.
Yay.. friends!
Bielsa – “Nketia is a complete player”
Me – “ Luiz is a complete bellend “
Arsenal is a complete shitshow?
Not an Emery related article, but after yesterday I feel fully justified in this.. Emery’s Sevilla did not ONCE finish in the top 4 under Emery. Not once. They shipped 50 goals on average every season in the league, so probably 60+ every season in all competitions. Every year they won the Europa (by a lot of luck too if you look closely), they always got knocked out in the group stages of the CL to end up back in the Europa. Damning, Emery is simply not an elite manager of any kind. Emery had probably Valencia’s best squad ever… Read more »
And also the fact that Emery was a free agent and a “safe” bet compared to the prodigious Arteta.
Arteta? With no pedigree as a head coach? To use arsenal as a lab? I’m sure there are better options out there. A few coaches in the bundesliga are doing bits, just like Farke and Hassenhutl here.
Lol at calling Arteta a “prodigy”.
The Arteta Myth is growing strong by each day, it seems.
Moreover, in Valencia’s 09/10 season when they had Silva, Villa and Mata as the front 3 for the last time, Valencia scored only 59 goals in the league. That is pathetic, and shows you all about Emery’s so called style of play. He is NOT an attacking manager, and he is NOT a defensive manager. He’s a mess.
Because sevillia where already poor and not top 4 material.
That’s a stupid argument and amounts to saying, Brendan Rodgers is a failure if he does not get top 4 with Leicester.
Nonsense. Sevilla had a very decent team in 2013-16, Poch was a coach of Espanyol and even then he managed to improve them defensively, for example. A manager’s past history is very important when you consider them for a job like Arsenal’s. NOTHING suggested that Emery was the right man lol, fucking ridiculous
I share the same sentiments, however there’s plenty of ‘Emery’ articles to publish comments such as this on.
Please keep this debate related to how well Nketiah is doing.
I love Nketiah and am happy he’s doing well this season. Hopefully when he returns, he’ll have a new manager to play under who can maximise his ability 😉
You love Eddie so much you’ll happily exploit his success for yet another rant.
This is how this site became a toxic mess with the whole WengerOut nonsense. Let’s not repeat that please
“Since Unai Emery took charge, Arsenal have faced 115 shots on target away from home in the Premier League.
Burnley are the only team to have faced more (117).”
We live in the West fella, freedom of speech and all. It’s my right to comment what I want to, and it’s your choice to not like it 🙂
There’s no finer symbol of Western civilisation than invoking freedom of speech on a footie blog about an Arsenal loanee scoring goals for Leeds Utd
@JAI Burned!!
I’m doffing my invisible hat to you Kaius!
“There’s no finer symbol of Western civilisation than invoking freedom of speech…”
Could have just left it there…
Here is a comment related to Nketiah : He deserves a better coach at Arsenal to become a top-class striker. Plus, the guy might sell him like he did to Bielik.
lol, Emery never once finished on top 2 with valencia ?
Competing with RM’s mourinho And Barca Pep?
That’s brainless and lazy.
we get it you’re mad. We all are. posting some sense?
I said he didn’t even come CLOSE to finishing top 2. 20 points difference. Learn to read before arguing back.
Such a poor argument.
The problem with Emery is what he’s doing now at Arsenal, not what he did at Sevilla or Valencia. In reality Emery was part of a really successful decade for Spanish football clubs in Europe. You’re ignoring so much context, it’s like critising Arsenal for not winning the league during the banter years when we clearly had different priorities.
I was unsure about posting an Emery related comment now, a day late, and after everything that could be said has already been said, but I think I’ll just take this opportunity to add to your comment. What worries me most about yesterday’s performance, and our current state which is a continuation from last season, is that we don’t have a form – even when we win, like we did against Newcastle or Burnley, it is not by virtue of something we achieved as a team and therefore something that can be credited to Emery, but because of the brilliance… Read more »
and lets not forget that he didn’t want RAMSEY in the team…He came to our club, flapped around for 2 seasons, let our magic front 4 (that was a gift left from Wenger, let’s be honest) fall apart, and destroyed our identity…I love the guy, he’s classy, he works hard, but he’s just ruining our club to be honest.
Total BS.
Ramsey left of his own volition. He said he wanted a new challenge. And he left on a Bosman, so will never have to worry about money ever again. And Arsenal were not gonna break the wage structure again after the Ozil mistake.
Another foolish post. Get a grip people. A long season to go. Too much pearl-clutching already. You know, Citeh could use a few more plastic fans; perhaps you’d like supporting them better.
we pulled the offer we had on the table.
ramsey may have said he left for a new challenge, but that was probably after asking (and justifying last season) for wages closer to ozil.
there are many valid points already been made by our fellow fans.
what makes your/andrews/james’ opinions more valid? fans are more informed than ever, and we can all see something is up with the team.
Criticising a manager who is making a complete hash of things is “pearl clutching”?
Oh, FFS.
Emery inhierited a disorganized, topheavy side from Wenger. He’s just started his 2nd season. After an international break.
You are talking about what drills Arsenal does on the practice pitch — as if you have a freaking clue what those are. Get a grip. Your arguments are foolish.
You start off your post saying you were “unsure” about making an Emery post. Well, your gut instinct was right. You should not make a silly Emery criticism post based on absolute ignorance.
I don’t need to know the drills they are doing to tell that they are not working. Your argument is analogous to saying something like “Since you don’t know how to make a movie, you should not criticize it!” On your other point, lets just say Lampard, whose only previous managerial experience is managing a Championship side for a season, who inherited a pretty out of shape team that have lost their star player and with a transfer ban, has still managed to instill a style and direction in his team in less than a few months. In reality we… Read more »
how were they getting into UCL if not finishing top 4??
By winning the Europa League..
No, that is a new rule; I think the first time was when Man United won two years ago. Check your story.
Winning the Europa League….
Absolute rubbish post.
Try again.
It seems that Emery is a placeholder for the one they did not get while waiting for him. I think Emery lost full control of the team about 3/4 way through last season and those above are doing some of that. Emery is not so animated anymore and he does look jaded, the same look in AW eyes just before he announced his departure. Look at his eyes closely.
Maybe i’m seeing things, but…
Wow! Great research Jai. How did Arsenal employ a guy with such awful stats?
Mkhitarian also scored for Roma yesterday.
Unpopular opinion:
Scoring goals from the bench is not a big sign of progress.
We noticed this with mediocre Nelson.
I’d say a more telling sign would be to make yourself an integral part of the squad, starting every game, stay on for 90 minutes, contributing consistently.
That should be the standard for playing at Arsenal, nothing less.
Take heed of the likes of Abraham & Mount.
Abraham and Mount wouldn’t be starting if it weren’t for the transfer ban. Not because Chelsea was willing to bet on young players or anything. Same with rashford and united. Emery played xhaka as lb/rb and cb and iwobi/mkhi as lb as needed instead of using the u19s so I doubt nketiah would ever start for arsenal unless emery leaves
Abraham netted some 26 goals in the last season,
and Mount contributed 11 goals & 6 assists from midfield.
The point is, Chelsea has many loanees but called back those who proved them selves consistently. And gave them the chance over more experienced players.
both played 40+ games for their respective clubs.
Give the guy a chance to establish him as first choice for Leeds perhaps, before criticising his progress.
He’s 20 years old and only just joined the club.
Some people’s expectations are ridiculous – especially when you consider that managers often don’t like starting loanees – see Serge Gnabry.
I was talking about the general standards the club should follow in choosing who is good enough for the team.
It’s not late for Eddie, he can pull through. Again I’m talking about a general rule.
But still, my example of Nelson has merit. He’s nowhere near good enough for the starting XI, and so his loan was not very useful based on that. We need to raise the standard high.
That applies to everyone.
Chav’s loanees would not be starting every game without prior proof of being able to handle a starting role in another place.
I tend to agree with you on this. Eddie is not ready yet.
We should consider that Eddie could be a massive success at Leeds and still not make it at Arsenal. I hope he does though – he has that Inzaghi goal-poacher instinct about him which is rare these days.
Truly scary performance yesterday. It’s not a loaner back that we need it’s a new manager.
Once again, Arsenal loans out players that should have stayed with the club. Given that the injury curse will never go away, one would have thought the the manager/management would have learned.
Doughnuts hahaha 😀
It sucks that most players who leave us permanently or semi permanently do well in other colors. Are failing them? Are we finding it hard to coach and utilise them?
Eddie would have been a great backup to Laca and Pierre, he had a great preseason with us before going on loan to leeds.
Their doughnuts make me go nuts
“Especially when we’re going to need to score seven goals just to win a game because we’re absolute doughnuts in defence.”
?????????
Jesus some people are clueless. Because he has done well from the bench in the championship no way means he should of stayed with us because he would of been a ‘great backup’. Eddie has a bright future in the game but it was obvious that he needed games to mature at a good competitive level. His finishing when playing fornthe Arsenal first team in competitive games needed work and this loan move is what he needs to play, get better and gain confidence. All that most likely would of happened if we kept him, is he plays minimal minutes… Read more »
All 11 players plus subs bar our 1st half atrack were part of our worst performance in a long time. Guendouzi is class hence being called up to the france team
have
Nketiah banging goals for fun for leeds, can he do it for arseanl on a very very hot sunday afternoon at vicarage road?
I saw over 50 comments and got excited that fans were paying more attention to our loanees unlike in the past.
But instead all I see is EmeryOut or people claiming Eddie must be shit because he’s not starting even though he’s currently on like better run of 1 goals every 2 games.
It was right to loan him out, banging in goals and building confidence and harder skin will only help us in the long run. Great work Eddie
Fortunately he is only on strong loan which will be great for us if he develops. Currently we have to fix our transfer team. we’ve let too many good players leave. after Gnabry, Maalen and Bennacer One senior player I felt was a mistake to let go is Iwobi. We’ve seen it before with young talents (Ramsey, Walcott, Jack) they don’t get consistent until 23yrs. And even so. Guendouzi yesterday reminded us he is still very young. Some prefer to lay into Granit even if he did not concede 2 penalties in 3 matches or make a stupid short pass… Read more »
Eddie is probably earmarked to replace Auba when his time is up. As long as Eddie continues to grow he will return to Arsenal and play with Auba til Auba has to go.