Alexander Isak

[Happinesstan]

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

I totally understand what folk are saying regard fluidity in the system.

 

That said, last season Isak played in a two up top and it affected his goal return. Ba has been cited as an example, another forward who's goal return was affected by a change in position.

 

Isak seems to naturally drift into the channels and he's great at picking up those pockets of space between the centre back and the full back. He also has excellent feet and can beat a man, but that doesn't mean he'll necessarily make a decent inside forward.

 

I'm all for experimentation and giving things a go but it reminds of when fans discuss playing Colo or Schar in midfield. You don't pay £60 million quid for a footballer to not play him in his best position.

He's also not fully developed yet. Had Thierry Henry ever played as a striker before Wenger got his hands on him. I genuinely don't know he answer but I assume very little.

[Happinesstan]

2 minutes ago, relámpago blanco said:

I personally think we should play him in nets if Pope gets Injured now Dubravka has gone. 

With the instruction to get into the box? I'm all for it. We'll defend when we decide to let them have the bal.

[KaKa]

1 minute ago, Happinesstan said:

He's also not fully developed yet. Had Thierry Henry ever played as a striker before Wenger got his hands on him. I genuinely don't know he answer but I assume very little.

 

I don't believe he had. Even Henry questioned the change when Wenger suggested it. He thought he wasn't good enough in front of goal.

[Rafalove]

7 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

His goal on Wednesday came from finding space in a channel in the right half space. He'll play there when Wilson is fit, which won't be too often. He'll be our number 9 most of the season. Lovely jubbly.

 

 

I agree with this. It’s also about what our best team is and a front three of Maxi, Wilson and Isak, is the best front three we have.

[Ikon]

1 minute ago, KaKa said:

 

 

And this is why I find the whole discussion tiring at this point.

 

You try to go into the details of it and have a proper discussion and it gets diluted to him being shunted out wide.

 

Lawd have mercy!

Typical blah kaka blah blah as usual. I didn’t say anything about him not playing with Wilson! I just said that he won’t play wide. So I’m not sure why you started babbling. I wasn’t questioning anyones post in particular to begin with. All I was saying is that he didn’t come here to play wide or even close to your typical wide man. He might play slightly to the side of a CF or off him or similar in something more of a two. But not wide with any real defensive responsibilities whatsoever like your typical wide forward. He’s a star signing for a ton of money. It’s only a question of time before Wilson is on the bench even when fit. 
 

You have a typical behaviour to defend things when there is no reason to. But you choose to read things that way too often I guess. I didn’t quote you. All I said is that he didn’t come here to play the wide man role. Lord have mercy!

[KaKa]

7 minutes ago, Ikon said:

Typical blah kaka blah blah as usual. I didn’t say anything about him not playing with Wilson! I just said that he won’t play wide. So I’m not sure why you started babbling. I wasn’t questioning anyones post in particular to begin with. All I was saying is that he didn’t come here to play wide or even close to your typical wide man. He might play slightly to the side of a CF or off him or similar in something more of a two. But not wide with any real defensive responsibilities whatsoever like your typical wide forward. He’s a star signing for a ton of money. It’s only a question of time before Wilson is on the bench even when fit. 
 

You have a typical behaviour to defend things when there is no reason to. But you choose to read things that way too often I guess. I didn’t quote you. All I said is that he didn’t come here to play the wide man role. Lord have mercy!

 

 fair enough man.

 

Judging by what you said about his positioning and defensive responsibilities you definitely weren't responding to my post as I covered all that, so yeah, fair play 

[Conjo]

1 minute ago, KaKa said:

 

I don't believe he had. Even Henry questioned the change when Wenger suggested it. He thought he wasn't good enough in front of goal.

 

Henry didn't come to Arsenal under the same premise though. Wenger had coached Henry at Clairefontaine and thought he was a striker even back then. Henry was then brought in on the back of a disappointing spell at Juve where he had not performed well as LWB/LCM/LW.

 

Isak is coming in as our record signing, on the back of doing well as a striker his entire career. If he ends up not performing well as a striker it would make more sense to try him elsewhere at a later stage, but why try to give him a new unfamiliar role now?

 

It's easy to say position doesn't matter it's how he's utilized in that position, but by putting him out wide and not asking him to do the defensive work Almiron does, we will have to give up defensive cover elsewhere, in addition to having less guarantees that his new role will work well while we know what he can do as a striker. If we ask him to do Alimiron work, he'll have way less energy to do the offsensive stuff we bought him to do in the first place.

 

I just don't see why Howe would revamp our whole play style that has worked so well just to accommodate one player. Imagine how great it would be to have the option of putting Wilson on for Isak or vice versa during a game? We've been crying out for a bench with options. Now that we have a chance to have that, people want to shoehorn our perceived best players into the starting line-up while maintaining an uninspiring bench?

 

 

[The Prophet]

 

[KaKa]

21 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

Henry didn't come to Arsenal under the same premise though. Wenger had coached Henry at Clairefontaine and thought he was a striker even back then. Henry was then brought in on the back of a disappointing spell at Juve where he had not performed well as LWB/LCM/LW.

 

Isak is coming in as our record signing, on the back of doing well as a striker his entire career. If he ends up not performing well as a striker it would make more sense to try him elsewhere at a later stage, but why try to give him a new unfamiliar role now?

 

It's easy to say position doesn't matter it's how he's utilized in that position, but by putting him out wide and not asking him to do the defensive work Almiron does, we will have to give up defensive cover elsewhere, in addition to having less guarantees that his new role will work well while we know what he can do as a striker. If we ask him to do Alimiron work, he'll have way less energy to do the offsensive stuff we bought him to do in the first place.

 

I just don't see why Howe would revamp our whole play style that has worked so well just to accommodate one player. Imagine how great it would be to have the option of putting Wilson on for Isak or vice versa during a game? We've been crying out for a bench with options. Now that we have a chance to have that, people want to shoehorn our perceived best players into the starting line-up while maintaining an uninspiring bench?

 

 

 

I've discussed how the system would work defensively, similar to how a team playing a diamond formation defends full backs, on the last page, and also covered how his role would not be too dissimilar to how he played as a right sided forward in a front two with Sociedad.

 

I'm going to bow out of this debate now. I think people perhaps skim over previous posts or maybe don't read them and the whole discussion just starts all over again.

 

All we're really doing is speculating on how Eddie might play both he and Wilson together. We're not demanding he does it. It's just a discussion based on what some of us have seen of Isak previously.

 

Regardless of how he's used, one thing I am confident of is that he is going to be brilliant.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by KaKa

[Pata]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

 

Long term he'll definitely be the main man upfront IMO. He's a modern day complete forward.

 

However, in the interim, he'll also be used in creative ways alongside Wilson to allow us to have our most talented players on the pitch together.

 

It won't be too dissimilar to the way Howe used Josh King, who played as a lead striker at times, as a second striker off Wilson, as well as in a wide forward role.

 

This is exactly how I see it. IMO we don't have the squad right now to have either Wilson or Isak on the bench and it's probably Isak who has to make the sacrifice on the position he plays for now. Wouldn't expect us to have this problem next season and both will be then only used in their natural position with Isak as the clear first choice.

[Happinesstan]

5 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

Henry didn't come to Arsenal under the same premise though. Wenger had coached Henry at Clairefontaine and thought he was a striker even back then. Henry was then brought in on the back of a disappointing spell at Juve where he had not performed well as LWB/LCM/LW.

 

Isak is coming in as our record signing, on the back of doing well as a striker his entire career. If he ends up not performing well as a striker it would make more sense to try him elsewhere at a later stage, but why try to give him a new unfamiliar role now?

Doesn't change the fact he can still develop.

5 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

It's easy to say position doesn't matter it's how he's utilized in that position, but by putting him out wide and not asking him to do the defensive work Almiron does, we will have to give up defensive cover elsewhere, in addition to having less guarantees that his new role will work well while we know what he can do as a striker. If we ask him to do Alimiron work, he'll have way less energy to do the offsensive stuff we bought him to do in the first place.

How do liverpool cover for Salah?

5 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

I just don't see why Howe would revamp our whole play style that has worked so well just to accommodate one player. Imagine how great it would be to have the option of putting Wilson on for Isak or vice versa during a game? We've been crying out for a bench with options. Now that we have a chance to have that, people want to shoehorn our perceived best players into the starting line-up while maintaining an uninspiring bench?

 

 

You're assuming he's playing the style he wants to perfection, he's said many a time we're not there yet. Sure I'm speculating, but I don't think he sees his preferred tactical gameplan to continually attack with only one body in the box to aim for.

Of course you leave defensive responsibilities to others by giving more attacking duties throughout. You just have to balance that.

 

If you see my layout above we have ASM, Wilson, and Isak pressing the defence, supported by Targett, Joelinton, Bruno and Trippier/Almiron. I feel I've covered those weaknesses quite well.

[duo]

Is he fit for Saturday?

[Ikon]

2 minutes ago, duo said:

Is he fit for Saturday?

Yes mate.

[HaydnNUFC]

Seems so laid back, cool, like seemingly borderline not arsed but in a good way.

 

 

 

[RodneyCisse]

Didn’t feel real having him in our team the other night, not in a bad way but it didn’t feel like watching the toon.

[Happinesstan]

10 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

Seems so laid back, cool, like seemingly borderline not arsed but in a good way.

 

 

 

Only 2 minutes in but his recounting of his emotions and thoughts align with his outward expression. 

Like when he says e wasn't really thinking anything, entering the pitch. You could tell. He was completely at ease. And then his thoughts after scoring; "very happy but saw the fans and wanted to celebrate with them" Again that's exactly what it looked like.

I haven't got a clue what that might reflect, but I'm loving the kid.

 

Edit: I think it contrasts with the interviewers crap questions.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Happinesstan

[Happinesstan]

Love his reply to the question about "the project".

[relámpago blanco]

1 hour ago, Happinesstan said:

With the instruction to get into the box? I'm all for it. We'll defend when we decide to let them have the bal.

Goalscoring keeper. Stick him in nets when we are chasing a goal towards the end of a game. 

[HaydnNUFC]

 

[gbandit]

Get in, can’t wait to see how he responds to the crowd. He’s clearly not an outwardly emotional guy but I hope he can build a strong connection to the fan base. They’ll certainly be showing him some love 

[Gallowgate Toon]

I was actually surprised at how emotional his celebration was. He does come across as someone barely fazed by anything.

[1964]

When you consider what he has done and where he has been by the age of 22, its not surprising that he's not fazed by much.  He seems a very impressive young man

[Happinesstan]

4 minutes ago, Gallowgate Toon said:

I was actually surprised at how emotional his celebration was. He does come across as someone barely fazed by anything.

I didn't think it was emotional. He was just cool as ice, until he saw the fans and thought "I'll have me a bit of that". 

[kingxlnc]

He is grounded as anything, no emotion at all. All of the interview questions were aimed at getting hyperbole-type statements out of him, I want to score x many goals, I want to perform well for the fans, and be a legend here, I want to have the impact of Haaland etc but he was very Howe-esque in that he was cool, almost nonchalant and no, I dont want to add pressure, I'll just do what I'm going to do etc. 

[relámpago blanco]

12 minutes ago, kingxlnc said:

He is grounded as anything, no emotion at all. All of the interview questions were aimed at getting hyperbole-type statements out of him, I want to score x many goals, I want to perform well for the fans, and be a legend here, I want to have the impact of Haaland etc but he was very Howe-esque in that he was cool, almost nonchalant and no, I dont want to add pressure, I'll just do what I'm going to do etc. 

I think he is more suited to this league than any other league he's played in. He's big but he's very technical and skillful.  He shouldn't play outwide as his control, touch and skill on the ball is utilised in the box and that scares the shit out of central defenders as it'd the wingers they expect to be doing that and that's why Fullbacks nowadays are quick and very agile on their feet in the Premier league. CB's not so much.