I'm saying that both have had a lot of fans calling for them to start because they've looked so good. Trossard began starting in Martinelli's absence and immediately started plummeting in performance. Nwaneri has had some good cameos and appearances in cups, but predictably he is 17 and cannot be expected to stand up to Newcastle's big burly men.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Nwaneri isn't going to get good from the bench especially when he's the closest thing we've had to what we're missing in the absence of Ødegaard. Okay, he never had a good game today, but who did?

[–] sensiblepuffin 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You seem intent on ascribing a lot of intent to my comments that I don't intend.

I don't blame Nwaneri for not playing well. I blame the rabid supporters who were convinced that he needed to just be thrown into the deep end and he'd magically fix our problems.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

We could've had prime Messi out there today and it wouldn't have made a difference. Arteta had us set up incredibly brokenly. Havertz was playing in the Ødegaard spaces and Trosaard was floating around doing a whole lot of nothing. There was no urgency or impetus in our play and so there was no way to drag Newcastle around or break the lines. If Nwaneri had even half the minutes that Trosaard has wasted over the past few weeks, by all means write him off and say we rushed him in. But he essentially came into a terrible, unorganised and unbalanced team and failed to carry it in the half hour he got. Hardly a damning indictment on him or his advocates like me. It's also important to note, I was advocating for him based on his profile. If Arteta had bought cover for Ødegaard, it would be a moot point.