EZE-lectric
Evening Legion. Quick Eze post tonight before we knock out the Leeds preview tomorrow.
News broke yesterday of Saka's bestie Eberechi Eze channeling his inner Emmanuel Petit in giving the spuds the middle finger at the 11th hour and signing for a big club instead. It's always hilarious when that happens and provides the player with instant cult status and a bit of early leeway if performances don't instantly pan out.
Where do we start with the signing? Well, as we promised in our welcome post, we are going to try our best to provide a balanced view when we blog. Not gushing praise, not negativity for the sake of it, but a balanced viewpoint from both perspectives, and trust us, every signing has its pluses and negatives, including Eze.
We'll start with the good.
First off, he's a top player in his prime. An England international who just turned 27 last June. He's a dribbler and a creator. He is most effective as a 10 but can play out wide. He will bring something new to the table, as we don't have a chaos merchant with ball skills quite like him.
He's a Gooner. A Hale Ender. Always helps. He will play with that chip on his shoulder that we were wrong to release him all those years ago. That's certainly how he's played throughout his career up to this point. Being a Gooner certainly helped already in stalling signing for that other lot anyway.
Last season, the following stats are all per 90 mins ranked with other attacking mids/wingers - 4.70 shot-creating actions that put him in the 89 percentile, 2.33 successful take-ons (dribble past opponents), which was in the 90 percentile, and 3.48 shots per game ranked in the 94 percentile. He totalled 8 goals and 8 assists in 34 Premier League Games in a pretty decent but not great Palace side.
Now for the bad, and most of it isn't on him or how good he is as a footballer, but more the weirdness of the signing.
If you want to be cold and calculating, are we spending £65m to replace a bench player (Havertz) with another bench player? You think that's harsh? Okay, who out of Sunday's lineup would you swap out for him? The prime candidate is Martinelli, but Eze isn't a winger; he's a 10. If left wing is the plan, then why make the whole thing even weirder with the retention of Trossard coupled with the wage rise? What about the £50m on Madueke? He's only played left wing since he briefly joined us.
The other strange thing is, why wait until now? If Havertz doesn't go down with the injury, do we even push the button on him? If he was so good and we wanted him, why wait until after the season starts before signing him? We wait until someone who doesn't even play the same position gets injured before we pull the trigger? If he is going to fight for the 10 spot, then why not get him in the building early? Not like Palace made any secret that they were looking to cash in on him. Plus, we were linked with him all summer long.
If it is indeed somehow related to the Havertz injury, would it not have made more sense to go and sign another centre forward? We are a Gyokeres injury away from Merino up top. Again. My only pushback on that train of thought is what kind of guy would be signing who would be happy being third choice once Havertz regains fitness, maybe even fourth choice when Jesus returns? Splashing the cash on a third/fourth-string centre forward may not be the best use of resources.
If Eze is going to back up pretty much all the front-line midfield roles, then where does that leave Nwaneri? Where is his game time? Ahead of Madueke? Ahead of Eze? Is the must-win now crowd changing Arteta's transfer landscape with signings and game time for younger players? What does it mean for Odegaard? Has he been in the comfort zone too long, and this might be the signing he needs to elevate him, or does Eze take his spot, and Tony Adams get his wish, and Rice is our new captain?
His other stats aren't great. He is in the 41 percentile for completed passes, which is frankly alarming, 31 percentile for progressive carries. So he's a dribbler but not a ball carrier. His defensive stats in every category rank in the lower than 50 percentile, so he's a one-way luxury type player who will be great at home against low blocks, but at Anfield with our backs to the wall, he'll be a defensive liability.
So there you have it. Signing Eberechi Eze, the good and the bad. We don't want to come across as ungrateful or disappointed with the signing. He is a fantastic player, and the way you win trophies is by assembling a top squad where, no matter the rotation, great players still play with great players. The whole business just seemed a bit weird with odd timing.
Hey. We did nick him from that lot, though. £65m well spent in our eyes.
We'll see you again tomorrow for the Leeds Utd preview. Until then, take it Eze. Sorry, we can't even promise that won't be the last pun. He has a blog writer's dream name, what can we say?
See you all tomorrow.