White’s seamless switch from Center back doesn’t get talked about enough.
There’s no debate that the former Brighton man has been one of the best players in the squad since his arrival to the club, with him churning out solid displays consistently over his Arsenal career.
A player who initially struggled in his debut game against Brentford has shown no signs of what he was thrown early criticism for. Gooners will clearly remember how he struggled against the physicality of Ivan Toney in that game, with him receiving a barrage of criticism from pundits in the aftermath, he went on to have a pretty decent debut campaign however it has been the switch to right back that has seen him put in the best performances of his Arsenal career so far.
This has been so impressive that gooners do not even remember that he was starting as a center back for us as early as 2022 with the change in roles coming later in that year, the change was brought about due to the return of William Saliba from a loan spell. We wanted to give him a try and Mikel made the adjustments to accommodate him but I don’t think that even he would have expected White to own the role like this.
His ability to combine well with Odegaard and Saka on the right has been one his strong points with him forming a near telepathic connection with the pair them, this has led to him, not just creating goal scoring opportunities on a regular basis but finishing them off as well, this is well justified due to him contributing 9 G/A last campaign, a quite respectable number for his type of profile.
His ability on the ball has also helped him in this shift with him being able to take up an inverted role when needed, or provide much needed support for Saka on the right with lung busting overlapping/underlapping runs. His profile makes him and all-rounder!
However the areas where I think he might need to improve would be his quality of delivery, and defensively, one thing I notice about him when watching him play would be the tendency for him to back off on a winger when being attacked at the edge of the box. I understand the need to give quality opposition some respect in backing off, but he needs to show more tenacity to be on the front foot and take control of situations like that.
These are minor observations that I think he has to improve on, however you can’t take away how brilliant he’s been for us at RB. We knew he was a very versatile player when signing him, but no one would have expected him to shine the way he’s doing at right back.
And long may he carry on being Mr Consistent in our back line, and in our attack…
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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Artetas best signing IMO
Quietly does his job and the combination of him and saka down that right hand side is some of the best I’ve seen in years ,solid at the back and devastating going forward more times than not .
Completely agree – he’s been our most consistent player over the last couple of seasons, possibly to be challenged by rice, and it’s true he’s not had so much credit recently. I think that’s because most of the important things he does are just clever, understated short passes that don’t stick out in the mind, but put players like odegaard and saka into dangerous areas.
I don’t think his delivery is bad – can always improve, but not bad imo – but yes, 1v1s are his biggest weakness and I think that’s why he tends to back off wingers. He doesn’t get exposed as often as I thought he might when he transitioned to RB, so it must be working pretty well.
Personally, I think he was a decent CB, but not good enough to start in a team going for the title, but at RB, he’s a crucial “spine” player imo.
He was starting at CB all the way back in 2021 (including that Toney difficulty). Tomi came in to play RB I believe on deadline day from Bologna.
Really? Best under rated player in Arsenal. Average and not worth 50 million. Slow both in speed and thinking, seems incapable of reading the game in progress with his poor positioning most times but unsure whether due to his personal attributes or the coaches instructions. Admit it, send shivers down your spine when you know a doku, mitoma etc is against him. He is regularly beaten to the line AND in transition slows our play down. And whats with the sloooow throw ins, Invariably plays sideways when a forward drive is beter for the moment.
Reminded me why we were so poor when saliba away and white was the CB.
So no., have to disagree with the article but because he plays for us…..
I do admit that i raised an eyebrow when we paid that much BUT I’m glad we got him. I think he is worth the money. He’s consistent, reliable. He is very useful. He can play RB and CB, also DM if needed