WHY DID ARSENAL PASS ON RANDAL KOLO MUANI?

FRENCHMAN BEING USED TO BEAT ARSENAL, IS THE BEATING RIGHT?

Been thinking about the MLS drama this week and I've come to the conclusion that it's probably not going to matter that much in the grand scheme of things.

The culture is shifting around the world. I've seen references from Edmond Lau about the world shifting into Dark Mode. A great summation of that is the meme doing the rounds from Spanish reality TV. Some chap called Montoya watched his girlfriend sleep with another man on reality TV, and he lost his mind... and everyone is loving it. Like a baying Roman crowd in the gladiatorial amphitheater. People feeling so down on everything, nothing matters right now, and they just aren't in the mood to be told how to think and feel about things after 10 years.

Haaland and MLS this season represent a bit of that dark mode. Fans love it. They want to see character. Something a bit raw and off the cuff. The old guard tone police trying to tell us what is and isn't acceptable just isn't going to cut it... we want Dark Mode and those two represent it.

No one is going to stop the country falling in love with MLS. He's extremely likable, a bit like Ben White. We want to imagine we all have a bit of MLS in us. Most of us don't have the talent or the bottle to put it out there like that, but he did, and he did it in extremely good humor. The rags and average pundits on talk radio aren't going to persuade the country that this young man isn't absolutely top tier. Rolling Graham Souness out like Hector Salamanca dinging his racism bell to the masses falls flat... no one wants to be told which characters they can and cannot enjoy in 2025.

MLS, a short king on the way to the very top of the game and our hearts.

That last line was a bit soft, right? A bit 2024. I'm embarrassed for myself.

Kolo Muani is back in the conversation after landing at Juventus. The Frenchman has bagged 5 goals in 3 games. He looks like a worldie. How could we have missed this opportunity?

There's going to be a lot of conversations like this every time someone who moved scores a goal. My take on Kolo is that you need to look at the market dynamics of January. The Premier League is the lion of Europe, it eats first most of the time, and the whole league decided to pass up on the French number one striker. United, Villa, Arsenal, Spurs, and Chelsea were all looking at forwards this window and all decided against it.

For Arsenal, who love monster defenders in the forward line, his numbers aren't exactly glowing compared to what Kai offers Arsenal.

But I don't think that's the real story here. He plays under Enrique, who has similar footballing intentions to Arteta. He prioritizes control and needs his strikers to be able to hold up the ball and link play. Muani was born in a system that doesn't care for possession, so it's a big weakness for him. Arsenal cannot afford a striker that gives up the ball in hot zones and makes us vulnerable in transition.

Outside that, he's more one-footed than Nicolas Pepe. This was an article from 2022 about him before he moved to PSG:

"Muani's actually made the fewest left-footed passes per 90 of any player in Europe's top five leagues across the last 365 days (0.94). It's not just an over-reliance on his right, but a real problem worth addressing. If he can add greater dynamism on both feet, he will naturally create more options for himself in those 1v1 moments, without needing to rely on his physicality."

The Premier League just doesn't let severely one-footed players thrive, nor does the Champions League. Arsenal are quite often faced with deep blocks; if everyone knows that you only have one foot, you're severely limited when it comes to unlocking defenses and beating players in one-on-one situations.

Again, I come back to it: there's a reason the lions of the Premier League checked out the carcass and decided they didn't want to eat. Could Muani score goals for Arsenal? For sure. But would his presence be damaging to the way we play? Absolutely. That's why he can't get minutes at PSG and why he's been a massive flop since moving there.

'Anything is better than nothing' doesn't really work in our system. I think Ethan as a 9 might preserve the integrity of the system better than a clumsy one-footed striker prone to giving up possession. Arsenal wasn't ever interested in Morata, but you can at least understand why we'd take the phone call because he's technically where you'd want to be and capable of playing in a possession-based system.

I also think there's an element of 'why would we invest so much time coaching someone on our principles, only for them to leave.'

But, keeping an eye on players we'll be looking at this summer... Semenyo had another good game, scoring a brutal penalty against Everton. Man has it all, he's just 25 years old, he bullies teams, if his finishing can improve, we could have a monster player as an option across our wide positions next season.

I also think Mbuemo is another player we should be looking at if we're rebuilding our forward line and looking to the future. Trossard was attracting Saudi interest in the summer, that'll come back around, and usually they don't come knocking without consent. Martinelli has had a few Ramsdale-like moments and is now close to completing his second very underwhelming season on the left and on the right. If you could add Mbuemo and Semenyo, plus someone like Benjamin Sesko... you really would have a title-winning forward line ready to go from game day one next season.

Ok, not a lot for your today, check out the latest Before the Whistle Dubai Special, and keep it normal in the comments. It’s been reading pretty poorly of late, and the usual suspects bringing it down will be sent to the VAR if they carry on… and it’s not Jarred Gillett in there. Justice will be served.

Before The Whistle - Dubai Special – Calm Before the Storm 🌪️