Dowman Made A Statement! (Fan Round Up) | Ipswich 2-4 Arsenal

Long isn't it? Long hair. Hi, welcome to AFTV. It's now time for Fan Roundup, obviously after a 4-2 win against Hitswitch here at Portman Road. Simple question boys, I'll be honest. And ladies, there might be ladies around, I just want to make sure I'm clear. Simple question. Youngsters shine tonight, let's keep it real. They really shine. Of course some other players do, but youngsters shine tonight. You've heard me ask a few people this. Do they deserve more time with the first team? Which opportunities do they deserve? Is now the time or is it a wait your turn? Do you know what? If they just keep doing what they're doing, they'll get the opportunity. Like Max Dahlman, he was excellent tonight. You know what I'm saying? He's telling the manager, look, yo, I'm that guy, you know. He did that last season as well though, didn't he? He let him know, I'm that guy. Still. If Odegaard or Sakhar slips up, yo, bring me on. So I'll do the job. So he's confident. I like his confidence still, I rate it. Would you prefer him in what position? I like him in the 10. Obviously he could do a job with right mid, but in the 10, he's proper still and obviously he played there in the youth. So, yeah, man. Thank you, my man. Big up. Come forward. I need to ask you the same question. The youngsters, I mean, you can include everyone in this. Miles Lewis, he's still young, in my opinion, but like Marley Salmon, if he were to come in, I think he's quality. Obviously, Max Dahlman would steal the headlines tonight, but is it just a wait? Cup game, cup game, cup game, cup game? Or not? So I think we've seen from last season, like again, Max Dahlman is a special talent. We'll be able to put him in a different category. I think he can outshine some of the first team players. Seriously. But we saw what happened last season where in January, we let players go out on loan and we got injuries. Football is football, right? We know our squad. We know the history we've had with the medical staff. We've changed some of that. So hopefully that has a lot of improvement. We don't see the same injuries we had before, but they're going to get their time. And I think they just need to be in that position and take the chance when they get it. So for Dahlman, I think he's already been involved in the matchday squads. I think he's put a statement down today to show Arteta that I can be counted on when you need me. I don't think we put the pressure on him to say he's going to start games and expect him to come and play against City or United or Chelsea and perform in Premier League games. But 100%, that's not a disrespect. I think he can come on and make an influence. We've seen he's got no fear. He plays the way I love to see football, the way that Arsenal used to play football, right? We just go, he goes, plays the ball at his feet, attacks the team. So I think for him, definitely to be around. Same with Salman, some of the other ones potentially might go out alone, but we've got loads of games to play this season, right? They're going to get their time. And I think if the experience they're going to get training with the players, the likes of Sakhar, you know, and I think how cohesive the team ethos is around Arteta and just the general camp, being around that is going to benefit them, whether they're on the pitch or not. That's a great point. Thank you very much. Good to see you, my man. It's a great point. Like, he's playing against, training against the champions. These youngsters should be ready. Are they ready? Step forward for me. Do you think, should they be playing more? I've got a simple answer for you, Cecil. Go on, go on. Keep doing what we're doing. We don't need to push them too much. I've got complete faith in Arteta and the club and, you know, all the coaches and everyone. I think they know how to manage these boys pretty well. I think Salman has shown his composure tonight. I'll be honest. Yeah, big Arsenal fan, follow him closely. I wasn't too aware of Julian. Yeah, he's come through. It's a great opportunity. He looked a bit nervous at times, but this is a good opportunity, the cup games. I think you were saying, do we do cup games or push them more? I think leave them to the cup games. Max, I'd like to see more of him. Yeah, especially shout out Essex, Chelmsford and Billericay. I think he played at Billericay Town, my old neck of the woods. So I'd love to see Max Dalman do well. But I also want to touch on, just quickly, if I may, a bit concerned about Zoubamendi and Jokeres. Zoubamendi, when he joined, absolutely loved him. I was like, he's going to be one of my favourite players. Scoring these amazing long shots. Jokeres helped us win the Premier League. Zoubamendi, right back. Yeah, I think obviously... We're saying we've got squad depth. Yeah, Ben... We shouldn't be playing him. I know, Ben White, I think he had a bit of a nod. And then obviously Timber, they said from early on in the week that he was not going to be here today. I hear what you're saying. They brought on June, obviously, a young star. But we didn't really miss a beat. Zoubamendi has the quality to play there. Ricey wasn't here, obviously, today, but he could play right back. It is a bit... I never want to see a centre mid play right back. I remember the days of party doing it. But like, the job got done. You can... It's squad depth because I take a trust in them. And they got the job done. Like you said, you trust the manager. It's how they are acting, Jokeres and Zoubamendi. I'm a bit concerned about them. Do you think Zoubamendi played bad to them? Not really, but they look like they're lacking confidence. I want to see a smile on their face again. If you look at players like Saka, he's smiling. And I think that goes throughout the team. We need that positivity to rub off. So I want to say to the fans, get behind Jokeres. Yeah, right. He scored some great goals last season. I think 20, what was it, 21? 21, all competition. That's not bad for first season. It's different from when he was at Sporting. Let's get behind him. I think their best is yet to come. Like Robbie was saying, we're four games in. Let's calm down. We're not getting rid of Jokeres. True. Let's get behind him. 100%, he's going to stay around. We're going to need him. So it's a long, long season. My friend, same thing. Youngsters, they're ready? Yes, I think they're ready. I mean, it's like that saying, if you're ready, you're ready. Bring him in. Look at the game last season against Everton. He came on and changed the game. And everyone was at that game. I wasn't there, but I watched it on TV. Unbelievable. It was just unbelievable. No one is ever going to forget that moment. If the kid is ready, bring him on. Look at what he's done today. The way he goes past players, it's just unbelievable. Thank you very much. Bring them in. Come on in, my man. For you. You look young yourself. Should they be playing the youngsters? Well, obviously, representing the youngsters, yeah, I think you should give them time. Give them time, yeah? Yeah, I think you should give them time. Obviously, with Max Dalman, you know, expressing, like giving out to the media, I think it's quite intense. Yeah. You've got to think about the mental aspects. I mean, look at Max Dalman. I mean, he literally just finished his GCSE. So I think, ease him in. I think we all trust Arteta if Arteta knows what he's doing. He knows better than all of us. If he was ready, he'd play Premier League games. That's the thing. Yeah, perfect. Thank you so much. I want to get a little man in for you. How old are you? Are you Max Dalman's age? No, I'm 13. You're younger than Max? Yes. Do you think, do you like seeing the youngsters? Is it someone, is it people you look up to when you say you see 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds playing in big games like this? Is that something you think Arsenal are doing absolutely right? Yeah, they're doing pretty well about it. Would you like to see more of the youngsters in the Arsenal first team? Or do you think you have to be patient with them? I think I'd like to see more. They've been doing pretty well getting into the team and, you know, because like they've just won the league and stuff. So, yeah. Give them time. Thank you very much, man. Pleasure. Come on in here, Swiss fan. What are you saying? Your name? Toby. Yo. Today, just your assessment quickly of what you saw from your team. Do you know what? So, I'm really proud of the boys. Why I'm proud of the boys is because we played our B team. None of the guys who started today is in our starting 11. None of them? None of them. We started the game. So that was our B team. And the fact that we came out with such, you could see it. But do you know what? Before you go, why is that? Why do they play the B team? I'm not, I don't want to be, I need to be very respectful. Like, it's a league cup. It's an opportunity for you guys to go far on a cup run. Something that, you know, when you're playing against, you know, Arsenal are obviously going to rotate. We played a lot of youngsters play, Martins and Mendy right back. Like, for Ipswich to play their B team, why? What are you focusing on? What is it? See, Gary O'Neill's mindset and the whole mindset behind the club right now is survival. And so a lot of our players, players have come in and see so, Palacios. As quality as they are, the reality is that some of them are a little bit injury prone. Right. So we've got Everton away on this weekend. Then we've got Fulham. See, our thing is, all we need to do is, games like Arsenal, United, Liverpool, those are almost write-offs. Do you know what I'm trying to say? But for us, we're like, all we need to do is beat the teams around us. Right. Pick up points from the teams that are around us. And we've got really big games against teams that are around us. So my mindset is, all we need to do is beat less ---- than three other teams and stay up. Survival, survival is key. And so the reality is, a lot of these players are being protected for the league run. When our first team players did come on, Jack Clarke, Leif Davies, especially on the left-hand side, they changed the game. You see, Jack Clarke came on. As soon as he came on, we took off Fillingen. Clarke came on, left side, bam, 4-1. Leif Davies as well. He's had an incredible season so far this season. To the point where, I know it's a little bit premature, but there's talks about, oh, could he be getting into the England squad? Or could there be talk about him? And I think that's what Gary O'Neill is doing. He's trying to build a squad that are trying to be a lot more competitive than last time. Nice. Because we came into the league last time and there was a lot of naivety. We had a lot of the championship players that did the double promotion. And that was cool. You know, we had the momentum, we had the momentum, but now it's like, all right, cool. Now we have the experience. We have quality. And slowly we're building depth. Slowly building depth, you know, with, you know, the midfield is looking a lot stronger with Palacios, Lukic, and Dijssel Meijder from Celtic. He's on, you know, he's a quality player. Again, the mindset is let's protect these players for the league. It would be nice to go on a cup run. It really would be. But what tonight showed me anyway, is that when the players come on, we don't have the squad depth for a successful league run and a successful cup run. And if you don't have the squad depth, one is going to end up hurting the other. So, you know, the focus is on the league, you know, so yeah, man. Quality assessment. Thank you very much for that. That's what I needed to hear because I was so confused when we played the B team, but that is it for the Fan Roundup. We've heard from the Ulster fans, we've heard from Midsuit's fan. Let us know your thoughts in the comments, so the youngsters are given more opportunity. Love.