Will international fatigue affect Arsenal’s starting XI?

There is no doubt that Arsene Wenger will want his strongest possible Arsenal line-up to start the Premier League clash with Liverpool. But as quite a few of the Gunners had been in need of a rest before this international break and with the game being a vital one and kicking off early on Saturday, I wonder if the boss might just take the possible fatigue and recent workloads of his players into account.

The Frenchman has been speaking about the importance of energy levels this week and that could well be because he has it in mind. Unfortunately for him, and unsurprisingly, the players that have been most heavily used by their countries are the most influential in the Arsenal team.

Mesut Ozil completed both games for Germany, Alexis Sanchez played a game and a a half for Chile, Olivier Giroud played the whole of France’s second game and some of the first, Santi Cazorla played most of Spain’s second game and 15 minutes of their first and Aaron Ramsey played the whole 90 minutes for Wales.

However, Ramsey has not played since Saturday while Giroud, Alexis and Ozil last played on Sunday, so you would think they would be fine on Saturday. The two biggest concerns would be Cazorla and Kieran Gibbs who both played significant amounts of time on Tuesday night. But with Rosicky having sat out the second Czech Republic game on the same night and with Nacho Monreal having stayed at home, Wenger has ready made replacements.

The question is, should he and will he use them?

Tags Alexis Cazorla Gibbs Ozil

9 Comments

  1. its definitely will…fatigue will kick in…

    this happen when our squad is not big enough to rotate…..

  2. We have a very good squad, in terms of its size. We are unlucky with injuries (whether it is training techniques, the medical team or bad luck), and it always makes our team look thin. In my opinion the reason we are playing very well at the moment is partly down to the fact many of our key players havent been playing week in week out. eg.ozil,koscielny,arteta,coquelin,giroud,ramsey,wilshere,debuchy,rosicky,theo etc have had small gametime this season on a whole, they are less fatigued than other teams.
    My issue with the Arsenal squad is the quality, we need a couple of first teamers eg.another DM,GK etc if we want to compete seriously

    1. I agreed. Total duration of the games they’ve play will determine their fatigues level or their injury risk. According to this situation, Santi and Alexis (how many times we suggested this on him) are stand in the red line. Arsene should rest them at less entire first half of L’pool game.
      Let’s see how Brendan naked “injuries tactic” can effect this match.
      A bit shock to me that international duties is (almost) always weaken us from time to time. Good news is, others do too. COYG!!!

  3. Ospina should be fine.
    Play Monreal over Gibbs
    Other 1st defenders should be fine.
    Perhaps play Rosicky instead of Ramsey
    Play Coquelin
    I would play Welbeck over Walcott
    We must play Giroud. No alternative

    I would go with following for Liverpool

    Ospina
    Bellerin…Gabriel..Koscielny…monreal
    Rosicky….Coquelin
    Alexis…..Ozil….Welbeck
    Giroud

    Everyone will have a weeks rest (except training sessions)

    1. Agree with most of this. Wouldn’t mind seeing ME2 make his return at RB. Might be too soon tho and if so we’ll need Hectors speed vs Sterling.
      I really don’t see TR7 getting the start over both Ramsey and Santi. Not to mention not starting SC19 would be like not starting Alexis right now. Especially against Liverpool. We’ll miss OX for this one.

    2. Arsene should be caution on Alexis. He looks like the energizer rabbit as always, but his off play tending is indicating fatigue. Beware.

  4. The boss doesn’t have any other choice other than to start a HALTING AMBITION GUNNERS STARTS to halt any ambition the Red may be nursing to qualify for the Champions League at the expense of the Gunners winning the Barclays Premier League this season, which is still very much on the cards. I am waiting for the boss’ press conference and his Gunners update before I do my own Halting Ambition Gunners Starts that will not only put paid to the Reds CL ambition, but also avenge the 5-0 defeat we suffered at their hands last season as the Gunners give them a dose of their own medicine at the Emirates stadium by also beating them at final whistle as AFC 5-0 Liverpool.

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