Has anyone else noticed that we’ve temporarily lost our set pieces prowess in Saka’s absence recently?
It has been an open secret this season and the last that our set piece prowess has been an incredible asset to us with the Gunners looking likely to score from every corner won so far this season besides the last two games in all competitions. It’s reliability in front of goal for us has been as a result of a couple of factors such as the delivery and the choreographed movements from the players to free up space in the box.
Arguably the most important of the aforementioned factors above has been the delivery into the box, Saka’s especially has caused opponents all sorts of problems due to how consistently he puts them in with whip and deadly precision.
The type of delivery has also been a reason for our success from set pieces with an inswinger being preferably utilized most of the time, which is why we saw Trossard taking some of our corners against Shakhtar with his left foot on inswinger on Tuesday night. This didn’t provide any threat which is understandable given how ludicrous it is to replicate Saka’s delivery with a weaker foot.
We will still provide a threat from corners in Saka’s absence, I mean Declan Rice has shown in the past that he is more than capable of putting in quality balls in the box however with that said, I just think our threat has been reduced significantly without Saka in the side, which is another reason why we’ll be hoping for him to be fit and back in the side as soon as possible!
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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That’s why Nwaneri should’ve deputized Saka for the right-wing role
Trossard is a sharpshooter, but his recent performances were disappointing
he is kind of inconsistent. he can shine and sometimes disappear
Am strongly agree with GAI above, the kid should have been heavily involved against the Saints and Boumeounth and now looking for atleast a fifteen minutes against the big pretender.
But the gaffer have box himself in corner now, as it wouldn’t be fair now to throw Nwaneri in at the deep end.
The gaffer must improve his management craft quickly.
Man management continues to be an issue for the gaffer; trust issues. Nwaneri needs more than the occasional 2 or 3 minutes we see lately in games.
He did not use ESR properly, a case could be made for Nketiah earlier in his management, and we remember the hindsight & second guessing Arteta admitted regarding Saliba; the last loan vs registering him in the Europa squad.
Saka played into the red, and Nelson never got a real test his last year here, even sub appearances, or ESR a run of games.
The club has to do better in this area, not just about the development of young talent, but also in managing transfer funds. Perhaps we could have saved 34 million in not buying Vieira.
Testing Nwaneri now during our injury crisis could potentially save us millions buy not buying a backup for Odegaard in the Summer.
Perhaps MLS could be 4th choice fullback and save millions more next summer.
Oh Kenneth, really? Yes of course we are missing Saka’s corners and crosses into the box but you’re being very unfair to Rice and Trossard. Whilst Rices corners from the right wing weren’t great he always takes the corners from the left wing and very well. When Trossard swung his left footed corner in from Saka’s usual right wing position it was spot on!
it is Saka creativity, goal threat and fear factor that Arsenal miss more than his corner taking – if we are honest until very recently (as half dozen games) Saka corners lacked the pace, whip and accuracy of Rice
also Saka is amongst our more clinical finishers
Arsenal have often set up as an ‘out of possession’ team this season, sometimes due to necessity (e.g. 10 men Man C, Brighton, Bournemouth), but sometimes by tactical choice (e.g. Spurs, PSG, even Atalanta) – the point is an ‘out of possession’ set up relies of speed of transition and decision making when the chance is forced – Arsenal creativity in these moments seems to have evaporated without Saka and Odegaard
I think we very much lack in squad depth. I feel it was a mistake selling ESR, nelson, Nketiah especially considering the number of games we have to play this season. Last season not much players got injured and still lacked squad depth. I feel the squad is knackered playing euro’s , Internationals, PL (Also playing with 10 men – red card). spot on Aresenal886.
Our squad is short on numbers and quality.