Are Arsenal too dependent on Bukayo Saka?
Is he slowly becoming a crutch for Arsenal?
Bukayo Saka has been off to a good start, five goals and five assists in all competitions, showing the world why he is the starboy. He has proved himself to being crucial to Arsenal this season. His blistering pace and robustness on the right has made him a threat. His chemistry on the right with Odegaard and White has made the team’s attack on the right very fluid. He’s proven to be a very reliable figure, however, are Arsenal too dependent on him.
He is the first name on the call sheet no matter the game. Giving his all every minute of every game, giving stellar performances. With that being said, him being a constant in the team will hurt him in the long run might even lead to a long-term injury. For the games against Bournemouth and Lens, Saka has left the field due to injury. With him likely playing against Manchester City, he could possibly hobble of the pitch or even pick up yet another knock against a very physical City defence.
Arsenal need to be able to give Saka the time to recover because he will be needed. The issue is, is there a player that can replace him and will the team’s performance be affected as well.
The majority of Arsenal’s attacks comes from that right hand side. With Martinelli out, the team is even more reliant Saka on the right. With him also possibly being out, it could subdue the team’s attack, blunting Arsenal’s strike force.
Options are available, but not on the same level as Saka. Jesus could play on the right; however, the attack looks disjointed without him at the 9 position. Vieira and Nelson are options, but they do offer the same skillset as Saka. Academy players such as Sagoe Jr and Cozier-Duberry could be given opportunities, and they could possibly be the next academy breakout stars.
Players can come into his position, but will they have the time to adapt and thrive. That will be a problem to solve in the possible future.
Until then, keep fit Saka, we need you.
Vuyo Mataka
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Yes he is in the top 3 premier players, so it is understandable. But we did use to say that about Partey or Saliba. The problem is that we dont have a dangerous right wing back up, may be Tossard or Nelson can cover providing the rest of the team is playing well and not having a bad day, like the game against Lens.
That’s the différence with City:Debruyne is not there no problème…..Even Halaand could be missing and you would’nt sée the difference…..
Yes, because he’s the only senior specialist inverted-RW in the squad. I guess Arteta relies on Vieira to play the role if Saka gets injured, instead of playing the youngsters like Cozier-Duberry and Marquinhos
Klopp also depends so much on Salah to cut inside from the right wing. Maybe Arteta and Klopp will choose to play a conventional RW if their inverted-RW gets injured
Yes Nelson started at right wing back and dis so we’ll.
There was a game last season where Saka was injured in the first half. Reiss Nelson was introduced to replace him. Reiss went on to score to crucial goals in that game.
Understandably, playing regularly is one of the ways to keep star players like Saka, Salah, Haaland, KDB happy.
The team surely have good players to replace him. Only that confidence is required of them when they are given the opportunity. I will love the coach to give Nelson more opportunity. There is maturity to his game since last season.
Arsenal had a glorious chance to sign Moussa Diaby, with Xhaka going the opposite direction.
The perfect fit to deputize for Saka, having miss out on Raphinha, now we maybe back to the mystery winger.
There’s two issues here. One is do Arsenal have anyone who can do what Saka does in that position. The other is do Arsenal have sufficient threats coming from other areas of the pitch so that Saka missing isn’t such a problem. The answer to both questions is probably no at the moment. Saka can be compared to Kane at Spurs. Of course Kane leaving unexpectedly led to more coming from other players not the disaster everybody expected. Maybe if Saka was out for a while the same would happen at Arsenal.
I have no time to defend and protect players who earn as much as fans loan about footballers wage.