Last season, several fans believed Arsenal failed to perform to their full potential due to the absence of Granit Xhaka, who had left for Bayer Leverkusen. The Swiss midfielder brought vitality to our left side, and so he left it breathless; his absence left Arsenal struggling.
Declan Rice occasionally attempted to influence the team from LCM, but many believed Arsenal still needed to recruit a left-sided #8 this summer. Mikel Arteta worked hard to bring Mikel Merino on board, and we thought the Spaniard, whose duel statistics described him as a duel monster, was the perfect Xhaka LCM replacement. However, the Real Sociedad star hasn’t proven himself yet. In fact, it seems that his injury-related absence and subsequent limited game time have prevented him from showcasing his abilities.
Thomas Partey’s undroppability has resulted in him being limited to cameo appearances due to the need to accommodate Declan Rice and Martin Ødegaard in the starting lineup. I honestly thought Mikel Merino would easily break into Arsenal’s starting lineup. Guess I was mistaken.
However, given our efforts to acquire Mikel Merino as a solution to our LCM issues, he should be starting most games. As good as he is in aerial duels, he could be an additional goal threat on the pitch. Who can forget how impactful he was against Chelsea in the London Derby before the break?
If we could get him to do what he did in that game on a consistent basis, what’s stopping the LHS from being revived?
Arsenal demonstrated their right-side bias against Fulham, but they had no choice but to do so. The Timber-Rice-Trossard/Martinelli combination will never work. Last season, we expressed our desire to strengthen the LCM; now that we cannot use the player we recruited for the position, why can’t we rely on a different, fresh option, such as Ethan Nwaneri?
As If we thought Rice’s future was at LCM, why go through the hassle of trying to sign Merino when we could have spent that money on a top winger or striker?
Jack Anderson
Michelle M
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We needed a midfielder AND a striker, only got one. Without Merino we would be with Rice, Jorginho and Partey, latter being often injured in the past and often deployed at RB.
We lack squad depth but we also have way too many injury prone players. Tierney, Zinc, Jesus, Tomi, Partey have all missed a combined 100 PL matches at least. Calafiori doesnt look good either on that front…
Very good point regarding the injury prone players we have signed.This trend is a serious concern and our recruitment team, including our Manager,need to improve their due diligence on potential signings.The fact that a number of injuries are being incurred during training sessions suggests that our methods need to be reviewed asap.It would appear that Calafiori has a recent history of injuries in Italy and it seems we have replaced a fine, but injury prone LB in KT, with another one.
We need a proven finisher.
The whole summer was a complete disaster. Neither signings were necessary. How many defenders and defensive midfielders do we require? What we could have bettered the squad in numerous ways. Firstly an attacking left 8 like what was the initial plan for Havertz. A left winger or an actual number 10 or 9. Spending the whole budget on someone like Wirtz, Olise or Eze who can play anywhere attacking wise and I think we would be much higher up the table. I think it’s make or break for Mikel now. The League or the champions league or we have to move on.
Fair question to ask, other questions to ask would be
1. Why move your best and most consistent midfielder this season (Partey) to RB, when Timber has been Brilliant?
2. Why move to productive players on form, Timber and Partey, to continue playing an inverted fullback on the left, when it kills the attack on the left side?
We keep buying left sided defenders and continue having the same problem. Maybe the problem is not the players, but the left side tactics?
Bingo!!!!!!
God bless your father for this observation! Arteta thinks football is only meant for left footers.
Could have just keep a younger better player in ESR .
Seem nothing from merino to suggest he was a good buy ,but that seems to be a recurring feature under this management.
As for the striker issue I’m not sure there is really a debate to be had on that one .
Is Merino better than ESR?
From what I’ve seen absolutely not Reggie ,an unnecessary purchase .
ESR seems to be doing fine at Fulham and staying injury free .
It defies logic to play the best DMF in the league out of position to accommodate jorghino and hype up Rice. Arteta’s bias will be the death of Arsenal. Havertz and Rice have become mysteriously indroppable, even when out of form. Arsenal has an army of youngsters who actually can do better. Louis-Skelly, Nwaneri and the young RB who’s better than Kiwor.
Even as a midfielder, Merino is not the best. He reminds one of Arteta’s series of poor purchases in this later stages.
Buy a top winger and a top striker, devastating winger with real end product, simple, but our manager has been as stubborn to do that as wenger was to address defensive issues, and if we can hav a settled back four like last season and complete our attack with real quality then we can easily be the best around
Arteta could have deployed a backline of Timber Rice Saliba and Kiwior so as to allow Odegaard, Partey and Merino to be our midfielder our attacking players should have been Jesus and Sake in the wings and Havertz to be our CF and we would have had a fluid game.
Because you guys have never believed in Partey…