Martin Keown believes Arsenal man is too good to be on the bench
Mikel Arteta’s 50th game in-charge was a disaster. Arteta looked confused on the touchline, and his team reflected that by lacking any ideas on how to threaten Liverpool.
For the whole match, it looked like the Gunners were a man down. The front three of Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Alexander Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe cost Arsenal a combined £174 million, almost half of what it cost to build the Emirates Stadium.
But the trio looked every bit of a strike force of a mid-table team. Trying to make things happen but failing miserably.
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown in his column for the DailyMail said that he was “baffled” to see Martinelli continuing to sit on the bench.
The defender who made 332 appearances for them across two different spells, said that if the Spaniard keeps on picking Aubameyang, he “risks losing the respect of the group.”
“It’s time to bring in 19-year-old Gabriel Martinelli. He is too good to be sitting on the bench. His team-mates see him in training and know what he can do.”
“They will be baffled by his continued absence. I know I am.”
He continued, “Use him on the left. Use Martinelli’s fellow 19-year-old Bukayo Saka on the right. Start Emile Smith Rowe. Then you’ll have a team who can pose problems for the opposition. There were too many passengers against Liverpool.
Although both team had injury problems, it was the Gunners who looked like a team missing pieces in their jigsaw puzzle.
“The visitors’ weakness was their centre back pairing of Ozan Kabak and Nathaniel Phillips but Arsenal couldn’t test them.“
The Arsenal players can’t feel sorry for themselves. They still have the massive incentive to play in the Champions League next season if they win the Europa League.
But if they keep performing the way they did last weekend or the majority of this season, someone can only think that ‘do they even deserve to be in the Europa League?’
He won’t.
It will be the same boring “senior” players again.
He may well decide to play Saka as a direct replacement for Tierney who I hope will not be out for too long.Cedric is a decent RB but far less effective on the left.
Grandad, I think that would be an interesting and positive move, especially if he played Marts out wide left and Auba up top…I find that since Ode starting playing in the 10, he has a tendency to favour the right side of the pitch, likely because it leaves him more space to cut back inside and shoot…this tendency has clearly hurt Auba’s ability to properly contribute and has even minimized Tierney’s effectiveness…at least Auba has some height and length in the box, unlike Laca, should crosses come in from either Saka or Marts…it likewise might give Pepe, out wide right, the chance to see some more 1 v. 1’s, now that we’ve stretched the defence a bit…with this in mind, then maybe ESR can supply some more direct-attacking opportunities for Auba, thus providing some much-needed balance in the final third
I repeat the answer to our team is grealish, bissouma, zaha, plus a permanent deal for odegard. They are within our reach a team with saka grealish and zaha will change much…
Why don’t you ask Father Christmas to send all these players, when you send your annual letter to him then!
In case you did not know, we prefer adults on here to little children! Only tiny kids truly believe in fantasy, like you do!
Pepe, laca, willian won’t take us forward
I had high hopes for Arteta and after just a few months he looked like the messiah with two trophies and beating the top three sides en route. Since them he has signed Gabriel, Partey, Mari, Cedric, Cellabos,(loan) Willian, etc. Most have been just OK, nothing world class about any of them. Odegaard is class an will end up elsewhere. Meawhile, he has ruined the confidence of Auba, Nketia, Chambers, Martinelli, Pepe and Holding, mainly because he will not keep a settled side and they all know it. He has a big flaw and that is he punishes players that he did not sign..Maitlan Niles .Marapanos, Torreira, Saliba, Pepe, Martinelli, Martinez. Just imagine those players getting regular first team matches and add a few of our quality players ESR, Saka, Thierney, Balogun, etc and we have some team.
We all know he will not bend and we are doomed to mediocrity and non stop stupid mistakes because he insists that we play from the back without fail even though that tactic has lost us a minimum of 20 points this season. Think of the 1-0 defeats in the FA cup and against Man City and remember just how well we played against them after giving them both a free goal start.
I look at the Southampton and Norwich managers and wonder what they would produce with our squad and few of theirs?? Add the brighton manager and you will probably agree that we should be looking at them as replacements because Arteta has had long enough to see that he has produced a second rate side and it is an insult to the Gunners worldwide.
That’s right, a manager whose team got beat 9-0 should be top of our shopping list.