Bodo/Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen reflected on his side’s 3-0 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates on Thursday evening, claiming that we were not kind in bringing on ‘world class’ duo Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard.
The Gunners were very much on top in the first half, but just as our opponents were beginning to get a foothold in the game, the boss Mikel Arteta moved to make a triple change, bringing Bukayo Saka, Odegaard and Jesus into the side around the hourmark.
Knutsen clearly didn’t enjoy our side adding the quality to our side, claiming we were ‘not kind’ to bring on such ‘quality’.
“During the break we talked about how we were a bit passive,” Knutsen reflects at full-time (Dagbladet reports). “We kept the ball and did not take advantage of the spaces we had. In the second half, we looked a lot more like we should.
“But they are not kind to us when they bring on Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard. Then we meet quality. It’s world class, quite simply.”
The football we are playing lately is such confident stuff, whether we are playing our first XI or a range of squad members, and I actually think it was a little bit of overkill bringing on our stars, but the result was the priority.
We can now hope that there is no repercussions of not allowing our superstars to have that added rest ahead of taking on Liverpool, but I think there is no doubting that we have players of the highest ilk at the club at present.
Is it an oversight to think that Knutsen underestimates Saka by naming the two other substitutions over him?
Patrick