While most Gooners are convinced that signing a striker would solve the team’s attacking struggles, shouldn’t addressing Arsenal’s over-reliance on Martin Ødegaard also be a top priority this summer?
Before you come for me in the comments, hear me out.
I genuinely believe Arsenal have become too dependent on Ødegaard as their primary creative outlet. Aside from Bukayo Saka’s threat from the right, there isn’t enough invention coming through the middle.
What they lack is a true central playmaker. At present, Ødegaard does a lot, but I wouldn’t even say he’s the side’s biggest creative weapon.
Ødegaard’s style is elegant, but not direct
If we look strictly at player profiles, not overall ability, Ødegaard plays more like Thiago Alcântara than Kevin De Bruyne.
Thiago operated as a fluid, roaming playmaker. He was excellent off the ball, found pockets of space, pinged passes from deep, and chipped in with the occasional goal from distance. Ødegaard mirrors that in many ways, elegant, composed, technically gifted.
But what Arsenal really need is a De Bruyne-type: someone who dominates the final third, exploits gaps ruthlessly, and turns possession into goals. Think Bruno Fernandes, players who create and convert. Ødegaard doesn’t do that consistently enough.
Arsenal must plan beyond Ødegaard
Since returning from injury, Ødegaard has looked less influential. Yes, he’s been without Saka at times, and Kai Havertz too, but that only underlines the concern. Arsenal need a player who can take full responsibility when others are missing.
Ironically, Ødegaard’s superb performance for Norway against Italy last Friday reminded us just how good he is. But that can’t be the ceiling. If Arteta wants to unlock the next level, he’ll need a more direct, final-third playmaker alongside or even instead of Ødegaard.
Whether it’s Ethan Nwaneri, Max Dowman, or a signing yet to come, that creative spark through the middle must be addressed.
What do you think, Gooners? Are we relying too much on Ødegaard to make things happen?
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I definitely appreciate the idea of adding to but not replacing Odegaard outright. Both Nwaneri and Dowman look to have the potential to be major creators in the future, but right now there’s only a small number of attainable players that could do such a role and I think given current numbers it may need to be a homegrown player, meaning it may be costly.
The three I’d like to see in ascending order are Gibbs-White who has finally started to gain attention for his consistency in linking up Forest’s attack and overall play. I’d say just ahead of him is Eze who is similar and has added game-winning lethality to his role, even when having a bit of an off game. However, for me, the most ideal is Morgan Rogers. He’s young, fast, strong and most likely won’t peak for years, plus he’d add needed pace and directness to our attack. He can play almost anywhere in attack and midfield, and his youth and versatility means he’s mouldable. We could have him create magic from LW, AM, RW, and I even believe his ball carrying skills could be used at CM and his G/A and close range finishing means he may even have a future as a false 9. Villa need to sell and a player of his calibre probably needs to challenge himself in the CL again. For me, he’s a perfect fit that could prove to be as effective as Liverpool’s imminent capture of Wirtz.
It]s Arteta that determines how he plays. the times he was paired with xhaka, xhaka was doing the job that Odegaard is doing now, then xhaka, just like odegaard now was popping up with couple goals and assists, while odegaard was hitting double figures.
so now odegaard is is tasked with doing both for now, which is vvery tasking..coupled with his ankle injury.
hopefully if we eventually get zubimendi, his role will change to be more direct. Martin can very well be the kdb fernandes type….it all depends on the manager.
then again, MA could just pair odegaard and nwaneri 2geda, and the latter more direct.
It’s not that Arsenal or Odegaard can’t create centrally, it’s more that the manager prefers to create through the wings.
The signing of Zubimendi could well mean that we will get to have more play through the middle because he is very good at moving the ball centrally. His passing ability should benefit everyone around him, including Odegaard.
On the other hand, if the plan is to continue creating through the wings, then getting a creative left winger should be a priority. Creativity doesn’t always have to come from central areas. If we can get our left side to be as effective as the right, our attack will be balanced and the threat from both sides will stretch defences.
On Kevin De Bruyne, there really is no player like him that I can think of. He’s a unique generational talent that comes around once in a while. Even the player City have bought to replace him is nothing like him. He’s more like Odegaard. There’s only one KDB, and others don’t have to be like him to be effective.
This season we were building up by moving the ball out wide, but it really didn’t work and I think it’s the main reason we scored relatively few goals and people started to find us really boring to watch. It allows opposition defenders to set up defensively in the middle and we ended up continuously recycled the ball from right to left and back, without being very dangerous. Even with a powerful CF who’s adept in the air, usually high crosses aren’t a great way to score lots of goals – most high scoring teams find ways to pull defenders around and catch them out with dribbling and sharp passes. Most good teams that primarily rely on crosses tend to score relatively few goals and need to have watertight defences to be very competitive, I think. (Just an observation, not based on data)
Last season (23/24) it wasn’t like this, and we were progressing the ball centrally more often. It’s clear to me what the problem was this year – I don’t think we *need* zubi to improve things, because we have shown we can play more centrally before (we do need someone as its seeming more and more likely partey will leave, and we’ve already lost jorginho), but if he’s particularly good at it, I’d welcome his signing for sure. I think it’s arteta who needs to change things first and foremost, though.
Even before this season, our play has always been wing-dominant compared to other EPL teams. Our performances this season have the injury/red card caveats.
Our crosses don’t tend to be the lofted kind but more low/on the ground cutbacks. Cutbacks have been a feature of this team since 22/23. We missed overlapping runs on both flanks, which make it easier to make cutbacks.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with relying heavily on wing play for goals and creativity. It’s how Liverpool have won their titles. It just needs to be balanced and supported by a hardworking midfield.
With Zubimendi the burden can be taken off Ødegaard. I don’t know what it was that caused his form to decline but I don’t want to see that again…
Let’s see how he does next season. For now, I can’t judge him based off one bad season as he’s had better seasons. Can next season be one of them?