Martin Odegaard has struggled to recapture his best form since Bukayo Saka was sidelined with an injury, exposing a reliance on the chemistry between the two players that is beginning to affect Arsenal’s overall performance.
Before Saka’s absence, Odegaard himself spent two months out due to injury, a period during which Arsenal faced significant challenges without their captain orchestrating the midfield. While the Norwegian midfielder worked on his recovery, Saka continued to thrive, putting in strong performances and growing in influence with each passing game. However, Saka’s injury a month ago has left Arsenal in another difficult situation, one where the team must find a way to win without their talismanic winger.
Odegaard’s performances since Saka’s absence have brought a worrying trend to light. The two stars have formed an exceptional understanding on the right-hand side of Arsenal’s attack, with their interplay and connection often serving as the foundation of the team’s creativity. Without Saka, however, Odegaard has struggled to replicate the same level of influence, and Arsenal’s attacking threat has diminished as a result.
This dependence on the Odegaard-Saka partnership highlights a potential flaw in Arsenal’s system. A creative midfielder like Odegaard is expected to create opportunities for all attacking players around him, not just one specific teammate. Whether it is the left-wingers or the striker through the middle, Odegaard should be able to adapt and develop similar connections across the pitch. Yet, without Saka, his performances have appeared limited, and this reliance on their chemistry is an issue that is not being discussed enough.
Injuries are an inevitable part of football, and Arsenal will always face the risk of losing one of their key players. If the team continues to rely so heavily on the partnership between Odegaard and Saka, they risk becoming predictable and overly dependent on their availability. To compete consistently at the top level, Arsenal must find ways to diversify their attacking options and ensure that their creativity does not collapse when one player is missing.
As things stand, the absence of Saka is holding Odegaard back, but the responsibility lies with the Norwegian to step up and rediscover his best form. For Arsenal to succeed in the long term, Odegaard must adapt and prove that he can create chances for all players in the team, regardless of who is on the pitch.
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Odegaard needs some rest, the guy came back from injury that kept him away for two months and he played two games every week since, he started 15 out of 17 games before the wolves game. I believe he must not plat the champions league this week so that he gets a full week of rest
This is a brilliant article . I couldnt agree more.
Wow, that headline is a real doozie. It had me waiting for the punchline.
Spot on article. Watching Odegaard’s ineffective performance against Villa I was under a similar impression that he most often tends to look to pass towards where Saka would have been and restricts his range within the confines of that zone.
On point man. As the chief play maker,Odegard should be creating chances for everyone ahead of him on the pitch, not just one or two persons. Arteta should take note. He is limiting the most of his players with his tactical decisions.
Basically Odegaard needs to operate in a more central number 10 role rather than favouring the right side of the pitch as he does now.Such a move would call for Partey and Rice to form a dual midfield pivot which means when one ventures high, the other stays.Apart from the absence of Saka I have the impression that Odegaard is never as effective on heavy grounds where his lack of pace is more pronounced,particularly in recovery.If we had a quality central striker Havertz could provide viable competition for Odegaard as he was successful in a similar role in Germany.
You lost me when you brought the idea of Havertz playing the 10 role. In your opinion it’s because he played there in Germany. That’s how many years ago?
Maybe something happened to him over the years at Chelsea, but as of now Havertz lacks the basic qualities of a proper midfielder.
We need to sign someone suited to that role to compete with Odegaard. Some of us have been clamoring for this for a while now.
Great article and one that highlights one of the reasons why our left side is always weaker.
If we compare Dennis Bergkamp and the way he could bring any player, right, left or in the middle, into play versus Martin Odegaard, we can see how much more the latter has to do in order to improve his game and be seen as a world class midfield player.
Still pretty good though!! 👍😂
What about martinelli?
If Odegaard has a good chemistry with saka and both thrive well together, then the onus shouldn’t be on Odegaard( as this suggests) to step up his game, it should be on the likes of martinelli who is always somehow given a free pass here on this blog and never criticised. You can see all the boys putting in an extra effort in the a sense of saka especially trossard who works so hard, but martinelli has a stinker week in week out, even deployed on the right he has no special effect on our game in general and our attack in particular. What is his goal/assist ratio? That should tell you all you need to know.
I won’t critique haverts because sometimes he has an off day and we do not have anyone to replace him with so he plays on and misses sitters, every one of us have our off days here and there in life, that blame goes to arteta for not signing a striker and relying on injury prone GJ9 while at the same time selling Eddie nketiah.
You are definitely spot on and I would also throw Ben white in to the equation.
When all three are fit and firing then are super strong and the left side comes a poor 2nd.
On the other side I remember we had Cole, Pires and Henry on the left and the right was so weak in comparison that Henry referred to the right as a crutch and every thing comes down the left
Hopefully all 3 come back fit and firing soon, so we have the luxury of them causing havoc again
Agree to some extend. Thing is Odegaard has created chances but with these not being scored it looks like he is ineffective. He is a marvellous player if we had a top striker his numbers would be much better.
Good point Jimmy, especial as DB had Henry, but still needs to improve..
My apologies for typing error ” I meant Granit Xhaka and Declan as Left sided no 10’s.
Great article and spot on. I have always wondered why pundits including Ian Wright, who all admire Bukayo Saka and Odegaard failed to notice that Odegaard has not played as a proper number 10 for Arsenal. Like this article implies, Odegaard has played as a right sided no 10. To make up for this flaw, Arteta plays a Granit Xhaka or Declan Rice or Merino (none of them no 10’s) as our left sided no 10 to support our left winger Martinelli. This partly explains why Martinelli’s development has stagnated now to a worrying point.
I think the problem is not Odegaard but the system. He has been tasked to operate only on the right side in the game and it’s highly likely they do the same in the training. It’s well and good when all is working well but eventually the limitations of the system will get exposed. Odegaard, whom I rate highly is yet to enter the realm of some of CAM we had over the years. The likes of Fabrigas, Carzola, and Ozil are better in terms of controlling the temple, distribution and providing assist to different players. He has potential to be as good as them but their is possibility that the current system won’t allow him to achieve that.
Fabregas, Cazorla, and Ozil each had special skills that not many others possessed either before or after. I still miss seeing other players trying to dispossess the ball from Santi, or stop those bombs from Cesc, or stand in awe at Mesut’s complete dismantling of the defense with what seemed to be the touch of a magical wand.
Carzola was such a joy to watch
Odegaard also play as a right central midfielder instead of the main attacking mid of old which fabregas, ozil and cazorla(before ozil) played. He seldom drifts centrally or left, It limits his ability to impact the whole attacking side. E.g just look at his assist for trossard vs porto and for havertz vs chelsea last season. He has those defence splitting passes in his locker.
Simply bringing out reasons to put the blame on Arteta or the system for Ødegaard being about Arsenal’s worst performing player in the expected starting eleven for quite some time.
Fact!
With the lashes on Declan Rice;
Scourge on Havertz;
Derision of Trossard;
Underwhelming Martinelli . . .
Quite simply – Ødegaard is overrated.
Take that captain band off him and we see exactly his level, so far, with respect to others being vilified.
Saka makes odegaard better, he is our best player. Martin should not play two games per week. His fitness is amazing but its too much for him as he does so much off the ball. What arsenal need is a goalscoring attacker as he and rice are not goalscorers and Havertz is honest but clearly needs support from a quality scorer who can get the first goal.