Opinion – Arsenal need to show patience when it comes to Gabriel Martinelli

Why Arsenal need to slow down the introduction of Gabriel Martinelli into the first-team fold.

Arsenal’s struggle this season turned Unai Emery into arguably one of the world’s most tinkering managers.

The Spaniard can take credit for introducing the likes of Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka into the first team, but he also almost ran Saka to ground with the weight of the responsibilities he placed on his young shoulders.

I don’t want to see that with Gabriel Martinelli. Saka started by coming in to make positive changes to our games, but with time he appeared stressed and became unproductive as he began to start games.

Gabriel Martinelli is our second-highest scorer after Pierre Emerick Aubameyang so it came as a little surprise that he started the win against West Ham, he repaid that faith with our first goal, but I believe that his introduction to the first-team action should be managed.

Arsenal has to keep the first team responsibilities with the first team players and only use the likes of Martinelli to run at defences when we are chasing a game.

Starting him in games and making him feel responsible for the team’s result this soon in his career may affect his game and probably become a burden too much for him to handle.

Martinelli can become the next Saka if his minutes are not managed probably, however, with proper management of his career, he looks like a player who can turn our fortunes around, our manager has to tread with caution.

An article from Ime

18 Comments

  1. In my opinion I would say he is the best youngster
    Since fabregas, we all thought wilshere would become a world class
    Player but never had the right attitude to become world class.
    I would give him a six year contract, because this teenager has football intelligence and could or should be our aguro/ suraze type of player
    And they way he looks to header the ball reminds me of Ronaldo
    I think he is the real deal……

    1. 👍 Goaldan. If you’re good enough you’re old enough. Heads up to Edu for finding Martinelli and bringing him to Arsenal. A great prospect.
      I can’t agree there is any evidence that Saka has been mismanaged.

  2. Disagree Martin.

    The guy is showing pure class at the moment and is hungry to be playing and starting games. He seems as though he has the mental capacity to cope with the rigours of the game. Why deny him minutes and stunt his development?

  3. We have seen Rooney, Ronaldo, Mbappe, and Messi carry teams on their shoulders at about the same age. Subject to any reasonable concern he should be allowed the minutes he deserves until the statistics start to show a reduction in productivity.

  4. look at Fab, Rvp, messi, ronaldo, zidane, mbappe ….they started playing at 17 or 18yo

    players need to play regularly to improve

    wondering if the author knows anything about football or played any sports before?

  5. Unlike saka martenelli has the strong mentality to cope with the pressure. Everybody grows up and mature differently, some need comfort and protection some need to be involved.

    I believe cutting his mins will have a negative effect on his development.

  6. Are you being for real? If he is good enough to play he should play regardless of his age. Or would you loan him out to West Brom instead?

  7. Couldn’t disagree more with this. Not only is he easily good enough to get into our team (based on ability), he has shown far more work ethic, and determination than the majority of our senior players. All the top players started early. I think Cesc was only 17 years old, when he was a regular for us, and in a much tougher position.

    Of course we need to manage him well, and rest him when we can, because we don’t want to see him burn out around 27/28 years old.

  8. Yes the team and the fans need to give him time to develop, we have seen these so called superstar teens just burn out. He is the future dont expect too much too soon. Give the lad space to develop, he is a future superstar.

  9. If you’re good enough you’re old enough. People say that. But that does not mean caution should be thrown away. The likes of Cesc Fabregas were carefully managed by the masterful hands of Wenger or else the poor boy would never have reached his potentials.

    Wilshire was different because he carried a different body which responded to the rigiurs of the game differently. He tended to play too many games too soon and the rest is history. Injuries and the way his body responded showed that he needed to be managed but wasn’t.

    I will tend to concur with Admin. and say that yes, they should not be damaged by being made to play too many games too soon. There is a very thin line between playing just enough games for development and playing too many and getting destroyed. By the time you employ statistics to know, the graph may have started going down irreversibly.

    Admin didn’t use the word ‘manage’ for nothing.

  10. When the team was lowest at its morale and confidence,Gabi opened the scoring,and more scorers joined in.I disagree with the writer,let him be given his chance.Its not that the burden of scoring will be on him,it will be on the senior player Auba so he will thrive

  11. I think Wilshere is a basket case , he was overplayed at 19 by Wenger , during that season we beat Barca 2-1 he played 49 matches and as a result he suffered with injuries the following season and the rest is history..so I agree with the writer, Martinelli should be managed carefully or else he will suffer the same fate.. As for Saka he has the talent but his body language is very poor , he needs to show passion aggression and decisiveness otherwise he will languish into oblivion …Willock is less talented but a workholic , with the right guidance he can be a main stay at Arsenal… Reiss is very talented but needs to be playing regularly , he is the most experienced of the lot having played in Germany….

  12. Yes,the writer is correct.who is denying d fact that Saka’s proficiency at a point (many.match)started diminishing. He has not produced d effectiveness and influence he had on games before.He is of a relatively small frame and so easily muscled off possession or advantage…. Include d psychological responsibility and pressure u which can traumatize a young mind and body(like d case of arsenal)u then understand d importance of management to a young sporting career

  13. Special talent, we need to tie him down to a long contract. You can be sure the big clubs are already sniffing around. You can’t coach what this lad has got, he is mature beyond his years and deserves to start matches. A good manager will know how and when to use him. £8m? He is already probably worth 10 times that, well done Edu!! I think we have a potential superstar let’s make sure we keep him.

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