What happened to Martinelli against Olympiacos? by Lagos Gooner
It is a good thing we won our game against Olympiacos on Thursday. It is a good thing that we were even able to score ‘a lucky goal’ as people will want to put it. It is a good thing to see Lacazette score once again, as this will only improve his confidence. However, one player who seems to be on fire right now had a silent game yesterday. I am talking about our Brazilian prodigy, Martinelli. I don’t know if I was the only one that noticed it, but Martinelli was not really in his strides, last Thursday.
In football, just as in life, people have strong moments and they have weak moments. A footballer may play beautifully well today, and yet fumble tomorrow. As humans, we are not expected to also put in our 100% in everything we do, but then we are enjoined to do our best even when we are not at our best. On Thursday night against Olympiacos, I didn’t really feel Martinelli’s impact. This very talented dude was not impacting the game the way he normally does. What happened to him on Thursday? Only he can answer that.
Some days ago, a fellow writer here wrote a wonderful piece, wondering if Martinelli would not be affected by Arteta allowing Nketiah stay back at Arsenal. A lot of people condemned his write up; many felt Martinelli should be professional enough to know how to fight for his place. Well, I also don’t think Nketiah’s stay at Arsenal should affect little Gab, but I won’t be surprised if does. Human beings differ in how they react to competitions. However, I won’t say Nketiah is a rival to Martinelli. Now, the question is, why didn’t Martinelli play to his standard on Thursday?
In all reality, Martinelli has been a revelation this season, but the amount of praise he has been getting, may be doing him more damage than good. There is the tendency for him to feel he has arrived and that the manager and the club should be doing everything possible to make him happy; including paying him huge wages and of course, playing him whenever he is fit. A player who is hardly 21, should properly be guided or else he fizzles away faster than expected.
I was scared when I read a while ago, about how two mighty football nations were fighting to get to play for them. I was scared because I felt this kid didn’t need this type of controversy at the moment. This kid needs less attention in this his growing stage. If he loses form for a while, would he be mentally strong to go through the rough patch? Would he keep his calm in the midst of issues? Martinelli may be world class at this his age, but he needs to be properly guided, or else how he played on Thursday may just be an early sign.
We are Arsenal and we are proud.
Sylvester Kwentua
No…
The issue was not Martinelli but our midfields inability to get him into the game. I lost count of how many times Xhaka could have played in Saka or Martinelli but instead turned back inside and played the easy pass. One of the few times we were able to get those two in the game Martinelli set up Laca for an easy chance that he fluffed.
The concern should be our midfield failing to find our more dangerous players and this is what Arteta should be working on. Our big problem (in my opinion) is our players always playing the safe pass backwards or sidewards. We need to get our midfielders firing in the more difficult forward passes to the likes of Saka, Martinelli, Ozil, Pepe, Ozil and Laca so they can effect the game more.
spot on … and slightly worried that arteta has not worked this one out yet
I think guendozi should learn not to pass backs every time by learning from the bench.
If we had better central midfielders then Martinelli, Aubameyang and Lacazette would score more
No way, give the kid some break. He was not that bad and actually if Laca would not have missed a sitter, he would have bagged an assist. He and Saka are only ones in our team at the moment who have guts to improvise and to do things in unorthodox way. They are not afraid to show their skills n talent. Did you not see what he did with clearance on one of our corners against Olympiacos. He made some good runs through middle as well, sad thing is his runs were not picked out.
Don’t know how you come up with these weird notions, Lagos. With nobody in the team to play with except Saka, there was little Martinelli could do. And you question this after 1 game? Please!
You could pose the question with regard to any player who has a quiet game?Are you suggesting he is not as good as we think?
I agree with all the comments so far. It’s not necessary to worry about Martinelli, it’s the midfield we should be worrying about. As has been said, there were so many times in the game the forwards were pointing where the mids should make forward passes to but instead passed sideways or backwards and our forward momentum was gone.
Not about form, his performance can’t be good nor anyone in middle and attack if team formation & tac tic is to defend.
Martinelli has many areas to improve in his play on the pitch.He didnt have a bad game but as he was performing well in the recent weeks we tend to think its not good enough.He could have got an assist if laca scored.
First of all it was a very hostile atmosphere and he is just 18.And there was a lack of creativity in the game but his work rate is always superb.
He is a rare gem and i really can see him being the talent of the century.
COYG
He is an 18 year old playing in a hostile and intimidating stadium. It is all part of his footballing education. He will learn from this and so will Saka. What we should be worried about is tying both of them into long term contracts. The vultures are already circling!!!
I didn’t really understand how goal creativity and scoring work perfectly until Van Persie gave the explanation (maybe this was how he learned his trade under Wenger). He said our attackers don’t know when chances are going to be created so they keep moving away from the goal scoring positions to look for balls outside the 18 yard. Goal scorers need creativity and we don’t do a lot of it, it was especially bad on Thursday. Our team is not good enough in the middle, creative is not very solid and Arteta is still trying to find a way to make us better. We are not good enough basically.
Are you kidding? One game is not form. It’s a single performance. Wasn’t good but wasn’t anything too concerning. Leave the kid alone and if you want to focus on form, you have plenty of other targets
Martinelli like all our younger players will through in the odd stumer, its not a problem at all. People need to get off the backs of our youngsters and let them develop. Sometimes the game doesn’t go in your direction or it doesn’t go for you. We won, he played, he learned, its no problem. The older players need to be accountable more for their actions, the youth need time to learn and grow, without questioning every little blip along the way.
That is the Arsenal FC, I know! Thank you guys and keep the good work.