Arsenal’s title charge collapsed at the eleventh hour in a very painful manner for Arsenal fans. The most-quoted reason that has been given is lack of squad depth. This is largely true, especially in defence where Arsenal lost quality quickly with just a few injuries.
But it is also a question of how Arteta manages his squad of players. Arteta will have to find a way of giving even his back-up players enough minutes to keep them fit through the season.
He is a good coach, but he has to do away with his stubborn loyalty to certain players that he insists on fielding even when they are off form or in games where they could simply be rested to give minutes to the other players.
There is, for example, no reason Kieran Tierney was benched for most of the season. There were certainly games such as the Man City and the Everton games where we needed better defending, and Tierney was a better choice in most peoples opinions.
I could even include the Liverpool game. But Arteta chose to stick with Zinchenko. The effect of this is that we did not just lose those games, but that when Zinchenko suffered injury and Tierney had to step in, he was not to his level. He needed a few more games to be match fit, but there was just no time for that.
The other example is Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira. There is no doubt that these are two very talented players, but they weren’t of use to the team when we needed them most.
First, Vieira had been on the bench for so long that he couldn’t cope when brought into some of the games. In the case of Smith Rowe, I just couldn’t understand why Arteta could not reintegrate him into the team after injury. At the time of his injury, he was better than Martinelli on the left wing, and in most instances better than Odegaard as a 10.
This is not to downplay the value of Martinelli and Odegaard. They are incredible. But Smith Rowe is just as good, if not better. He was our leading scorer at the time of his injury.
Unless Arteta finds a way of dealing with this problem, it would not matter how many good back up players we recruit this summer. They will all still waste away on the bench, and therefore be of little use to the team in the final stretch when we most need them – when injuries and fatigue start taking their toll on the first eleven.
I think we can all agree that is the big lesson that Arteta needs to learn from this campaign…
Otsieno Namways
Video – Alfie and Rob are back for the summer transfer window
Here is their first analysis of the summer, where Alfie and Rob discuss and predict every single possible Arsenal incoming and outgoing this summer, including fees and potential destinations for outgoings.
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