Should Arsenal be smarter in certain situations?
After being left out for the last few matches due to injury, I had a shock tonight when I saw that Kieran Tierney was in the Scotland squad to face Moldova.
In the match against Watford, Tierney was deemed only fit enough for the bench yet less than four days later he has played 90 minutes for Scotland while making key tackles as well.
Now take nothing away from Nuno Tavares because he is showing he can be just as good as Tierney and not just as a backup, but had Tierney been fully fit you would imagine Arteta would possibly pick him and not Tavares.
But why fix something if it is not broken, and I guess Tavares has shown he has deserved to keep his place so far.
So, while internationals are good and have to be done for many reasons, it is for reasons like this that I get frustrated.
The fact that only four days ago Tierney remained on the bench for the Watford game as Mikel Arteta didn’t feel he needed to give him minutes after his return from injury, yet he gets a full game for his country after not having played any minutes at all since returning from injury.
Where is the logic here?
Surely Arsenal would have been better to keep Tierney off the bench and give him a further rest during the international break so that they can be sure that he is 100% fit to be on the bench.
If a player is fit to be on the bench and isn’t just making up the numbers, then they are fit to get minutes and it is just unfortunate that in the league we only get three substitutions and not five like they allow in other leagues around Europe.
Clubs like Chelsea, and Manchester United in particular, I’m sure would leave their players out in the same situation and keep them at home rather than send them on international duty that close to a return from injury.
I guess the most important thing is that Tierney comes back unscathed of course and ready to rival Tavares for his place, but I do wonder whether Arsenal need to be clever in situations like this before going into international breaks in the future with any player, especially with key players though!
Gooners?
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
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Probably because they need their best players playing and wanted to get through to the World Cup finals which they have now got to the play offs by winning .
If Tierney is expected back for the Liverpool game, then surely he needs match fitness.
A non article imho.
Like Dan said above, the Scots now have a chance of going to the WC.
KT had a really good game aswel, clearance after the penalty save was top class.
a moan for the sake of a moan this is imo
You obviously have no idea what playing for his Country means to KT.. Arsenal has no divine right to his services especially in view of the importance of the match to Scotland.Have you even considered the fact that Arteta may well have “rested” Tierney to make sure he was fit to play for Scotland?
Shenel you have a noble urge to write but you do not know the game or how it works, as is very clear from your many articles!
Suggest you start learning the trade you wish to write about ,before submitting another article specifically about football.
Your piece on AW / DD was excellent but that avoided the game in detail and it is THAT “game in detail problem” which lets you down.
A great pity, as you have a way with words but you DO need to know your trade first.
perfect…now we can “load manage” Tierney, so that Nuno can be in the starting 11 again…he’s the kind of X-factor player that can change a game, so he needs to be on the field come the weekend