Yeah I've not watched any of the pre season myself the concerns about martinelli for me are based on watching him last season and the fact he's just not been effective as an attacking threat. That's what we need something on the left that makes the opposition concerned enough that they have to take some focus off our right and Saka. Otherwise it's too easy to try set up against us. That also goes for needing a consistent goal scorer who can give us reliable numbers to help our attacking game as well particularly in those matches where it isn't really working and you might only get one good moment.

Still convinced this is more a function of the way we play than of Martinelli's talent, but I do think his confidence has suffered a bit as well. He's the one winning the corners that Rice has been whipping in to great effect.

Burnwinter but to me that's been the problem his end of product is run down the wing can't get passed and get squeezed out or blocked. That's not enough in my view for that position and he needs to improve that or we have to find something different.

I think way too much is being made of the left sided position. If Martinelli performs poorly, Trossard is waiting to take advantage and vice versa.

To put it in context, Trossard's 17 goals in all competitions is better than every left winger we've ever had as far as my lifetime goes back aside from one Pires campaign.

Similarly, Martinelli's 15 league goals two season back is the best league output of any left winger we've ever had since I started following.

Mirth True, but Walcott was nevertheless a very valuable player to have. Especially in big games.

daredevil To put it in context, Trossard's 17 goals in all competitions is better than every left winger we've ever had as far as my lifetime goes back aside from one Pires campaign.

Alexis Sanchez.

Out of Trossard 17 goals, only 12 goals are as a LW.

Out of the 12 goals, only 6 goals came when he started the game. The rest are subs.

He's an unbelievably productive super sub.

Qwiss

I kept thinking about Pires, Overmars and Arshavin, and completely forgot the main man.

Burnwinter spamming corners wouldn’t be the worst tactic for us

Clrnc agree I don't think Trossard is a great starter and he never looked great trying to play on the left wing.

Burnwinter That's obviously Trossard's correct role. Trossard doesn't have anywhere near the mobility and stamina to do the job Martinelli does—even Martinelli can usually only manage it for a bit over an hour.

Important point. We need to think about forward roles differently. Due to the timing / pressing demands, we should be looking to swap out players during the game and give defenses different challenges. We need a good variety. I’d still like to see more speed, and possibly more strength as options up front. Imagine chasing Martinelli for 60 minutes, and then a fresh Martinelli comes on. This is the advantage of 5 subs we aren’t fully exploiting

Claudius I’d still like to see more speed, and possibly more strength as options up front.

Agreed. We are still lacking in more speed and power in attack.

I think someone like Adingra would be very good. Makes alot of sense. Young versatile and equally good on both wings.

Clrnc he looks like he has potential to improve physically too. Has the frame for it.

Claudius We're already doing it in this position. You've noticed our left wing starter generally only plays an hour or 70 minutes tops.

When you factor in the step down on corners won and holding width if we loosen up the rigours of how Martinelli plays this role, we need to be looking at either near world class, or "Saliba" style recruitment at left wing.

We already have Trossard and Jesus as different top drawer "luxury" options who don't have quite the same mobility, stamina and work rate as Martinelli, but are elite when taking on defenders.

Nico Williams seems to fit the bill for us ... and Adingra who can allegedly play both sides is arguably a "Saliba" who could at least put an end to Fabio Vieira at squad level.

Meanwhile it'd be good to see Martinelli actually getting released in transition from time to time. Many excellent wingers would struggle to produce much against the compact and prepared defences we so often face.

Burnwinter Meanwhile it'd be good to see Martinelli actually getting released in transition from time to time. Many excellent wingers would struggle to produce much against the compact and prepared defences we so often face.

Would be nice tbh. However it actually happened a couple of times on Sunday. At the time it's what made me think he's kind of double guessing himself and/or low on confidence because he hesitated and allowed someone to catch him, or he made the wrong decision and got crowded out. A confident Martinelli playing instinctively would have bagged a couple goals against Lyon. Hopefully we revert more to how we played with Xhaka-Partey-Zincheno now we have Rice-Partey-Calafiori.

Love the guy but I'm starting to worry. He hasn't matched the highs of 2-3 seasons ago. His Sanchez runs are becoming less and less effective. Do Timber and Cauliflower help him?

He's still a pain in the ass to defend compared to others

naz process was good yesterday. He got on the ball often, made runs, took shots. Very positive start

He looked poor yesterday. Touch looked awkward and clumsy, some poor decisions in and around the box, and didn't really make any real threatening runs in behind Doherty/Gomes. He and Saka looked worlds apart yesterday.

Kel Varnsen look at the pass map I shared earlier. Martinelli was one of our highest on deep completions, progressive passes and key passes. He was very active. The team is still a bit stiff but he was active and involved.