Ray wrote:
Don Pacifico wrote:
So you'd suggest we go with a CB pairing of Saliba and Gabriel at the start of the season?
Well for a start we began the season with 3 at the back. But generally speaking he would have been slowly getting minutes here and there in the PL, backed up by starts in the EFL, Europa and FA cups, then eventually start him in a few games in the PL. Certainly give him the minutes Luiz has taken. And once we knew the league was pretty much a write off, it would have been the perfect opportunity to let him start some games, especially with no fans in the stadium to give him a hard time when he messes up.
But as Quincy says it’s not black and white, where he either starts every game or sits in the reserves / U23’s. Arteta is doing the same thing with Willian and Nelson too.
So I get your logic but I think the reverse is also reasonable. Given how things have panned out, if you replace Saliba with Luiz, you end up having a lot of games this season where you have two, young, PL newbies starting at CB. It's not unreasonable to suggest that could have been problematic.
Fans in the stadium only mean so much - these kids are all on social media and you only need to look at how Runarsson has deleted his accounts because of the abuse he's received.
In an ideal world, I would have loved to see Saliba play for us this season but I can totally see why we didn't feel it was a great situation to drop him into. We then mismanaged the contingency plan (sending him on loan) but I don't think the thought process was misguided.
