ESR: Page 32 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

ESR

Qwiss

Are we supposed to just take vague posts from random twitter twats as fact?

Clrnc

Qwiss Arteta always talks about attitude, and the last few times he banished players it was because of attitude. Won't be rocket science after hearing what he said about ESR last pre match

JazzG

Qwiss No we shouldn't but DarrenArsenal1 clearly does have some links within the club so him saying that is a bit different from a random Twitter post.

Qwiss

Clrnc he said he's pushing hard. Doesn't sound like something he'd say about someone with a poor attitude.

Clrnc

Qwiss “It’s about what you do now, what you do yesterday and what you do tomorrow. The player has to have that mindset and the contribution has to be now to the team, it has to make us better and to make us win games.

Just reading between the lines why would Arteta suddenly say this

Burnwinter

Clrnc Qwiss “It’s about what you do now, what you do yesterday and what you do tomorrow. The player has to have that mindset and the contribution has to be now to the team, it has to make us better and to make us win games.

Just reading between the lines why w

Another simple interpretation: we've got a number of players who aren't getting minutes. So Arteta takes a question about Smith Rowe, and uses that player—a safe and clear example since he's widely beloved and has previously been established in the first team, so it's probably not going to destroy his confidence—to signal that he's always the boss, and that it's always the unused players' job to stay fit and hungry.

You can read between the lines many different ways. One thing we do know is that Arteta hasn't said "Smith Rowe has an attitude problem".

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

I still don't know how to read that to be honest. Lol.

lorddulaarsenal

Well he’s not saying that he isn’t fit, so it’s a case of him not liking something about Smith Rowe. Maybe attitude but I strongly suspect it’s his play style not being a good fit.

Might get more minutes in the closing stages of the season, particularly if we’ve fallen away in the title race. Fatten him up for the market.

Qwiss

If he's actually 100% fit there is no reason to be throwing away the league title giving Vieira minutes instead. Arteta has a lot of blind spots and it's always felt like ESR was one of them.

Big Willie

Qwiss If he's actually 100% fit there is no reason to be throwing away the league title giving Vieira minutes instead. Arteta has a lot of blind spots and it's always felt like ESR was one of them.

Yeah, even last season when ESR was our top scorer in a hot run of form, he was suddenly taken out of the starting lineup, and was hardly used.

Don Pacifico

Big Willie wasn't that because he was nursing the injury that eventually took him out at the start of the season? Seems as though it was a longstanding challenge that they were trying to manage.

goon

Big Willie he was carrying an injury.

The irony is before he was relegated to the bench people were saying Arteta hated Martinelli. Arteta just doesn’t mess around with a lineup much, when you’re in you’re in.

Those Arteta comments are in reference to impact on games, surely? It’s right there in the quotes, helping us win games. I’m just not sure how he’s supposed to do that off the bench. I actually wonder if he’s being held back to light a fire under him.

Big Willie

Don Pacifico wasn't that because he was nursing the injury that eventually took him out at the start of the season?

Could be. Maybe he really was struggling and needed that surgery. Doesn't explain what's been happening since he's been back though. That's baffling.

daredevil

You know the simplest reason why ESR isn't playing? It's so simple it will boggle your mind. Nelson has overtaken him and is taking his minutes.

HomeSteak

daredevil So Nelson took all 112 minutes away from ESR? The most Nelson played in a game this season was 63 minutes in the Forest game, when he came on for someone that got injured. Other then that he got 21, 18,5,5 and 1 minute. Started a total of 0 games.

Big Willie

goon he was carrying an injury.

He started almost every game until he was left completely out of the squad in the loss against Everton at the end of December. He was an unused sub in the next game against Southampton. He was in the squad for every game between then and the end of the season aside from the games against Wolves and Watford at the start of March. Was deemed fit enough to come off the bench almost every week aside from those 4 games mentioned earlier.

Between being taken out of the squad and the end of the season he started 8 games, was subbed on in 13 games, was an unused sub in 2 games and not included in the squad in 3 games. So he seemed pretty fit to me but who knows, maybe he wasn't fit enough according to our medics.

This season he's been fit since January/February and he doesn't even get a look in. Not saying Arteta hates him, but there's no way I can believe Arteta thinks Vieira will be a better choice for us in the 8 role when we need goals. I can understand not starting ESR regularly in place of either wide forward of Xhaka. But being behind Vieira at this point in time is very strange.

Burnwinter

It's one match, and Vieira's probably just way more impressive in training.

Vieira got dragged more or less on the half and Smith Rowe still didn't come on—if anything that suggests preference of Vieira isn't decisive. Vieira was utterly pathetic.

I just see very little mystery here. We've got a player with fitness problems, who's been badly out of form whenever he's been seen, who also happens to have bags of talent. We have few fixtures and none that aren't vital, and there's heavy competition for Smith Rowe's preferred positions.

Wow, how incredibly baffling he doesn't get selected ... 🤔

Big Willie

Burnwinter It's one match, and Vieira's probably just way more impressive in training.

Not saying he's behind Vieira based on one game. That'd be absurd. But he's played like 3 games I can remember since he's been back from injury. He doesn't have to be starting, like I said it's normal to be behind Saka, Martinelli and Xhaka currently who have all done well this season. But there us room for him to come on as a sub when tired legs settle in. Might be a bit harder in the forward positions with Jesus fit again but at least when we are taking off Xhaka or Odegaard, he should be getting a look in. We've been pretty comfortable in a number of games where we could have brought him on to build up some match fitness but instead brought on others.

DiabyKungFu

Burnwinter I just see very little mystery here.

I agree. He was on the bench last season and since then Vieira, Nelson and Trossard have all overtaken him in the pecking order with rumors that we’re interested in acquiring two midfielders (presumably one defensive and one attacking) and another winger in the summer. It seems that contemplating the very obvious conclusion is distressful to people (probably because they think that what is very obviously the club’s take is wrong on the merits), but the situation is really not ambiguous in any way. The only real genuine question is whether the club pulls another Maitland-Niles this summer or if they have actually learned their lesson.

DiabyKungFu

Basically, there’s a difference between objectively inferring what the club thinks and projecting what you would want the club to be thinking.

Burnwinter

DiabyKungFu Basically, there’s a difference between objectively inferring what the club thinks

I don't think that's what you're doing, but I definitely agree your interpretation of events is a possibility.

When we got busted out of the Europa a lot of players' chance at getting minutes dried up. Not just Smith Rowe, also Nelson and Vieira. I wouldn't really expect any of the three to get an hour in the next six matches—perhaps Nelson, but only if we're playing horribly. We have few fixtures and they're all too important.

This means all this chat about their pecking order is barely salient. The one instance where Vieira was ever gonna start was a disaster so we won't see that again, it'll be Xhaka at the Etihad unless hell freezes over.

The only real question about Smith Rowe is one for the summer: is he seen as viable backup in the first half of next season? I think he won't be on the sheet. If not, he'll probably go on loan. The one thing I'd hate to see would be a Wilshere type situation, that sucks for both Emile and Arsenal.

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