How much of that is because of the way we set up though?
Let's look at our talented youngsters as individuals:
Saka is one of the best players in the league already, and he's an anomaly, because he can do pretty much everything, play anywhere and still excel. He makes things happen on his own and we're incredibly lucky to have him, but he's special, not many players are that intelligent, especially at that age. He's every manager's dream, as you don't have to do anything to enable him, he does it all by himself.
Martinelli might actually have a higher ceiling than Saka, his biggest weaknesses right now are his finishing and his movement off the ball. Both can be coached, but does it look like that's been worked on in training? He's a livewire who always adds energy at the very least and at times can destroy his full back, but unlike Saka he tends to disappear in some games, because he needs space to run into and he needs someone playing the vertical balls between the lines for him to run onto. And right now we're excruciatingly slow in transition, which means that he's almost always facing defenders who are firmly in position in their own box, with no space available, leaving him with only the option of trying to bulldoze through them, and about 20 meters of space at best to use his blistering pace. He's also playing on the side of Xhaka, and since our midfield setup seems incredibly rigid when it comes to Odegaard and Xhaka switching positions, he's always on the wrong side, since 90% of our attacks that actually lead somewhere, go through Odegaard and the right side of midfield. He has his flaws, but we're not playing to his strengths, right now he's basically just in the team to press like a madman.
ESR was our top scorer for most of the season, Saka only has one more goal. Without him, 4th wouldn't even have been a possibility. And then he was relegated to the bench and only came back in when Martinelli was unavailable or for an odd start here or there after a bad performance the prior week. And he still scored. At some point though, he lost his rhythm, and his biggest weakness is that he tends to go into hiding when the ball doesn't come to him and he's not having his best day. So what does Arteta do? Never give him a run of games to build up some confidence again and play him out on the left wing, where just like Martinelli he barely sees the ball, because Xhaka takes 5 seconds to advance it and we generally only play through Odegaard. ESR has great pace, he's a brilliant dribbler and he excels at one-touch give and go football in small spaces. He also disguises his shot really well. He needs to be in the thick of things to grow into games, build confidence and accelerate our play, but we play him in the most isolated forward position in this current setup. So once again, I think we're not playing to his strengths, and in his case are actually playing him in a way that accentuates his weaknesses.
And lastly we have Odegaard, who I personally think is supremely talented and a joy to watch. His vision and intelligence is absolutely incredible, and he can find anyone with creative passes that keep catching defenders off-guard. He also works really hard and is good at skipping past a man or two in tight spaces. I don't think it's a coincidence we played by far the best football under Arteta when he was in top form and our best player. I also don't think it's a coincidence he started playing worse when Partey got injured. Because Odegaard needs the ball as often as possible and ideally, he needs it quickly, when defenders are scrambling to get back, spaces open up and he has the ball to exploit them and cut the opponents open with the right ball at the right moment. Right now he either had to get the ball himself in our own half, or he gets it about 5 seconds too late, which is about the time Xhaka or Elneny take to control the ball, decide what to do and play a pass. They're too slow, and as a result, he always has a man or two on him already when he gets the ball. that prick Rice demonstrated exactly how to play against him, and we didn't give him any help, because he's our only good player in midfield right now.
His biggest weakness is his lack of a right foot, followed by his finishing. Both are things he needs to work on, and that's what he should do in the summer. His partners are a mess, but contrary to ESR and Martinelli, I do think we're set up in a way that allows him to play to his strengths, the problem with him, and Saka as well, is that we're completely reliant on them to make things happen and everyone knows it. We've made him captain already and he's now overseen a spectacular collapse, I worry about his confidence going into next season. We've given him and Saka too much to do too soon, and while it has resulted in a 5th place finish (not going to even entertain the idea of getting my hopes up for 4th again), I'm worried what it will do to them if we keep failing and they don't get any help. So while we are playing to Odegaard's and Saka's strengths, we're also handing them a shitload of responsibility, which could be avoided if we actually had a left side or anyone else bar yutes to make something happen in the final third.
So overall, I personally think that, while it's fair to note that they as individuals disappointed during the last few weeks, we're not putting them in a position to succeed, and that worries me more than any extension to Elneny or, god forbid, Xhaka. Klopp is raving about Martinelli, calling him a "talent of the century", if we don't change the way we play anytime soon, he'll be at Liverpool in two or three years at the latest. And Saka, ESR, Odegaard, they'll be next. And if they then put in world class performances for the likes of Liverpool or City, we'll be left looking like idiots once again, and this time I won't forgive the club for that.
