Claudius wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:
Agree, this is where Arteta needs to go to the next level in his management and show he has the chops to correctly rotate the players now that he actually has a squad to work with.
Hi Ricky
I am not actually worried about Arteta learning to rotate his team. I thought the concerns around this were overblown in previous years. Arteta has a very clear vision and perspective on which players can bring that vision to life. Two things. First, he has added more starters without losing anyone of importance - Saliba, Jesus and Zinchenko. Plus Vieira. So rotation options increase.
Second, our ability to close out games earlier will open more opportunities for relief subs. We currently have the best xG/xGA stats along with City in the league, so this should also support more relief subs.
Claudius! It's very good to have you back! 🙂
On Arteta's ability to rotate the squad, I take a neutral view on him right now. It's impossible to rotate if you don't have a squad that you trust, and I agree that Arteta knows exactly what he wants and the optionsbhebhad before were not good fits. So, I don't think he has done it badly until now, but I do think knowing whom and when to bring a player out and put another in is a bit of an art form that even very good and experienced coaches get wrong. I'll be extremely impressed if Arteta can nail it straight away. He did get some experience in the first season and a bit with rotating with Europa, but that was a strange time with Covid and there was a very clear division between Premier League XIs and European.
What I want to see from him, in those positons he has options, is having a good feel for giving a player a break without impacting their form or the overall level of the team. We have 3 games in 8 days now, we've got to change it up and make sure we can achieve the maximum team performance in each of those games. So, the skill is in resting a Ben White without pissing him off or knocking his confidence whilst at the same time giving Tomiyasu some badly needed game time - with the goal being that either player could start against Man United on Sunday week and be bang at it. It's a similar story with Tierney, Smith Rowe, Vieira and Nketiah (though maybe wide left for Eddie because Jesus is unrestable atm). They will be needed, they're good players and Arteta has to find the right balance to keep their levels and mood up, whilst minimising the impact making changes has on the team's performance. The fact that Arteta was a Premier League and Champions League veteran himself will stand him in good stead when judging these things.
