Squad Management 2022/23

Clrnc

Window has ended, started really well and ended on a disappointing note, mainly because this is a special world cup year and fixture is very condensed with very little rest time so need a big squad to compete and avoid burning out the players. Here's a look at the squad depth, hopefully no other injuries otherwise we will have a superbly weak bench.

Edu Board style (first choice/2nd choice)

-----------------------------------Ramsdale/Turner

Tomiyasu/Cedric------Saliba/White-------Gabriel/Holding-------Zinchenko/Tierney

-------------------------------Partey/Elneny/Lokonga

-------------------Odegaard/Vieira---------------Xhaka/ESR

Saka/Marquinhos/Nelson-------------------------------------------------Martinelli

----------------------------------Jesus/Nketiah

Looking at this we really really shouldn't have renewed Elneny and gone for another CM early this window. Also, our winger options are really raw and unproven apart from Saka and increasingly Martinelli.

KingslandBarge

That checks out, its quite a fluid squad. I'd footnote that Nketiah and Jesus can play left, Martinelli can play centre forward, Saka can play 10, I think Smith-Rowe is best as a wide forward. Also Zinchenko could play in a 2-1 deeper I think.

Claudius

I am trying to think of our first Europa game.

Turner, Cedric, White, Holding, Tierney, Lokonga, Vieira, Xhaka, Marquinhos, ESR, Nketiah

We can draft Matt Turner as well. But the squad will rely heavily on Xhaka to make things work. The front 4 do too much pressing to also be called in to start games against the farmers and fishermen of the Europa League.

On Elneny, renewing him was fine. But we probably needed another capable CM between him and Partey, with Lokonga as Xhaka's alternate.

Clrnc

Yeah but they can't be playing and be a cover at the same time in case of any injury. Versatility is good but it all goes out of the window and you will have a very weak bench once you start moving the chess around.

White can play DM too, but if Tomi is injured Cedric will come in and we will be significantly weaker.

The way I see it, our defenders being fit will be key to our success.

Edit: Nah renewing Elneny is not the best of decision, he is not at the required level and we will probably need to rid of him soon. Also, your lineup means Lokonga and Xhaka have very little rest

Burnwinter

I actually think we can cope better with an injury to a key defender than elsewhere on the pitch.

It's a slender squad.

We no longer care about any sort of "Plan B" in terms of our forwards. Our forward game's now all about energy and fast lateral movement of the ball, otherwise we are now good at set pieces.

Long term injuries to any one of Jésus, Saka, Ødegaard, Partey would be damaging again. Two of those players out and we're gonna be limping along.

Claudius

Burnwinter wrote:
I actually think we can cope better with an injury to a key defender than elsewhere on the pitch.

It's a slender squad.

We no longer care about any sort of "Plan B" in terms of our forwards. Our forward game's now all about energy and fast lateral movement of the ball, otherwise we are now good at set pieces.

Long term injuries to any one of Jésus, Saka, Ødegaard, Partey would be damaging again. Two of those players out and we're gonna be limping along.

Exactly. I would add Martinelli to that group. He is our most productive forward and is stepping up to the level we expected when he first joined. So I'm happy to rotate them in the Europa games because the front 4 are running 11km every game.

Tielemans would've been fine, but he would've just rotated Xhaka who already has Vieira. What we needed was someone ahead of Elneny. Hopefully Danilo can be that guy in January. Elneny is fine at the end of the bench. He's the guy to bring in when everyone is injured or tired. Not a second choice. Same with Holding, Cedric, Nelson. Squad needs these guys at the end of the rotation.

Doc

Claudius wrote:
I am trying to think of our first Europa game.

Turner, Cedric, White, Holding, Tierney, Lokonga, Vieira, Xhaka, Marquinhos, ESR, Nketiah

We can draft Matt Turner as well. But the squad will rely heavily on Xhaka to make things work. The front 4 do too much pressing to also be called in to start games against the farmers and fishermen of the Europa League.

On Elneny, renewing him was fine. But we probably needed another capable CM between him and Partey, with Lokonga as Xhaka's alternate.

I don't think we need to replace the whole first team for our Europa games? I mean rotation is good but these guys need to start getting used to playing 2 games a week, also think its can disrupt the way we play massively.. Switch out 4-6 players depending on injuries is more than enough Id say and have those rotated out come in for the next Europa game.

Something like the below maybe

Turner, Tomi, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Lokonga, Vieira, Xhaka, Martinelli, ESR, Nketiah

Then early subs if we have the game wrapped up.

JazzG

Also some of our players are essentially gonna get a mid season break when the world cup comes so no need to rest them.

Gunner89

When we have limited funds, why do we pay 70m for projects like vieira/lokonga/tavares.

that's essentially more than 30% of our spending for 12 months.

goon

It's a thin squad for sure.

A small squad does have it's benefits though if you get lucky with injuries.

JazzG

Gunner89 wrote:
When we have limited funds, why do we pay 70m for projects like vieira/lokonga/tavares.

that's essentially more than 30% of our spending for 12 months.

It depends on whether we ran out of money or are we being a lot more selective on the players we want to purchase?

It is important to spend your money on solutions for now but you also need to invest in the future. Either way the squad is a bit thin but not as bad as people are making it out. Not many squads will cope that well with 2/3 injuries in one position.

Qwiss

Gunner89 wrote:
When we have limited funds, why do we pay 70m for projects like vieira/lokonga/tavares.

that's essentially more than 30% of our spending for 12 months.

Because if you do it right then they should work as profit makers/save you money overall in the long run. We need to sell a lot better for that to work though.

Ricky1985

When Atalanta were interested in Tavares at the beginning of the summer the fee being mentioned in the press that we would even entertain selling him at was €40m.

These guys will either be very good players for Arsenal or likely go for very good money because they're so young and talented.

QuincyAbeyie

JazzG wrote:
Gunner89 wrote:
When we have limited funds, why do we pay 70m for projects like vieira/lokonga/tavares.

that's essentially more than 30% of our spending for 12 months.

It depends on whether we ran out of money or are we being a lot more selective on the players we want to purchase?

It is important to spend your money on solutions for now but you also need to invest in the future. Either way the squad is a bit thin but not as bad as people are making it out. Not many squads will cope that well with 2/3 injuries in one position.

All reports (Ornstein, Romano) are saying we couldn't afford Neto. Our limit spending-wise was definitely somewhere between 50m and the bid for Luiz.

JazzG

Quincy Abeyie wrote:
All reports (Ornstein, Romano) are saying we couldn't afford Neto. Our limit spending-wise was definitely somewhere between 50m and the bid for Luiz.

I would be interested to know if we couldn't afford him or didn't want to go to that level for him?

The Vieira signing will be interesting, around £30m so will be expected to make an impact this season.

Clrnc

And also we were willing to go 60m for Raphinha so we surely have money?

Kel Varnsen

Everything looks good to great, except for central midfield which is really bad considering that Partey is always injured. Elneny is shit, and I'm not convinced by Lokonga at all- think he's far too casual and anonymous during games.

lorddulaarsenal

Would have liked another winger but we can shuffle our players about. Nketiah can come in and either play on the wing or we could move Jesus out there.

Nketiah is going to explode soon.

Sicario

We HAD to bring a CM yesterday. Negligence.

Edu is a really poor DOF I must say.

Qwiss

How are we doing on home-grown players at the moment? I know the squads small so we can register reserves to fill the quota but going forward how are fixed? Saka, ESR, Eddie, Ramsdale, White, Holding. Lets say Patino comes back and makes the squad next season we still need one more to get to 8. Am I missing anyone? Should we be prioriting a home-grown player for one of our next signings?