Meatwad
The biggest black mark against Arteta and our management is that we've spent 200 million on several midfielders none of whom have come even close to facilitating attacking and creative play down the left-hand side like Xhaka did.
Gambling 65 million on Havertz who failed miserably is one thing but then to repeat the mistake with Merino a season later who was not much better as a left 8, and both of whom turned out far better playing up front because they were off the ball attackers who offered nothing on the ball is hard to excuse.
While, Rice is better than Xhaka and one of our best players, you'd have to be lying to say that he facilitates creative attacking play down the left channel. Our failure to replace Xhaka three summers in a row is just poor and Arteta either simply has a poor vision for what he wants in the role (if he actually wants off the ball box crashers) or he just can't identify a creative player.
Now it feels like we're going to do something similar with Madueke playing on the left wing and if that is indeed the case, it's a gamble too far and while I can accept players failing in their natural positions, unnecessary gambles with players who are obviously poor fits is galaxy braining gone too far.
