Btw, as is in the case with all our professions, footballers can very quickly find themselves redundant. I grew up watching football with number 10s who played in a 4411 formation. Guys like Kaka, Riquelme, Ozil lit up this role. And then one day thanks to Germans and Pep, the game changed, with much more creativity happening in the half spaces, and wide forwards becoming much bigger contributors to goal scoring. Just like that, the number 10 was dead.
I think we are seeing the same thing with Tierney. By any standard, Tierney is a good player. But he doesn’t fit the new tactics that Pep and Arteta were playing, and now every team is trying to replicate, with inverted fullbacks. The same thing happened to Tariq Lamptey who a few years ago was all the rage. And then Potter started using inverted fullbacks like Trossard instead. And Lamptey’s stock fell significantly. He is still a terror down the wing with some of the best progressive carry stats ever. But he’s not a hot transfer commodity. I think Tierney is in the same place. Neither Arsenal nor any other top half club will have use for an oft-injured traditional fullback for the next few years.,
