daredevil What does a professional manager know about load management and nurturing talent?

The idea that managers attend correctly to load management is absolutely flawed. Managers, including Arteta, very commonly play their "best" options into the ground.

To insist on load management as a reason Nwaneri couldn't get one hour of playing time out of every six total hours Saka and Øde are on the pitch has an absurd vibe. The two more senior players have been dogged by injury in recent times.

    Load management is an absolutely ridiculous reason not have played Nwaneri. I don't believe anyone here actually legitimately believes that's why he hasn't been used more.

      Qwiss don’t know if its load management, but what is consistent across managers is that they typically play superstar youth much less than than fans would like. Everywhere yoh look it’s the same.

      At the end of the day, he’s on track to play more minutes than Foden and Saka befor 18, and he’s one of the 10 youngest premier league scorers ever. The clamour for him to play more is amusing. I love the player, but fine with his use so far.

        I mean we've been told it's load and expectation management so I can only assume it's load and expectation management given just how much Arteta raves about him as a player.

        Sure, he probably could have played 350 mins rather than 250 mins without it really impacting the above, but that's neither here nor there really.

          goon I can only assume it's load and expectation management given just how much Arteta raves about him as a player.

          We've been playing like shit, and Saka is Arteta's go-to match winner and he's got a long history of leaving Saka out on his legs hoping to squeeze out results. And that is why we haven't been seeing too much of Nwaneri.

          Plus Arteta felt like he needed to work through all his other senior options out there, even though they've all been less effective than Nwaneri.

          Clrnc same Barca full of injured and washed out teenagers?

            Claudius yup the one that's topping the league and helped Spain to the euros victory.

              Clrnc sir, you’re taking an outlier as well who is probably the best teenager anybody normal has seen since Messi as the example of why we need to play a child.

              And prior to this, we consistently had one of the 16 youngest squads in all of Europe (including places like Austria and Holland where teams are young) when Arteta focused on Saka etc.

              People were annoyed Saka wasn’t in the FA cup final. He seems to be fine now as far as I can tell.

                Claudius People were annoyed Saka wasn’t in the FA cup final. He seems to be fine now as far as I can tell.

                People aren't worried about Nwaneri stagnating if he doesn't play a few more minutes, so not sure where you're going with this. The question is if Nwaneri playing more would've helped us.

                  QuincyAbeyie we looked shit. I doubt we would’ve solved significant structural issues that the team had. We had an Odegaard sized hole. Nobody is filling that, certainly not Nwaneri.

                  I've seen this argument several times - that Ødegaard is irreplaceable so there's no point in trying to fill the void. As if it's just a binary question of filling vs. not filling rather than degrees of filling.

                  We looked like shit, like you say. Whether Nwaneri should've played is certainly not a question of "would he have made us play as well as if we had Ødegaard", but "would he have made us play any better than what we did?"

                  goon Sure, he probably could have played 350 mins rather than 250 mins without it really impacting the above, but that's neither here nor there really.

                  Except that it is.

                  • goon replied to this.

                    QuincyAbeyie exactly. We looked so blunt without Odegaard. We needed someone with Nwaneris skillset.

                    Qwiss

                    Maybe, but you’re talking about an extra 15 mins here and there. I think it was Newcastle where he came on a bit earlier and struggled to get into the game until he had a late shot on goal.

                    To be perfectly clear, I think he should have been coming on sooner or maybe even starting. I can’t really see the harm. But I also can’t see any other reason why he’s not getting game time than those given.

                    Maybe there’s a bit of what @Burnwinter suggested in not wanting to promote him ahead of someone like Trossard too quickly, but I don’t even see how that would be a problem if you’re talking about being subbed on earlier or starting one game in 5. He also came on ahead of both Jesus and Sterling at times.

                      goon he should have started a couple of matches in Odegaard absence. It's obvious he is extremely quality and could help us win games

                      It's not that complex. Nwaneri could've played a bit more by now and it's been indicated with hindsight that he should've. Arteta hasn't played Nwaneri less than he could have purely out of a judicious desire to protect him.

                      Fine margins in this league and we've dropped points due to a lack of verve and creativity.

                      Burnwinter

                      No, the flaw is armchair fans thinking they know better.

                      Claudius

                      Why let facts like that get in the way?

                      USArsenal

                      That's why my list of comparable attributes didn't include intelligence.