CPM Do you think Arteta is telling a player, hey, you might dribble like Ronaldo, but actually only Saka is allowed to cut inside, you have to dribble into cul-de-sacs on the outside for the integrity of my tactical system?
Not exactly. From what we know, Arteta has in the past advised the wide men what percentage of the time he wants them to go inside versus outside, and has also advised Martinelli to look for the cutback if he makes a byline run rather than attacking the keeper. That info is from an interview three seasons or so ago, so it might well be out of date.
We've set up right-sided with Ødegaard as the speartip of the press for several seasons now, and Øde and Saka have the most prolific passing exchanges in the entire league, signalling that both are brilliant players and also that we use their relationship as the platform of our whole offence.
An effect of that platform is to drag increasingly compact and well-organised Premier League defences over to that side of the pitch. Saka is very often double-teamed and there's also usually a defensive screen across the top of the box to prevent the lateral ball that tees up Øde, Rice etc for a strike.
Now, we switch play back to the left from round the area of our advanced right back fairly often, and Martinelli is the player who picks up those passes, and usually he then tries to go round the outside.
The argument Martinelli's skill set is uneven also holds water. I'd say Martinelli is an "awesome dribbler" but he's a lot better in broken play or transitional situations. We've been seeing with Madueke how often a player who's elite one-on-one can checkmate a well set up defender, and Martinelli isn't at that level.
To be honest, disorganised defences are also now verging on extinct in the Premier League. Arteta's squad-building at Arsenal and Guardiola's prior centre half obsession led the way on that. Clubs now have large, agile and intelligent players across a whole back four or five when we play them—so the days of cheap lunch for Martinelli might be over.
