Bucephalus
Active Member
It's the chicken and the egg problem, though, isn't it? Does Arteta not rotate because he's not good at rotating? Or does he not rotate because the drop-off to the rotational options is just too big in a game that's still competitive? And why would someone better than Nelson come to Arsenal if he fears he'll just be stuck behind Saka playing every minute of every game?The thing that bothers me going into the run in, is how undercooked our rotation players are. I think Arteta has not done enough to get them combining well with our first team, and being able to do a job in the absence of players like Ødegaard, Saka, Rice, Saliba, Gabriel.
The players Im looking at specifically are Vieira, Nelson, TP5, Smith Rowe, Zinchenko, Jesus, Tomiyasu, Trossard. We need to get all these players in tune with our first team quickly, to allow us to rotate out our core players earlier in games.
Ideally, Ødegaard, Saka, even Rice, Saliba and Gabriel can be substituted when the game is made safe and we can drop off into a controlling game mode to conserve energy.
The only solution I see is to smash teams early like peak-City did, so it's safe for the rotational options to come on at 60 minutes and get real game time.