Sunday, December 22, 2024

Arteta tempted by ‘Fab Four’ deployment

After the departure of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Barcelona, leaving the club with just Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah as recognised centre-forward options, Arsenal fans have considered the idea of playing Gabriel Martinelli as a striker.

Lacazette has just three Premier League goals this season, his last coming from the penalty spot against Norwich on December 26th, while Nketiah has yet to get off the mark in the league.

So, the idea of Martinelli up front with Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard behind him has become a kind of shared daydream, and it’s one that Mikel Arteta has given some thought to as well.

Speaking ahead of the Gunners clash with Wolves tonight, the Arsenal boss was asked deploying his ‘Fab Four’ and admitted their performances in training have given it some allure.

“I am tempted, yes, because they want to play and when you see players training and playing the way they do, you want to throw them all on the pitch,” he said.

“Unfortunately, 11 is the limit!”

Earlier in the week, the Spaniard spoke about Smith Rowe and his ability to play in any of the positions across the front line, including ‘as a nine‘, so if all four get on the pitch at the same time, it may not necessarily be in the formation many have envisaged.

“It depends on the role you want them to play and the role you want from the nine,” he continued.

“They have very different qualities, they would change our structure and the spaces that we would attack, the positions that would threaten, how they fix the opponent in certain areas.

“It would depend on the behaviour of the opposition as well, to understand which context would benefit both of them.

“They have changed quite a lot of positions as well and we have to be careful sometimes with how much we change them. But the moment they are ready, it is another opportunity to use them as well in the future.”

It may not be tonight, not from the start anyway, with Lacazette set to continue, but as we continue our push for a top four place, it will be interesting to see how much more tempting this tactical shift becomes to the manager.

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Benny

It will be truly exciting if the Fab 4 works. That will mean lesser priority to splash the cash on the CF position, n instead splashing big money on the CM position in the summer to replace Xhaka when he eventually leaves.

ChickPEA
  1. We need a new top-class CF anyway.
  2. A very good CM is indeed a big priority, not depending on whether Xhaka will leave.
Benny

Hopefully it will strike fear in our opposition for years to come, and may they enjoy a long and successful career with Arsenal and lead us to PL n UCL glory in the coming years!!!

Johnny 4 Hats

Do you write copy for North Korea?

Find Pete!

‘and MOSS leads us to the title!!’

Brady’s bunch

He’s not the messiah

Terence Mc

He’s one naughty boy!

Johnny 4 Hats

I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it. Woah, woah, Here we go. Saka and Emile Smith Rowe. And Martinelli and Odegaard.

Scans perfectly.

Johnny 4 Hats

While we are on… like, names and shit, it’s been like a thousand seasons and I still don’t know what we are calling Xhaka.

The commentator at the weekend pronounced it Jacka but the co commentator said Shaka and I’ve also heard a sort of Djacka too.

What do you guys shout in annoyance as he receives his customary red card? And as no one really knows should we just start calling him “X” as in “X gona give it to you”.

Goonerrific

I mean it’s pronounced “Zhaka” by everyone I’ve heard

Daveo

I think it’s pronounced “liability”

Thierry Bergkamp (Xhaka Out)

In annoyance, I usually shout “Fucking Idiot”

Terence Mc

It’s albanian surname and think (but not 100% sure) is pronounced like “chacka”

Jordarse

I wonder if we are struggling to break down a Wolves team that are sitting deep tonight, he may be tempted to bring on Martinelli for Laca?

Who am I kidding Eddie will replace Laca if needed unfortunately

Mikels Arteta

As good as Martinelli is already, he still has rawness about him.
He may struggle as a lone striker to start with.
With the Lac of goals coming from the CF position, he should be given game time upfront.
He’s only going to get better

Fergus

Lac of goals… 👏 👏

The Beast

Tbh, if we’re struggling to break down a side that’s sitting deep, I’d prefer to see both Laca & Martinelli on the pitch.

Laca may not be scoring much, but he’s still causes a lot of trouble in the box & picks out runs from the wings, like he did when he found Martinelli against West ham

Harib

Thank you Burnley

Gooner7190

Poor Toni Conte, broken by little old Burnley. Tottenham Hotspur – Ruining managers reputations since 1882

C.B.

He beat Man City the game before! So many (small) ups and downs!

No league tile for 60 years…

Gooner7190

Said to a few of my mates of that persuasion, never has a 2 game period summed up Spurs so well. My mum was 4 months old the last time they won the league 🙊

C.B.
Gooner7190

And they laughed when we went 9 years without a trophy!

Collibosher
Daveo

I love how he’s telling them to sack him… Like he’s so thinking “WTF am I doing here? Get me the fuck out!”

Gooner7190

Conte is a winner & Tottenham are…well Tottenham, he must’ve been fed lies by Levy & Patrici over transfers & now he can see all they are doing is ruining his reputation. If he’d waited a few weeks, he’d have had the United job waiting for him

A Different George

It is really amazing that they hired him. I’m thinking Tim Sherwood would make a great interim manager.

Daveo

Tim sherwood thinks Tim sherwood would be a good interim manager

karl

He could at least stop using Eddie as the Lacazette substitute on 70 mins. With Nketiah going in the summer and not converting a single chance, I just don’t see the point.

Qwaliteee

He should be playing the four of them together now. I’ve said it for weeks.

jw1

Not. Yet.
No tinkering. Until perhaps we start playing the midweek rescheduled matches. Chemistry-wise what we came back from Dubai with is delivering all three points. When we play midweek– I could see Laca needing a break– being good for usually just 70-minutes or so on a regular basis.

But just not yet.

So No-Go.

Why are so many people talking about Gabi playing up top like it’s a revelation? He’s had a fair amount of experience in that role already in his career, and could’ve been given more of a chance at it when Auba,.Laca and Nketiah weren’t hitting a cow’s arse with a banjo.

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