Worries about small squad and even smaller first team?

So our last 3 games have seen us win maximum points, and clicking in an attacking sense, but there have also been (from my recollection at least) a number of mistakes made defensively, and soft goals conceded - in the case of Watford and Brentford - to teams near the bottom of the table.

Somewhat ironically, many of these have come not from our stand in RB but from 3 of our vaunted back 5, with the other player - Tierney, looking below par for a few games now. Many were saying that lack of cup football meant that even though we now have a small squad, we should be able to manage a game per week in the EPL without ill effects of fatigue, but I wonder whether the lack of effective first team quality players trusted to rotate into our system is leading to what are uncharateristic errors from Gabriel, Ben White and particularly Ramsdale? There is mental and physical fatigue, and could we be seeing the former here, or is it just one of those things, or perhaps the absence of Tomiyasu, who does seen to balance our team in a way that Cedric doesn't?

Will mental fatigue - that can understandably affect younger players more - be an Achilles heel for us when facing sterner tests than we have had recently, or are the defensive mistakes part and parcel of us having a demonstrably greater attacking intent these days?

Thoughts?

There's nothing to worry about here, IMO - it's mostly down to Tomiyasu's absence and the knock-on effect it is causing.

With our best XI available, what happens is Tomi stays more defensive on the right which allows KT to play more advanced in support of the left forward, who almost becomes the main striker, and our 5 lanes of attack(from left to right) become: KT - Martinelli - Laca - Ødegaard - Saka). At the back, Tomiyasu also provides an additional bodyguard for White, which allows White to take the ball for a walk, knowing he's well-covered on his left and right, if a pass isn't on.

What's happening with Tomi out is that Cedric has had to become the attacking fullback (because he can't defend) and Tierney has had to become the fullback that stays back and balances the side. This then has the knock-on effects of him not being able to support Martinelli as effectively, and White not having that additional minder to his right, which is probably putting him in two minds about when it's safe to step out. (It's also that our 5 lanes of attack, again from left to right, are Martinelli - Lacazette - Ødegaard - Saka - Cedric, so Martinelli is now getting more involved in build up and wing-play, and Saka has become the main goal threat, as shown by his recent increase in goals).

I don't know if you listen to the ArsenalVision podcast at all - if not then I can't recommend it highly enough - but Clive Palmer explains it better than I ever could in this weeks ep.

None of it is a huge problem, though - we're just having to make some adjustments while Tomi is out that mean we're having to muddle through at maybe 70-80% of our best for the time being. We're still winning games, and because of these changes we haven't noticed much of a drop off in our attacking game - it's mostly being felt at the back where KT isn't 100% suited to the more defensive role (although he's still better suited than Cedric), and where we've had to sacrifice some of White's progressive play. It's not a big deal though - just a handful of players being asked to take one for the team and perform slightly unfamiliar jobs for a while, and once you understand that you start to see that there's no serious problems there.

Good analysis :good: I guess the residual concern is that in our crunch matches against Liverpool; Chelsea we won't be able to count on scoring more goals as easily. While this may not be such an issue against Spuds (also a derby with potentially more space to operate in), they have a front line that can hurt us if we are not on our A game. These are all games where I would feel more confident if we were set up for the backs to the wall performance we put in away against Pool in the cup. I'd bring Rob Holdng on if we are ahead in the second half.

Here's hoping that we can show that we can cut out some of the mistakes against Leicester on Sunday...

Funnily enough, I think that in a strange way having to 'cling on' against Watford - and having to press for a last gasp winner against Wolves is good for the development and experience of our young team.

I'm more worried about the age and inexperience of the squad than the size. The latter does leave us vulnerable to injury and fatigue but with the number of games and young legs I think that's manageable.
They might miss out on top 4 because of inexperience, that does cost you points. But as long as I see progress from last year, which seems evident at the moment, then I can live with them missing out.
Arteta seems to be building something, if clearing out dead wood was the first step of that and he's going to build on that then we'll be heading in the right direction.

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Originally Posted by Letters

I'm more worried about the age and inexperience of the squad than the size..

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yeah we need to bring back Willian ;)

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Originally Posted by IBK

Good analysis :good: I guess the residual concern is that in our crunch matches against Liverpool; Chelsea we won't be able to count on scoring more goals as easily. While this may not be such an issue against Spuds (also a derby with potentially more space to operate in), they have a front line that can hurt us if we are not on our A game. These are all games where I would feel more confident if we were set up for the backs to the wall performance we put in away against Pool in the cup. I'd bring Rob Holdng on if we are ahead in the second half.

Here's hoping that we can show that we can cut out some of the mistakes against Leicester on Sunday...

Funnily enough, I think that in a strange way having to 'cling on' against Watford - and having to press for a last gasp winner against Wolves is good for the development and experience of our young team.

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Oh mate, results like Watford are a coach's dream! You take all 3 points, do it in style, but the players also get a scare that hasn't cost us, so you can give them a light telling-off and use it to keep them on their toes.

On the plus side, spurs and united play each other this saturday so we might get away with it whatever the result against Liverpool on Wednesday. That's the only game I'm really worried about - right now I fancy us against spurs, united and chelsea. Chelsea are in turmoil, man u are an absolute basket-case and aren't a team, and spurs don't really have a midfield or defence.

I also think spurs might have problems keeping their players motivated when things start to get sketchy? We all know Conte is a cheque-book manager, and he's made his feelings about the quality of their squad perfectly clear - a significant number of those players must know (or suspect) that he's going to try to ditch them as soon as the window opens, so are they going to dig deep for him when he really needs them? Or will they down tools and try and get him to flounce off in a huff?

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Originally Posted by I am invisible

Oh mate, results like Watford are a coach's dream! You take all 3 points, do it in style, but the players also get a scare that hasn't cost us, so you can give them a light telling-off and use it to keep them on their toes.

On the plus side, spurs and united play each other this saturday so we might get away with it whatever the result against Liverpool on Wednesday. That's the only game I'm really worried about - right now I fancy us against spurs, united and chelsea. Chelsea are in turmoil, man u are an absolute basket-case and aren't a team, and spurs don't really have a midfield or defence.

I also think spurs might have problems keeping their players motivated when things start to get sketchy? We all know Conte is a cheque-book manager, and he's made his feelings about the quality of their squad perfectly clear - a significant number of those players must know (or suspect) that he's going to try to ditch them as soon as the window opens, so are they going to dig deep for him when he really needs them? Or will they down tools and try and get him to flounce off in a huff?

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I think on current form we should be looking for a minimum of 4 points from the games against United, Spurs and Chelsea. Listed in that order, as in win v United, draw at Spurs, loss at Chelsea. Anything more than that and we will be in a great position. United are a mess right now but I wouldn't write them off coming to the Emirates and beating us, they are just one of those sides.

The Liverpool game is a write off for me, I don't think they will thrash us, but they will most likely professionally beat us, they have our number, they have done for years now....similar to City.

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Originally Posted by selassie

I think on current form we should be looking for a minimum of 4 points from the games against United, Spurs and Chelsea. Listed in that order, as in win v United, draw at Spurs, loss at Chelsea. Anything more than that and we will be in a great position. United are a mess right now but I wouldn't write them off coming to the Emirates and beating us, they are just one of those sides.

The Liverpool game is a write off for me, I don't think they will thrash us, but they will most likely professionally beat us, they have our number, they have done for years now....similar to City.

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:good:
Aim for all 9, but 4 would still keep us ahead of United and spurs.

Also, I don’t think this is just going to come down to our head-to-heads - aside from the fact that we all have heads-to-heads with each other, so they’ll probably even out, I just don’t get the feeling that spurs and particularly United are capable of going on 4 / 5 / 6 game winning streaks and being consistent over sustained periods. There’s slips in all of us, but right now I think we look the least slippy and the most focussed and together as a team. We’re on a 4 game winning streak at the moment, and spurs and United have recently dropped points against 2 of the 3 teams we’ve played on that run.

Liverpool is almost out of the equation for me - I’m not writing the game off, but a loss there won’t derail us. Most clubs will be mentally prepared for a loss against them and will shrug it off pretty quickly.

Don’t know where to place Chelsea in all this? I think we should set them as the new target because I think you should always be striving for something ahead of you and not looking at what’s behind, but I have no expectations of that whatsoever. It’s just a massive, massive bonus.