He’s certainly left a few digs about the squad the past months.
In the pressers during the prep in December, in the interview with Carragher, today as well.
He’s trying his best but when you see the shitshow today with Tierney and Lokonga in the first half looking like League 1 players themselves and then the team turning up several gears with Xhaka and Zinchenko coming on, it really shows the level of the squad he’s working with.
The only fit and available option he had as an alternative to Martinelli and Saka were an ESR that has just come back and Marquinhos who was supposed to be loaned out by now.
I wasn’t joking back in the summer when I said we’ve got 14-15 players that we can really depend on. It’s pretty bad and unacceptable to have a squad this thin for a club fighting for Top 4, nevermind 1st place.
We’ve been incredibly lucky so far with injuries and suspensions. Same way we were in the first half of last season. Depending on lady luck at Arsenal FC isn’t something I would advise.
Assuming Mudryk gets done (still iffy, but let’s assume so), we need a 6/8 midfielder who can play either Partey or Xhaka’s role at a reasonably high level and a backup LCB.
Arteta has consistently said that we need new players (ie, plural) in January so I have think we’re at least looking into these possibilities. But I don’t see Arteta/Edu compromising on the quality of targets just to bring in a different warm body for either of these roles. We seem to have decided to pursue none of Danilo, Douglas Luiz (who likely doesn’t sign a new deal if we were still in his ear), or Tielemans, for example.
Ultimately, I think we’ll only make these kinds of moves if we can bring a deal forward that we would otherwise be trying to do in the summer or if the perfect loan opportunity arises.
I think that’s about right. Patino might be in the mix for one of the midfield roles, but I wouldnt be surprised if he goes on loan again. We could also plausibly decide that the backup RW can be covered by some combination of Marquinhos, Vieira, ESR, Nelson (if he extends his contract), and Cozier-Duberry.
I think we would try to bring any of the deals forward to January if we could get the right targets. But I’m not so confident that will happen.
This January is the most summer window we’ll ever see. It falls off the back of a World Cup and clubs have insane fixture congestion coming up so everyone will be in the market spending money they’d originally have earmarked for summer.
3 signings would be a real big statement from the club and I think that’s really what we need to keep us competing at a high level.
Also think it’s going too become a more relevant window going forward as players running down contracts will make clubs a bit more willing to sell in certain circumstances.
