Feel like Martinelli is definitely deserving game time not least to keep him motivated
We need a strong squad for rotation and injury cover if we want to compete at the top level
I wonder if he can be the centre forward option to provide back up to Auba especially if we sell Lacazette in the Summer. Lacazette has periods of being quite good but he never really contributes any more than Oli G did but at a much higher cost. Would be good to make the space in the squad so Martinelli gets more game and development time.
Really pleased to see Auba finding his way again after being so awful in the start of the season. His goals are huge for us.
Yeah fair point. It is a results business though and obviously Mikel still has Laca as the superior option for the remaining games. With the league dead and buried, hopefully he changes his mind.
But really, that doesnāt make much sense. He should have at least made a few sub appearances by now.
He might be extremely rusty, or perhaps not as trusting of his body yet which then shows in training? But then why would he be on the bench? Very concerning and confusing tbh.
Worst case scenario is that he doesnāt get on with Arteta, and is therefore getting sidelined akin to Guendouzi and Saliba. We know nothing about the validity of something like that, but I do know this situation seems more complex than the lad simply lacking match sharpness.
He wasnāt very good when he came back. He got subbed at half time to United on a poor showing which could be a fitness issue.
Heās very young and donāt see why we need to stress about him yet.
Should get a few League appearances soon.
The reason I get stressed is because Arteta has previous when it comes to exiling young and talented players. He also has refused to go to Martinelli when it would have made sense.
Arteta likes his cloggers and hard runners which is his choice but you canāt always micromanage attack. I think Martinelli brings some of that chaos to attack which we need but Arteta is scared of. Thatās why I stress about it.
Yeah but heās promoted young skilled players like Saka and ESR and gone to a youngster like Odegaard on loan in January.
Long way from where we want too be yet. Ive been anti Arteta from day one and im probably still in that camp.
It is what is now though. Just going too have to ride this one out till the end of the season.
I think Arteta doesnāt rate his technical ability enough to play on the flanks, and Iād have to agree. He canāt get a game as the lone striker because thatās rotated between Auba and Laca.
Combine that with possible fitness issues and you can see why heās being left out.
I do see his future being as a center forward for us though for when Laca leaves in the summer.
If we are chasing a game I probably wouldnāt bring Martineli on. If we are trying to see a game out I also probably wouldnāt bring on Martineli. Iād also not start him so I can see how we are in this current predicament.
Is it really that bad that he wants us to try and stay competitive and pick up as many points as possible.
Imagine he stops starting Laca when heās got the chance youād all be blaming arteta for one picking shit 11s when we lose and then secondly wondering why nobody ended up coming in for Laca in the transfer window.
To what end? CL football has been off the table for a while now.
Youāre hurting the clubās long term future when you stunt the growth of talents with high upside in favour of ageing players who wonāt be around 2 years from now
If Balogun or Martinelli were getting CF mins ahead of Laca Iām the last person youād hear complaining about that.
I think the club management cares a lot about qualifying for the Europa League or that other new halfass competition, so the league is still very relevant. The Europa League is worth like Ā£20-40m each year depending on how far we progress. Thatās not Champions League money but its not nothing either, especially during the pandemic.
Kid is really injury prone and not relevent to our immediate success like Saka/ESR are. I think Arteta is making the right choice here, heās still young heāll get loads of minutes over the next couple of seasons.
Worst thing we could do is keep aggregating his injury, that will stunt his growth and development way more than not getting 15 minutes against some Greek farmers.
Fair enough but depending on the result this weekend making 7th for EL might be a non-starter.
The Europa Conference League is a worthless competition to Arsenal, itās not something we should be aiming to compete in next season.
I donāt consider giving a run to Martinelli ahead of Laca in the league as something that would impact on the side. Letās see what he can do in the spot.
Arteta will continue to prioritise finishing as high up in the league as possible. It looks bad on his CV to finish 10th, and presumably heād fall even further short of whatever targets were set by Vinai / Edu / Kroenkes at the beginning of the season.
While it would make sense from a footballing point of view to give Lacaās dead minutes to a high potential player like Martinelli to aid his development, the manager has selfish (short termist) reasons for not placing faith in Martinelli. At this stage, promoting Martinelli over Lacazette isnāt going to be the difference between a 10th place finish and a 6th place one, so it wonāt derail our season to give Martinelli more chances.
Itās sad and cowardly tbh, and Iām sure itās hurting Martinelliās morale / trust in this football club and manager. We canāt afford to alienate such a talent.
The only comfort I guess is that Laca and Nketiah are sold in the summer so Martinelli hopefully moves up the pecking order. The fact it will happen by default rather than by design is alarming and is another black mark against Arteta imo.
If Martinelli is fit, I would totally put him on ahead of Laca if we need a goal.
There are more goals in Martinelli, he is a better header than Lacazette and much more unpredictability.
If the team is not performing, Lacazette is useless. Martinelli, however, is much more likely to come up with individual brilliance.
That said, He is only 19 and we have a small sample size to go with. So I can give some benefit of doubt to Arteta & Lacazette.
