The other thing is, he has been carrying this injury, but the operation was done to completely get rid of it.
So in theory, as he is now completely injury free he should come back even stronger and better
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So he hasn’t been playing so we all haven’t seen anything but you’ve seen something?
We’ve all been watching the same matches that you have been to form your opinion of the player
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It’s just my opinion and you should respect it
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As per
He’s never going to be a first team starter unless we have some major injuries and then he’ll only last a handful of games before he’s injured again.
No way ESR is going to have any impact on our season.
He can be Casper the Friendly Ghost if he’s chipping in with 6G+A before the season is over. I’ll take that tradeoff.
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Let’s not act like he’s useless here. He’s a fantastic ball carrier and can combine great with others in short spaces. The fact he showed he has a goalscorer’s instinct last season as well to position himself in good areas and more often than not find the back of the net is impressive for his age.
His profile is intriguing and hopefully he can improve further. With Martinelli hitting a bit of bad form and the fixture congestion soon to come, I’m pleased to have him as an option.
For what is worth, Arteta has been asked a lot about this in his pressers. It’s definitely a bit of a conundrum, where does ESR fit in all this.
Arteta answered to them(and he even said that he told ESR the same) by saying he has to stay fit, if he stays fit he’ll get plenty of minutes.
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He’s got a goal in him and with us playing well he adds to the depth.
He’s more use than Viera right now and he’s only had 20 minutes at Oxford so far.
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Trossard was bought because Mikel doesn’t trust Smith-Rowe. Also we don’t know if and when he’ll be fit again.
Is ESR a CM???
I believe that’s where he will be best utilised.
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Why do you think that?
Because ESR is not as tactically astute as the rest. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not awful, he’s a good young player. He just really needs to kick on when he’s back from injury.
let’s hope he stay healthy first…
Oh dear these ESR takes are horrendous, essentially just read like because he was injured he’s an easy target and everything good he did for the team is easy to ignore. You can clearly tell Mikel loves the player, he’s the reason why Martinelli took so long to break in to the side. Trossard was brought in because we have zero depth and he can play all 4 position at the top.
Oh well the boy is back now and hopefully will be proving people wrong soon enough
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There’s two facets to playing for Mikel and off the ball is just as big an asset as on the ball.
You can clearly tell Mikel loves ESR and sees big things for him otherwise he’d have sanctioned the Villa sale a couple years back.
But I definitely think ESR has a lot of improving to do off the ball. He’s a direct goal scoring threat and a good ball carrier and I think Mikel loves both of those things about him.
But he’s behind in his development compared to the other attackers and that’s probably got everything to do with his fitness issues.
Definitely think ESR has plenty of potential but that’s all we’ll be talking about in the years to come if he doesn’t keep himself relatively injury free
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Absolutely
ESR is a big player for us and only 12 months ago he was better for us than Saka was.
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Naah, I think you’ve got it pretty twisted.
Auba is the reason Martinelli took so long to get into the side. Auba CF and Martinelli LW was never going to work, as soon as Auba got banished and Laca became the CF, Martinelli took the LW position from ESR.
ESR played LW when Mikel needed that role to be a creative midfielder who would play in the half space while Tierney went down the wing and Auba offered little to the buildup. But that was a temporary phase, it wasn’t where Arteta wanted to take the team.
Now that we’re in a different phase, its not easy to see where ESR fits. Its probably Odegaard’s role but Odegaard isn’t losing his place and ESR also still needs to beat out Vieira for the backup position (which he could do, but it won’t be handed to him easily).
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Viera had half a season and hasn’t done anything to get close to moving ESR down the sub bench.
ESR can still call on last season to get the nod even for 20 minutes over Viera.
Trossard was bought because we were short and Viera hasn’t turned up yet.
ESR now gives us another option from the bench and well Viera is likely next season player.
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ESR played 17 times on the left last season. Sharing that position with Auba and also featuring in the hole from time to time. His goals were integral to our opening recovery to the season. Martinelli could have very easily been getting those minutes instead but the truth was ESR was more trusted. You can over analyse all you want but Tierney and Auba had very little to do with ESR over Martinelli at that point. He was clearly favoured due to his output and amazing ball carrying ability that was recieving plaudits from everyone. He was one of our constants in a very inconsistent side.
Add the fact he was one of our most clinical players during that period and it’s as simple as you like. I do agree his long term evolution will move him away from the left under Mikel but I believe he’ll always find some minutes there especially when you consider that’s where all his goals came from
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