Have you ever played with plasticine?

I have a theory about Bukayo Saka that, essentially, there are various alternative timelines where he blossoms into a world class player for Arsenal but in a totally different position to the one he currently occupies. He broke into the team in early 2020 as a roving left-back because Kieran Tierney was injured.

I think there is an alternative timeline where Saka stays there and becomes the finest left wing-back in the world. Equally, I could have seen Saka as an elite ‘left eight’ and if he were a few years younger, that maybe Arsenal would have developed him into that Angel di Maria / Clarence Seedorf style midfield player upon Granit Xhaka’s departure.

But Xhaka was in situ as Saka broke into the team so he wasn’t really required there. I think, generally, you want someone of Saka’s quality as close to the goal as possible so converting him into an inverted right-winger was the best outcome. However, I think the decision to move him there for a lockdown era game away at Wolves in the summer of 2020 was largely driven by Nicolas Pepe’s unsuitability to Arteta’s football. (Though Pepe did start that game on the left, in fairness).

Saka wasn’t required on the left wing because Aubameyang was still being shoehorned into the position and Martinelli was waiting in the wings, so to speak. I think the fact that Arsenal bought Willian in the summer of 2020 (sorry for reminding you) meant that either Arteta was not totally convinced that Saka would develop into a right winger or that, at the least, he might need a senior player to help him to grow into it.

This is often how it is with youth development, coaches have to be open minded about how and where players will develop. In the end, Willian was even worse than Pepe and, thankfully, Saka’s ascendancy made that an administrative issue but not a footballing one. The TL;DR here is that Saka is so good that he probably would have slotted into several different positions for Arsenal but right-wing…

Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/02/have-you-ever-played-with-plasticine/

Author : Tim Stillman

Publish date : 2024-02-22 13:00:40

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