“Almost all of them” – Arsenal’s Player of the Season to date [WOL 0-2 ARS] (Positives Needs & Hopes)

‘Almost all of them’

An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective

So, football is a simple game.

You just pass the ball 1000 times and tell your players to take turns being brilliant. Odegaard, your turn.

Simple.

The game yesterday seemed like that paragraph. Somebody had to step up and Odegaard did. All of these words probably sound like they were written by a fair weather fan or a fan of another club.

I stepped back this week and thought about writing a midseason review. I might get around to it or I might binge-watch Police Academy and relive my youth.

When I let my head wander this week one of the conclusions that I wanted to arrive at was who is the Player of the Season to date. 

As Police Academy is currently winning, I considered doing one of those voters on Twitter instead. I don’t know if they’re really called voters, but it’s what Max calls them. The trouble with the voters is that they only give you four options. So, I can’t do that. I can’t do that because Arsenal have significantly more than four players that have been at the top of their game this season. If I attempted to do this I would start one of those Twitter wars where you’re just trying to be curious and it turns into mass insults, deleted tweets and blocking Walter from St Albans because I’m looking for a reason to do so as he keeps calling me a twat.

During yesterdays game I was having a one sided argument with the commentator who was claiming that Thomas Partey was bossing the game. I was too frustrated to agree as I wanted him to penetrate more. 

I sat back in my cozy corner, relaxed and ate the most delicious fry pie thanks to my Smoky Mountains experience the day before. 

The pie gave me clarity. I like pie.

Too affected by the 0-0 frustration I was forgetting that yet again many of our players were doing their particular job in their usual 8/10 manner. Thomas Partey was again, untouchable. The reason we weren’t winning wasn’t on him. 

This I’ve found is somewhat representative of the long list of Arsenal players that could be in that voter.

We are getting used to 8/10. It’s becoming beige.

So let’s talk about this group of high achievers.

To be a top goalkeeper you need to be reliable. They can all make big saves and the spectacular keepers often get the louder round of applause but it’s reliability that is why the coach picks you. Aaron Ramsdale is this. When a ball is drilled across his 6 yard box he holds it. When a ball is down his gut he does the same. Every highball is caught and not spilled. Big saves all rebounded away from pressure unlike his buddy Pickford who likes to give you a second bite of the cherry.

Ben White has fallen so low under the radar that he has got to round seven of the limbo. So low that Southgate only chose him when Reece James got hurt.  Those that pay attention to us say that 8/10 has been his worst day this season.

William Saliba is a hard one to analyze because everything has been said. Perhaps the best way to wrap it is to talk about how he has gone from fighting to get into arguably the most competitive international squad in the world to likely starting ahead of far more experienced players who are fully established at club and international level. 

His partner Gabriel is the one that gets picked on. Saliba can make mistakes but the focus stays on Gabriel’s errors. It’s almost as if we feel the need to have at least one player that we want to upgrade and so we choose him. What happened yesterday wasn’t quite what Ben White is doing. Gabriel started from a slightly lower point but he is arguably the most improved defender at Arsenal’. He is a chest thumper. The warrior that you put on the front line. The player that loves to bail his friends out. The most dangerous centre back in the league in their penalty box and arguably the hardest one to avoid in his own box. Arsenal’s rock who has been immense particularly in away games when true character is needed.

Zinchenko wouldn’t win the midseason Player of the Season award, but his presence allows our team to play the way the coach wants to play. So, he becomes pivotal. Much like we say that we are half naked without Thomas Partey on the field, Zinchenko offers a unique gift. He is the ultimate multi player. In a more tactical game he is playing in spaces and flexing depending on the situation. This might be hard for the average fan to appreciate as there aren’t many out there explaining this modern game. Sometimes your best players are the ones that you notice more when they are not on the pitch.

Tomiyasu is not going to win the award either. Here’s a thought though…have you ever been concerned seeing him on the team sheet? Does he worry you? Anywhere on the pitch? Ever? 

His value is in your answers.

Thomas Partey may just be the most important player at the club. It’s a close contest much like this award. Teams try to press him and it’s pointless so they step off and that doesn’t really work either. We talk about finding a long-term replacement for him and yet nobody has found his twin brother. The truth is we don’t want to replace him. He can do everything. Who else in world football can match up?

Odegaard hasn’t been quite as pivotal this season. That isn’t because his performances have dropped. It is because the others have stepped up. Again, until his second goal yesterday I was fooled to thinking that what I was seeing was normal and needed to be improved upon. Then I compare his highlights to anybody else in the league attempting to play that position this weekend and there is no comparison. He ran it.

Granit Xhaka was throwing up on the field and Arteta wanted to keep him on. Valuable. Most players in their late 20s don’t improve. The world is supposed to just accept this. I never have. You can improve in your chosen career at any age if you are motivated. He might be the most improved player in the Premier League when in previous seasons he has been closer to the most ridiculed player in the league award.

The Jesus not scoring conversation is redundant. Pointless. It’s been started and kept rolling by people in the media that have to have something to criticize Arsenal about. There isn’t a striker in the league or likely in world football that comes close to overall contribution in every game than him. If our team was underachieving then it might be an issue but we are far from that. He can do everything and for the first time in his career, he has been allowed to. A smart coach saw that and set him free. Let’s not forget, the whole point of a football match is to win and get three points. As long as that happens the rest is just forced conversation. Arsenal are in a better place than they have been for 20 years and this player that apparently has an urgent problem may just win Footballer of the Year at the end of it. I wonder who’s going to look stupid then?

Saka started slower but has been accelerating for the last two months. His new physical build refuses to be a bystander. He bullies his way into the game even when it isn’t in flow. He is one of the reasons why our number nine doesn’t have to score.

Martinelli has been so consistently effective that he has elbowed many out of the Brazil squad. An energizer bunny with dumbbells. Always playing with an increasing refusal to lose. Everybody loves a player that will always find a way. 

Of the 12 players mentioned, I think that there are 9 of them that could win our mid-season award.

White, Saliba, Gabriel 

Partey, Odegaard, Xhaka

Jesus, Martinelli, Saka

Nine of them would have a really good chance of being in the mid season Premier League team, also. This is with Ramsdale having seven clean sheets and not being included in this list which might be harsh.

So the recipe is simple. Tell your players to all be brilliant. Not sure why other coaches haven’t figured this out.

I’ll tell you what I think is actually going on. The clue is in the coach and player interviews. Every time a representative from Arsenal Football club speaks with a microphone in their hand they always show humility. They are not talking like they’ve read this blog and had the epiphany that they have all been brilliant at the same time. I think the core message this season with Arteta is improvement.

Nobody has arrived. Everybody is expected to improve every day. It’s not a request. It is a demand. If you want to keep your place, you improve. There is no ceiling to your game because there is no ceiling in football as it is impossible to be perfect. If you focus on improving yourself then all of a sudden in the middle of May you might be given five minutes to say that you were brilliant.

Just five minutes though.

POSITIVES:

• What is leadership? It is when you are at Wolves and your team needs something extra. A new gear. It wasn’t so much seen in Odegaard‘s goals as they were more instinctive, but his willingness to demand the ball and then demand it again. The World Cup is always a favourite but it has always bothered me that certain players, like Odegaard, don’t get to participate on a stage that their personal talent would flourish on.

• It seems that many watch Gabriel with their eyes behind their fingers? If you come out from behind your fingers and don’t expect mistakes you will realize that he is making as many as his partner. Not many. You will also notice that he routinely saves us whether it be spectacular or simply great positioning and composure in defensive technique. He is fully deserving of his new contract.

• Massive kudos to those five players that played with a stomach bug. Sitting on the loo with a stomach bug is bad enough let alone having to run around for 95 minutes. I love that we met the lasagne face to face and spat at it.

• How do others describe Arsenal? Watching the game, I had an epiphany. I’m not sure that this is any form of insight but it is probably interesting. I think it was whilst I was watching Adama Traore. He is hard to deal with because he is quick and powerful. Not sure that I will call Arsenal a quick team even though they have quick players but I would say powerful.Almost everybody that plays in our back four is powerful. A little less so in midfield but it is still evident. Our striker is about as powerful as a player of his size can be but it is mainly our wingers that scream this. These days wingers tend to define your team. It used to be more about the striker. Now so much more is asked of wingers. Both Saka and Martinelli have become extremely difficult to knock off the ball. I just saw a picture of Smith Rowe but more on him later. I distinctly remember Arteta talking about the need for power in the Premier League when he took over. Wrapped in our transformation has been a need for these kind of players as well as the gymnasium. Good teams are never described by one word. Here are some words to describe Arsenal…. 

1. Patient
2. Organized
3. Committed
4. Technical 
5. Powerful
6. Rotational
7. Together
8. Hard working 
9. Tactical 
10. Resistant (Max’s word… he’s more profound than me)

The word that Arteta wants us to be described as that encapsulates all of it is actually two words. One brain. I won’t add that to the list because we are not even halfway there but to say that we are already one brain would also be discouraging the players from a desire to improve so I’m not sure if our coach will ever claim that we have got there.

• Have you thought about this. Look at these names. Okonkwo, Trusty, Balogun, Patino, Norton-Cuffy.

All of these five loanees are excelling. Not just playing well. Excelling. 

At least one of these five will likely become a first team regular one day. Makes it worth it. If not, I’d say we make 60M from these five. That doesn’t include Pepe, Tavares, AMN and Mari who should bring in a similar amount. That’s £120M from 9 players that aren’t even in our current squad. 

My best guess is that Tierney, Lokonga, Holding and Soares leave in the summer. That gives us another £80M. That might mean that we don’t have to ever sell a big name to find future growth. 

Arsenal is most certainly a very healthy club both on and off the pitch. Just to think, two years ago we were the opposite.

One day, somebody will write a book about this. It will be called “How to run a modern football club.”

Find me a publisher and I’ll do it.

• As I’m writing this, I am re-watching the game. There was a moment in the 77th minute when Guedes broke forward. He was in a really promising position and was shutdown by four Arsenal players. The ball had already gone past three of them and Gabriel saved the day. What is interesting though, is that you can judge your teams character in moments like that. Most clubs will have players that will make a token effort to recover. Crossing their fingers that the last guy or the keeper will save them from the embarrassment of being bypassed. Arsenal seem to play with no excuses. You can see the camaraderie in the recovery.

• When we purchased Odegaard I thought we were buying a player who was press resistant. As a creative player that is a tall goal and very few make it. Santi Cazorla, Alex Hleb and Sami Nasri were press resistant. Almost impossible to take the ball off them. Odegaard is getting there. He might need to improve his physique in order to master it but he has so much flexibility in his hips. A wiggle worm, as my niece would say.

• Clean sheets in exactly half of our games. A huge compliment to Ramsdale but equally a huge compliment to our whole team who in modern football defend as a block. I remember when I played, I was good but probably the worlds laziest midfielder. I don’t remember my coach having too much of a problem with that. Back in the 80s and 90s, defenders defended, attackers stayed upfront and waited and midfielders ran back-and-forth if they could.

NEEDS:

• If I’m being honest most of the game I was somewhat frustrated at the 1000 passes. I thought that we were gonna blow it, come off the field and realize we weren’t supposed to solely be playing keep away. Sometimes when I watch Arsenal I wish we could sacrifice keeping possession in the final third and take more risks. This may be harsh as what we are doing is clearly working but I still think we are making it too hard for ourselves when we are actually dominant in most of the games. There were so so many opportunities to slide the ball behind their back four who were actually quite high on a number of occasions. Ordinarily, I complain about Saka and Jesus not running behind but Saka in particular did that on many occasions and the risk wasn’t taken. I wonder if the need to control games is somewhat overwhelming the players and so another simple pass seems like a better idea then a 40% chance at a through ball is discounted.

• One of the most common habits in football and probably sport is contagious risk. You see it in one on one defending. Midfielder takes a chance and lunges at the ball and is dribbled past. His partner covers him but also takes a nibble and misses. It gets more desperate around the box especially on the edge of the box. Players have to make a decision whether to tackle or foul before their opponent gets in the box. So they lunge again. In order to break this negative human habit I routinely run drills where the players are not allowed to tackle. They have to stay on their feet and stay in front of the attacker. Make him do something outstanding to beat them and trust their friends to cover gaps. Works. This is not an Arsenal exclusive problem and we have cut out so many mistakes but I did see it creeping back in at times yesterday.

• I noticed that we were uncharacteristically taking risks in the last five minutes. Enjoying ourselves a little too much. Ramsdale was ripping Zinchenko and Thomas Partey was twice as guilty. I don’t think this is a long-term issue but we could’ve had a very nervous end against a team in form.

HOPES:

• Look at this picture.

Looks like Smith Rowe has been in the same gym program as Saka and Martinelli. Perhaps a benefit of having some time off. This could be a big difference maker for him.

• Another advantage that we have over City is that we have only played six home games and eight away games. They have done the reverse. We have been very impressive away from home but won every single home game. I’m hoping that we can take advantage of this advantage.

• Facundo Torres’ agent was in London on Saturday. I wonder if we are looking at a player like Mudryk as first choice rotation and Torres loaned out with Marquinhos.

• Samuel Chukwueze is a super talent. Another one to keep your eye on if Mudryk does not work out. Would be a little over a third of the price. 

• It’s rather exciting that it looks like we will be playing Barcelona at the Emirates on December 17th. I hope that Holland get knocked out early and Frenkie DeJong gets to experience our new team and we can somehow convince him to come this upcoming summer.

• You may have heard Elliot from ArsenalVision Podcast talking about the color-coded chart for the players playing for top six teams at the World Cup. I also saw this and was encouraged that City have almost all of their squad who are very likely to play. I’m sure Arsenal will reinforce in January and fix the small squad concern but either way this gives us an advantage. I don’t buy into the idea that a team can ever get to the place where they have two players for every position that are equally matched in quality, form, fitness and team rhythm so no matter how good City are if Bernado Silva, DeBruyne or Haaland get overloaded, fatigued and injured then that’s all good for us.

• I’ve been swirling transfer ideas around in my head for a few months. I like to play the childish game of ‘if I was in charge.’ Who do we go for and what position is the greatest need in January. I thought for the longest time that it was cover for Thomas Partey but I’ve change my mind. Because Jesus isn’t a prolific goal scorer, we rely on our wingers not only to play well but to have a significant goal contribution. If Martinelli or Saka were to get injured then more pressure gets put on Jesus. So, I think that a winger is the number one priority. Mudryk is certainly the top choice and for those that are concerned that spending 50 to 60M on a substitute then you are going to have to get used to that. All of the elite Champions League level teams do this. They don’t see the majority of their players as starters anyway. Much like City have done for years with their wingers, I’m sure that our club wants to have four options of an equal level that will keep the other team guessing as to who is going to start and what tactics they should employ.

I’m not concerned about whether we will strengthen. How could I be having watched how well the club has been run over the last couple of years. We are still building towards a future where we can compete at the elite level but as Elliot said on the Instant Reaction, if we were to know that in future years that we were to become an elite club again and then mid November came around and we found ourselves top of the league by five points then you say that that’s not necessarily necessary. So having said that, Arsenal have to capitalize and not say ‘well this has been a great season now regardless.’ 

The end goal is certainly to be winning titles but there are two more steps on the ladder. If we were to do this in order then before we start winning the big titles we have to show that we can a)consistently get in the top four and b) start challenging in the top two.

What an unexpected chance we have.

FINAL THOUGHT:

I watched many of the games this weekend. I was particularly interested to see which teams looked focused considering what’s coming up. The majority of them had players that were giving less. This was my observation. I didn’t see that with Arsenal. Even though it took us a while to score or even create much you could see the focus. 

I was wondering how Arteta would keep them focused. Again, I go to pretendville I to what I would do. There is one simple truth right now. There might be one or two of our players that win the World Cup this year. Actually quite doubtful that any of them win the World Cup and play a significant role, unfortunately for them. There is however a much better chance that every single one of them will win the Premier League. 

I wonder if that was the speech.

Please excuse the lack of podcast but my daughter EllieAnn has been home this weekend with her friend, Lauren. We got to take them to the first Tennessee Volunteers game which is quite the event. 103,000 in attendance to watch college kids. It was a squeeze to even get this blog in but so happy that I did.

Take some time to go into the comments and tell me which words you are using to describe our team?

May you and your family feel loved and share that same love with others during the Christmas season.

Mike McDonald 

Catch up on previous pods below! Enjoy.

Mike McDonald

Former Highbury regular. Moved to TN, USA in ’99. Married with 3 kids. Coached in UK and US for 27 years.
Mike McDonald Soccer Academy in Morristown TN, Olympic Development coach, Regional Premier League Champion.