One more thing which is bothering me is Arteta's post-match press conferences. He mentioned how we missed 3 big chances yesterday and highlighted Martinelli again. Martinelli didn't have any attempts on goal yesterday, which says to me he already has a negative preconceived notion about Martinelli. He also shouldn't be digging players out publicly like that. We had two good chances the whole game - the Merino one which was cleared off the line and Rice's header in the 95th minute. Is that really enough in 96 minutes? Nope. And yet again, highlighting a couple of chances from the entire team is masking the underlying issue - we don't create enough as a team collectively and haven't for most of the season. So any chance we get (and don't score from) seems huge because we create so little. The only game this season where I felt like we were creating consistently good chances throughout the full game was against Leicester City. Every other game has felt marginal or close. Until he finds a way to fix our dynamics, improve our attacking patterns and progression through central areas, we will continue to suffer.
We're playing more compact and defensive without Odegaard so efficiency up front is more important than ever. The thing is though - Arteta is commited to go down this route of a false 9 with two WF's. Martinelli HAS to contribute more for this system to work. Think of Liverpool when Klopp won the league in 19/20. Salah - 27 goals Mane 22 goals Firminho 12 goals. Havertz drops deeper to overload the midfield - giving space for the wide players to exploit the spaces. Saka will get 20+ again I'm sure of that, Havertz may even hit 15-20 but we need those numbers from all three first choice forwards. If Martinelli cant hit 15+ goals this Season, We aint winning ****.
Efficiency up top is also dependent on how the quality of chances we create. We create **** all. The reason why Liverpool's former front 3 scored so many is because their team would create consistently - Mane and Firmino also missed a lot of chances, but it wasn't noticeable because they knew they'd have another few chances later on. The setup suited their strengths. We don't create much, so every rare chance we get feels massive. At the moment, we're playing in a way that doesn't suit Martinelli's qualities - the reason why his goals and assists have fallen off a cliff isn't because he's suddenly become a poor player, it's because the system is suboptimal. If Arteta is insistent on playing this way and wants a version of Saka on the left, he is going to have to sell Martinelli and look for someone who he can mould into Saka 2.0. Good luck finding a player like this. The tactics needs to change. The personnel is less of an issue than Arteta's tactics and system. That should be the main focus area.
