Odegaard

Odegaard average at best last season, horrific this season yet he's starting again here and left on for 90 minutes.

Arteta is such a (unt.

He needs to be dropped for the next game. He’s had an awful season. Runs around a lot but contributes nothing apart from obvious two metre passes . Can’t shoot or tackle or make killer passes. Instead, he just gets in the way and slows down are game. Why did Arteta wait 90 mins to bring Nwaneri on??

Every team has a "water carrier".

Someone whose only job is to run around, chase lost causes, and play the "percentages".

For Arsenal, that person is Ødegaard.

Which is why we play him on the outside of a 3-man midfield.

Odegaard did exactly what was required of him today.

We didn't have a "bully" in midfield today. We didn't have a defensive player in midfield acting as the "fifth" defender. We didn't have a player in midfield we could play a million "wall passes" to.

Thomas Partey is the heart and soul of "Artetaball".

I'll reserve my judgement for the second leg.

He is good at off the ball stuff but his end product is absolutely shocking at the moment and for a team with our aspirations we can't have players that can't do both.

Obviously he can do both so I'm not sure what the solution is but he needs to be challenged and see what he's really made of.

Odegaard was superb last season. I can't put my finger on why he's been so chit this year.

Ankle injury, hamstring injury that requires summer surgery, mrs having a baby, mental and physical fatigue, plus probably a loss of confidence.

But one of the big issues is he hasn't got a striker to play off, Saka missed a big chunk of the season and neither left winger has really been consistently good enough. Merino, a potential #8 but could also be used to rotate Ode out, missed the first part of the season and been playing catch up since.


Hopefully with a striker, successful surgery and a bit of a rest he can come back to his best next season.