offensively, smith-rowe would be vastly superior right now. the sticking point is i don't feel like smith-rowe is currently capable of being 1 of the 2 pivot that we rotate to out of possession right now. i'm not even sure i would consider what xhaka does to be "good" - we can see that he was unable to keep up with minamino and had to gamble and he was too out of gas to keep up with sissoko - but he efforts at least. we've had people who have neglected their marking and that sucked. he at least recognises his assignment and tries, he's just not really physically capable of all that.
Right, I wouldn’t trust ESR with that…but I probably would be fine with Odegaard doing it. I said from the beginning, his role in Arteta’s system is 8, and he’s shining in it. He can do the defensive work too
I agree with Tim Stillman's opinion he posited during the Arsenal Vision pod that ESR is most suited to that more advanced role as opposed to being a B2B 8-type player.
I agree in principle but when we’re in possession right now, is either of Xhaka/Odegaard more advanced? Doesn’t seem like it to me
i can see that. i think, if partey is comfortable with swapping to the left side of the midfield, odegaard could probably do that xhaka role (8 out of possession then right-side 10 in possession) and we can move smith-rowe to what odegaard is doing now (central 10 out of possession then left-side 10 in possession). bonus is that would let us get all 4 on the pitch at once alongside whoever we get for striker. in possession, from what i can tell, they are even. odegaard occupies the right-side and xhaka mirrors him on the left. out of possession, odegaard seems to stay forward with saka and LW and form their line while xhaka retreats to pair with partey.
i think it still works, though. odegaard will still be up there in attack. they would need to work out how tierney/smith-rowe/martinelli can function with/against each other on the left-side.
This bench cam video just came out. Kinda fun. Edit: Not sure why BigSoccer is blocking the thumbnail but just click "Watch in Youtube"