Mikel Arteta must start managing Saka’s playing time or risk fatigue and injury

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·11 de setembro de 2024

Mikel Arteta must start managing Saka’s playing time or risk fatigue and injury

Arteta needs to be clever in managing Bukayo Saka’s minutes.

When the starting eleven for England’s game against Finland came out it left me along with many Arsenal fans in disbelief, Both Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were starters despite both starting against Ireland three days prior, Rice played the full 90 without any injury worry which is good news given he won’t be involved in the weekend anyway. However despite only playing 60 odd minutes there will still be concern raised about the shear amount of game time Bukayo Saka is getting. The England national team will not do us any favors by resting Saka owing to the fact that he’s one of their best players, however Mikel Arteta and the club need to be more clever in managing his minutes.

Vídeos OneFootball

Even more so considering the amount of minutes he has had in an Arsenal shirt so far, just in the last three seasons in the premier league Saka has played precisely 111 games with the majority of them coming from the start (108 in fact) therefore on average over the past three seasons in the league he’s clocking 3000 minutes of top flight football, not even considering cup ties and European commitments. These are insane numbers for a player who’s still so young. Compare these stats to players of the same age bracket and position such as Phil Foden and Gabriel Martinelli, then you can see that he’s played a lot of minutes.

These are all contributing to fears of burnout given how a similar player in Jack Wilshere suffered from excessive game time in his youth, this translated into recurring injury concerns at a period where you would consider a footballer’s prime. Also along with the fear of burnout there’s the risk of him going out to long-term injury sooner rather than later given the “special treatment” he’s always getting in matches nowadays, even though the Refrees could do a better job of protecting the player.

These risk factors are reasons why I think Arteta should be more clever in managing Saka’s minutes, I know you have a better chance of winning when your best players are on the field, but it’s time we start resting him more, by either not starting him in as many games or by early substitutions. The signing of Sterling should help with that at the very least even though I think we would have been better off with a more similar profile as backup.

Should the manager prioritize resting Saka or do you all think our best players must be on the pitch at all times?

KENNETH BENJAMIN.

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