Morning all, let’s do a little quotes round-up for Mikel Arteta’s press conference yesterday, taking bits from the live section and the embargoed quotes from 10.30 last night.
Further to yesterday’s post about Gabriel Jesus and his knee problems, the manager was asked if this might be an issue that has a long-term impact on his career, and played that down completely, saying:
No, I don’t think so. When you see him train the way he trained today, again, there is nothing there. Injuries are part of football. He had a few. You look at how many games he already played at his age and the level of games he’s played, it’s an unbelievable career he’s having. That’s not a concern.
As for how much he’ll be able to play during this run-in, there was a question about if he’d be able to play in every game if we needed him to do that:
It’s possible, yes. When you look at the history in seven years he hasn’t done it. But can he do it? Yes, he’s prepared, he’s physically well now and as well it will be determined how much he gets kicked, the kind of fatigue element that builds into a game in relation to the scoreline. A lot of factors, but he is ready. He looks really good now.
I don’t think any manager, especially not one as taciturn as Mikel Arteta, is going to give away public information about a player’s injury situation, but it’s interesting his update is a little at odds which what Jesus said himself about the potential for summer surgery. Anyway, let’s hope we can take him at face value, that whatever needs to be done during the summer is relatively minor, and that he can remain an important player for us.
In our Patreon preview podcast, Lewis and I discussed the potential of a midfield trio of Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, and Kai Havertz, with a front three of Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, and Jesus. I know Havertz has done very well up there lately, but Arteta didn’t rule out using him in midfield again – and I do think that…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/04/arteta-on-jesus-zinchenko-timber-rotation/
Author : arseblog
Publish date : 2024-04-13 06:33:29
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