Arsenal should just write this season off after their poor start to the 2020-21 campaign, Paul Merson has said.
Merson recently revealed that the Gunners should start giving their young players more playing time while preparing for 2021-22.
According to him, Arsenal’s season is now a lost cause, and Arteta should be looking instead to build for next year.
He added that he watched the game against Southampton thinking half the Southampton players would get in the Arsenal team.
His words, “I feel for the manager, I know he’s a bit lost at the moment,”
“He’s a young manager coming into the game with an unbelievable opportunity at Arsenal but you’ve got to have these players.
“I’d sit down with the board and write this season off. We’re going to stay up [so] let’s get all these youngsters in now and see how good they are. They have to have 15 games these kids to see if they’re good enough and then build for next year.”
“Let’s be honest, I’m watching the game against Southampton thinking half the Southampton players would get in the Arsenal team,”
“You can’t have 10 players. People like [Xhaka], without being horrible, get the manager the sack because they go down to 10 men and that’s it.
“This is no disrespect to Southampton because they are doing very well and they are a good team, but half the players would get in. That should not be right. This is Arsenal.
“I was thinking Danny Ings would walk straight in, the two midfielders (James Ward-Prowse and Oriel Romeu) would walk straight in, the two centre-halves (Jan Bednarek and Jannik Vestergaard) would get in easily.
“I mean that’s the spine of the team straight away. What are you going to win without the spine of a team? Any successful team in the world is a great goalie, great centre-half, great midfield player, great centre-forward and then you build around that.
“If you’re not strong through the middle you’re never going to win anything.”
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