Looking at how the team came into the season set up and if they should have done anything different
As we end the season, it is time to look at some of the decisions that the team made last season and see if there are lessons to be learned for the coming summer.
I am going to go through each of the three main groups here, looking at the depth that Arsenal had and where it was sufficient and where it was lacking. Ultimately ending with building out and prioritizing what Arsenal should do this summer.
I started with theAttacking Depth review and theDefensive Depth review.
Today, we will conclude by looking at Arsenal’s defense.
Overall Defensive Depth
Left Back
Arsenal’s options: Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Jurrien Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior, and Kieran Tierney
Right Back
Arsenal’s options: Jurrien Timber, Ben White, and Takehiro Tomiyasu
Center Back
Arsenal’s options: William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Jakub Kiwior, Riccardo Calafiori, Jurrien Timber, Ben White, and Takehiro Tomiyasu
The defense is the opposite of what the midfield and attack have been doing for this exercise. Those positions felt like repeating myself often, and while there is some echoes here with Arsenal’s prizing of versatility, allowing players to float and cover multiple positions, the pure numbers in defense are much higher.
Arsenal have had a similar number of injuries in defense but the overall depth in this group has for the most part, covered up the extent of it.
It’s kind of easy to forget at times that this season Arsenal have been without key players in defense:
Tomiyasu for all but 7 minutes.
Calafiori on and off for half of the season.
White for most of the season due to a knee surgery.
Zinchenko for a large chunk due to injury
Gabriel for the rest of the season
When these injuries overlapped, it did start to stretch things a bit, and that is why the team had a bit too much Thomas Partey at right back for anyone’s liking, and the team ended up turning to Lewis-Skelly at left back.
Lessons Learned
Lots of players can work, at least for a season, until players start looking for ways to get playing time. Arsenal will lose Tierney who is a free agent this summer, almost certainly see Zinchenko leave, and have another summer of suitors asking after Kiwior. That’s 1,100 minutes between Tierney and Zinchenko that will need to be picked up and another 2,100 from Kiwior that could possibly be up for grabs.
If you buy enough left-backs, eventually you will find the first choice in your academy. lol. Maybe not a true lesson to be learned because the luck of where the talent is in the academy pipeline doesn’t always line up so perfectly, but it has been excellent here for Arsenal.
The final vision for how the defensive unit can fit together is still a work in progress but the depth saved the team from something that could have been equally disastrous as the other absences. How do White and Timber fit in? How does MLS ascention change the view for Calafiori? Can Arteta use these hybrid players a bit more to spell Gabriel and Saliba a bit more next season?