What Gabriel Martinelli needs to do more of to create more goals for Arsenal | OneFootball

Martinelli needs to start cutting inside more.

A facet of Martinelli’s gameplay that we must have become accustomed to is his style of taking players on 1 v 1. This has become more prevalent in recent seasons where we’ve seen him get varying degrees of success when implementing it. Martinelli loves taking players on the outside more often than not, this is something which is not uncommon, but for an inverted winger in the modern game, it’s certainly not expected to be a more than frequent occurence in a game.

The style has been very effective at times in an Arsenal shirt as some of us may remember how he absolutely tormented the hell out of Sevilla‘s Juanlu Sánchez in the UCL last season. With that said however, especially more recently, you can say he has taken it a little bit too far which has made his game predictable to say the least. Make no mistake, this article is not meant to slag him off or anything like that but we do have to admit that he has become a touch more predictable due to this reason. Every player has his own unique style of play, I get that, but if you’re a winger and you become too predictable to the opponent then you won’t be able to contribute anything meaningful to the team’s efforts. A little bit of unpredictability and invention in the final third will do him a world of good.

What’s most frustrating about watching him at times is him constantly relying on his pace to beat players which has saw him running down blind alleys at times this season. This has already led to us conceding on the other end of the pitch if you believe or not, with that goal being Salah’s late equalizer for Liverpool a few weeks ago in which we conceded largely because of poor defending from our backline, but also in part due to how easily Martinelli conceded possession while trying to run at the Liverpool backline.

Martinelli of Arsenal scores their side’s second goal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and West Ham United at Emirates Stadium on December 26, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

I believe his confidence levels has increased his dependence on his pace and that has in turn seen him preferably going on the outside more. This means that when he eventually cuts inside on his favourable right foot, he often looks short of ideas and Invention, his delivery and shooting abilities when inside are below par which shouldn’t be the case for an orthodox winger. You don’t have to look far and wide to see what am talking about, Saka goes on the outside more often than not but when he cuts inside then suddenly he becomes a more dangerous prospect for opposing fullbacks to worry about due to how lethal he is with his left foot. Martinelli just doesn’t carry that same threat, that’s the same reason why our left functions better with Trossard on the left-wing, he has no where near the pace that Martinelli has but he is better in 1v1 situations as well as creating and scoring while cutting inside.

In this modern age of football where we operate with inverted wingers, there is more emphasis on the wingers being the best dribblers & finishers in the squad which is something that he has to start showing more of if he wants to continue starting in the squad. Our left is no where near dynamic as our right side, I’ll give him a break for that but with the imminent return of Calafiori, I have no doubt that he will have enough support and cover on the left for him to combine and express himself freely.

He seems almost scared of cutting in at times this season, what might be a plausible explanation for this gooners?

BENJAMIN KENNETH.

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