Arsenal legend Tony Adams has sent a stern warning to Mikel Arteta about his management of the likes of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe.
The two youngsters have been a breath of fresh around the Emirates this season. Saka and Smith Rowe’s performances are one of the biggest reasons why we are unbeaten in our last six Premier League games.
The Hale End duo are undroppable at the moment, and Adams is seriously worried about Arteta burning them out.
He told Stadium Astro: “(When I was a teenager) I had a very good coach – Don Howe – one of the greatest English coaches of all time, and he knew when to take me out of the team and when to put me in. Arsenal can’t afford that. These kids are our best players. Arteta is going ‘just go and play’.”
“You have to watch that, you really do. You’ll get burnt out, your form will drop, your confidence could go. At this moment, Saka is just going on the football pitch and just playing. If you haven’t got the experienced players around these kids, they can get lost.”
“We’ve seen Willock in recent years, players that have come in and initially they’ve come to life and then all of a sudden they kind of lose their way and lose their confidence. It’s very important for the coach to know when to say ‘alright son, have a rest today’.”
Adams is right, Arteta should be careful
Saka has played 25 games in all competitions this season already, while Smith Rowe has featured in 15. That is an awful amount of games for players so young, but Arsenal have been forced to keep them in.
Both Saka and Smith Rowe have been incredible over the last few weeks. Without them, our attack looks considerably weaker, and Arteta simply could not afford to rest them.
However, with Martin Odegaard now in, Arteta will have more options to mix things around. Saka and Smith Rowe have to be managed very carefully, but both of them deserve immense credit themselves for not being fazed by anything so far in their careers.
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