By Jahid Islam
Hello readers of We Love You Arsenal! I’m Jahid (@JahidFullStop) back with an article for you lovely lot!
This week’s article looks at the two very different situations we find ourselves in with our two very different full-backs, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney. The mark of a solid squad player is their contentment in stepping aside when the team demands it. When a player believes they deserve to start, that’s when you get grumblings of annoyance and rumours circling about a player’s desire for game-time or a move elsewhere.
Whilst you want players to have that drive to start every game, that ‘pashun and desiya’ may not be conducive to the overall team and thus a brief hiatus is needed in order to guarantee results.
Oh look, that’s exactly what’s happened at the Ems, though to call Tierney ‘not’ a solid squad player is a bit harsh. In the seasons gone by since his arrival from Celtic he’s proved himself to be an excellent overlapping full-back providing an attacking outlet on the left by-line, whipping tantalising balls into the danger zone only for an often-uninspiring attempt at goal on the end of the ball in.
At times KT was the most advanced player in our attack, although the arrival of Zinchenko in the summer as what seemed to be merely a competitive role, or even as midfield cover, heralded the beginning of the end of Tierney’s monopoly on that left-back berth. Not just that, but the City-import has inspired a whole tactical evolution that’s propelled us up to the summit of the table so far this season.
Zinny’s completely different style of play compared to KT’s gung-ho balls to the wall approach has given tactical unpredictability depending on which one out of the two starts, but also allowed for possession in games to be controlled. In addition, Zinny’s range of passing plus inversion into the left half space facilitates the best out of Granit Xhaka and Martinelli, and enabled us to start the season on blistering form.
Gone were the days of those teasing balls from KT that a poaching striker would’ve thrived off. Maybe if we got Vlahovic or someone akin to that style of play upfront rather than Jesus, KT would still be dominating that flank to this day. I mean Nketiah’s got a reputation as being a poacher, but he’s not as physically imposing as an aerial ball winner or a traditional big man up-front. You just never know… though given our form this season, I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Regardless, Zinny’s leadership and maturity added yet another reason for his favouring by ‘teta in the lineup. Bar his calf and dodgy knee early on, he’s featured in most of our games so far when he’s been eligible for selection. But interestingly, in those Zinny-missed games, Arteta frequently chose Tomiyasu instead of the ‘natural’ left back Tierney, most famously in that clamping of Mo Salah in our 3-2 win vs Liverpool a while back.
Though despite his obliviousness to the cold on the training pitch with his shorts-and-tee-shenanigans in sub-zero temperatures, it seems that he doesn’t like being frozen out of the starting lineup. What a segway. This is what I do!
With rumours circling about a move up north to Newcastle’s exciting rejuvenation under Saudi-state-funded-sportswashing, letting Tierney go would be a huge mistake for us as a club, but a brilliant move for Tierney’s stagnating game-time. He’d join yet another project, but one in which he’d play consistently and become the attacking threat that he personified at Arsenal during lockdown football and the following season.
For us, letting him go to a genuine rival in the Premier league nowadays is a huge dealbreaker and analogous to our signing of Zinchenko from City that began this whole drama. Unless the fee is considerable, strengthening a rival that has taken points off us already this season is a big no-no.
Now onto the other side of the coin and/or pitch, our right back, Takehiro Tomiyasu. His performances have been inconsistent to say the least, but as with almost every player in that ‘grey zone’ between the first XI and the bench, the causality between inconsistent performances and resignation to the bench is cyclical and feed into one another.
It seems that he’s temporarily accepted this role on the bench, with a steely self-reflection and honest demand for patience on his part whilst the team benefits from Benny Blanco’s persistent calmness on the right side. In more ways than one, Tomiyasu’s style differs drastically from his counterpart on the bench nowadays. Sorry, that was a low blow.
With games in the Europa League on the horizon, it seems inevitable that Tierney and Tomiyasu will both get their chances to shine in the starting XI. Our rotational options are still relatively scarce in comparison to other rivals, and as Arteta’s banged on about several times this season, every player in the squad will need to play a part in order to maintain both domestic and European charges.
So what do you guys think? Keep Tierney, or let him go? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and on Twitter @Wlyablog! I’ve been Jahid (@JahidFullStop), and thanks for reading!
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