By Alfie Cairns Culshaw (Chief Editor)
Our Summer is beginning to take shape.
We're just two weeks into the (domestic) window, and we're already on the cusp of acquiring our top targets in the areas we wanted to address. Kai Havertz has signed for the club in a deal worth up to £67.5 million with add-ons. Legitimate pictures and videos of the German in our brand new gold-tinted home shirt have scattered across the internet, despite no official club announcement surfacing at the time of writing. Jurrien Timber is supposedly closing in on a move to North London, while Arsenal and West Ham have agreed a record breaking £105 million fee for Declan Rice. The latter part of that sentence would've been incomprehensible to Arsenal fans even 12 months ago.
And it is almost 12 months to the day that I wrote an article titled 'squad building', which will inspire this piece. I spoke of the concept of 1a and 1b players, adding layers of quality behind your first eleven. It's often suggested that a squad with sufficient depth has two different players for every separate position, but I actually think you want a first 17/18 players who you can interchange freely without feeling like the starting eleven is taking a significant hit in regards to quality. Of course, the ideal squad would have 22 players (or more) who the manager trusts entirely and who can rotate at will with no significant drop off or without requiring drastic system modifications. However, this dystopian scenario where you can manage that, while having enough minutes to go around to keep all these players of supreme quality happy is simply implausible financially, and doesn't even happen at the richest and most successful of clubs.
Instead, attaining your first 17/18 who are positionally versatile and tactically malleable is how the smartest clubs on the continent build. It prevents a distinct division between two separate line-ups developing, creating the notion of a first choice eleven and a clearly inferior 'back-up eleven', who are merely used in lesser cup competitions or fill in only if one of the first eleven is unavailable. Not only is this potentially detrimental to the dressing room harmony, it inevitably leads to mental and physical fatigue in the starting eleven, and on the other side, a lack of rhythm and cohesion amongst the second eleven when they are rarely deployed together.
Mikel Arteta has perhaps been guilty of resorting back to the same eleven in the past and failing to place absolute faith in more of his squad. In the 2021/22 season, after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's January departure, Arteta opted for the same starting eleven consistently, with only the left-wing position seeing any meaningful rotation that wasn't forced by injury or suspension. While Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe were regularly swapped in and out of the side, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, Kieran Tierney, Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Alex Lacazette were all part of the de facto eleven. There was a clear reluctance to use more of his squad, and consequently both Partey and Tierney ended up breaking down in the run-in and we missed out on a place in the top four.
Arteta was arguably correct in this reticence, however. The squad was still early in its evolution, and the so called '1b' layer had not yet been developed. The players complimenting that first choice eleven were the likes of Rob Holding, Cedric Soares, Nuno Tavares, Mohamed Elneny, Sambi Lokonga and Nicolas Pepe. Not exactly the quality you'd be confident selecting for crucial games in the run-in of a top four chase, and this told when some of them were forced into the starting eleven.
The 2021 summer window had been about assembling the foundations of the 17/18 that Arteta eventually wants and needs to attain to fight on several fronts. We've heard about his '5 phases' on numerous occasions. If phase five is completing the 18 man interchangeable roster, summer 2021 was phase one, as we completed deals for Ramsdale, White, Tomiyasu and Odegaard, all of whom have become important pieces in the project. They joined the likes of Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Xhaka, Gabriel, Tierney and Partey as entrusted members of the squad.
Fast forward to the summer of 2022, and it was time for the next phase. As I wrote in last year's squad building article, I believed the additions of William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira had enlarged that trusted core. A year on and I think it's fair to say all but Vieira are firmly in that category, while the likes of Tierney and Smith Rowe have arguably regressed out of it, and Xhaka is on his way out. While the system evolved past a full-back with Tierney's attributes, Smith Rowe spent almost the entirety of the season unfit, raising question marks around his position in the group.
This January saw three more added 1B players acquired, in Leandro Trossard, Jorginho and Jakub Kiwior. While the sample size for Kiwior is slim, the initial signs that he can play an integral role and be trusted over others to play important minutes next season are encouraging. With Xhaka's departure, and the three imminent signings, who can definitively be placed right now into the 1A/1B category?
1. Ramsdale 1A
2. White 1B
3. Timber 1B
4. Tomiyasu 1B
5. Saliba 1B
6. Gabriel 1B
7. Kiwior 1B
8. Zinchenko 1B
9. Rice 1B
10. Jorginho 1B
11. Odegaard 1A
12. Havertz 1B
13. Saka 1A/B?
14. Martinelli 1B
15. Trossard 1B
16. Jesus 1B
Scott Willis (@scottjwillis) defined 1B players as, "not a guaranteed first name on the team sheet player but they are a player that if they start they bring something to the team and maybe in some situations are a preferred solution".
So, looking at this we really aren't far off of that holy 18. However, I hinted at this last summer and that clearly wasn't the case in the end, although that's largely because I was looking at it at that time with the perspective of merely attempting to qualify for the Champions League, not fighting for a league title. Given that all but the three magnificent 21 year-olds (Saka, Martinelli and Saliba) were signed by Arteta, you'd hope he's in a position with this 16 to feel comfortable rotating quite freely. With the addition of Champions League football, it's absolutely imperative he learns to do so.
What stands out is the defence being entirely filled with 1B players. There are seven options there and you could feasibly see any configuration being fielded in your average Premier League game, without feeling stressed. Crucially, all of them are comfortable on the ball and all are capable of operating in a high line, meaning a system change wouldn't be required. Timber's signing means we have another who can invert from full-back, giving us an option to retain this inversion but with more defensive stability in games against better opposition.
Another very encouraging sign is the decreasing numbers of 1A players in the squad. Ramsdale represents a significant step-up from Matt Turner, although it is very likely your number one will be a 1A player (and that's fine). Odegaard is probably irreplaceable in this team, even with the introduction of Havertz and even with an improved Vieira in his second season in English football. Saka may well pan out to be a 1B this season, but it's hard to say at this point. Despite Reiss Nelson potentially signing a new deal, Arteta has yet to demonstrate his faith in the winger to fill in for Saka when he needs a rest. Perhaps Havertz' signing provides the possibility for Jesus to play some right-wing moments, or even the existence of Trossard in the squad makes Saka more restable.
I think it's clear that both Smith Rowe and Nketiah aren't fully trusted at this point, while I left out Partey because he could well be departing this summer. If he stays, you can add him to the group, if he goes we may well replace him with one that could make it 17, or more of a prospect signing like Romeo Lavia. Either way, it looks good, with greater quality depth emerging. We have several options in every position, with the squad potentially looking like this next season:
GK- Ramsdale, Turner
RB- White, Timber, Tomiyasu
RCB- Saliba, White, Timber, Tomiyasu
LCB- Gabriel, Kiwior, Tomiyasu
LB- Zinchenko, Tomiyasu, Kiwior
No. 6- Rice, (Lavia/Partey), Jorginho, Elneny
Eights- Odegaard, Havertz, Vieira, Rice, Smith Rowe, Trossard?
RW- Saka, Nelson, Jesus, Havertz, Vieira
ST- Jesus, Trossard, Havertz, Nketiah, Martinelli
LW- Martinelli, Trossard, Smith Rowe, Nelson
Versatile options means plenty of minutes for everyone, and hopefully protected players with less fatigue. Tactical flexibility, a carousel of forwards. This is the squad Arteta has been building towards since he took over. Signing by signing, window by window. We're almost there.
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