3 reasons Martin Odegaard should be rotated in upcoming games

2. The Saka combination

This might seem provocative again, but I am not the biggest fan of the Saka-Odegaard combination. Of course, they are technically incredible, but their combination has not been particularly tidy so far this season.

That could be down to a variety of factors, but Odegaard is a player who tends to stay inside rather than offer an overlap. In theory, that would work a lot better with Martinelli than Saka but Odegaard doesn’t seem comfortable on the opposite side for whatever reason.

In my opinion, almost any player you slot in next to Saka would look good, that’s how good the winger is. The right-hand side works so well thanks to Saka’s individual quality and Ben White’s overlapping runs and not due to Odegaard, at least right now.

Take him out of that right-hand side for a stretch of time and see what happens with the team. In that case, you could even slot the Norwegian on the left of midfield and see how he combines with Martinelli.

Maybe I’m being very naïve by suggesting this but I think it could take Arsenal to a higher level. Mikel Arteta is a ruthless manager and just because something has been working well doesn’t mean that it couldn’t work much better.

Continued on the next slide…