#52 - Keeping the full backs fresh
With Ben White out for the foreseeable, and no end in sight for Tomiyasu's turmoils, Arsenal must keep Timber and Calafiori fresh and firing
It’s great to have Arsenal back and with that, so is the newsletter. It was a positive weekend at last for the Gunners, though Southampton not imploding would’ve made it better.
Given the sad news about both Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu, there’s a potential issue at full-back. Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber are fit for now, but both have had recent injury woes of their own, so we must manage them properly. But how? That’s what I explore in this week’s newsletter.
Amid the latest on social media, I find myself a bit lost as to where to go to right now. I am live and actively posting on X, BlueSky and Threads right now, but in terms of checking replies and engaging I’m mostly on X & BlueSky.
Right back
This is the biggest issue. There’s no doubt that Jurrien Timber will now be exclusively used as a right-back, as there’s no natural other player there. But on the back of a year-long injury, Arsenal need to manage his minutes. He can’t afford to start every game and certainly not play 90 minutes all the time, so it’s important Arteta and his coaching staff find alternate solutions.
Thomas Partey. Like it or not, the evidence suggests Mikel Arteta will push to Partey at right-back as the next solution. Especially given that the numbers in the central midfield are healthy, we can expect to see plenty of Partey at the right-back. Jorginho, Declan Rice, Mikel Merino, Ethan Nwaneri, and Martin Odegaard are all fit and firing, so there’s less reliance on Partey in midfield.
I think there’s plenty to like about Partey at right-back, but his placement in that position does stop any overlap with Bukayo Saka, making his job a little more difficult. We saw against Nottingham Forest, how dangerous Saka was with Timber overlapping and Odegaard supporting inside.
If Thomas does start games at right-back, Arsenal must find new ways to recreate this dynamic. Partey will naturally be more of an inverted full-back, this creates more of a 3-2-2-3 shape as pictured below. That midfield security could allow for Arteta to be more exploratory in his other midfield selections.
The exciting Ethan Nwaneri springs to mind. He will likely work nicely with Saka and has the pace and explosiveness to overlap Bukayo. Though he is left-footed, I do think that this combination could work very nicely, and Odegaard could take a more central-left role - to knit together the often less functional left side.
In the shape shown above, I think Arsenal have enough defensive balance to say to Nwaneri, go and attack and combine with Saka to devastate defences. Partey and Rice is a great base to dominate the ball and win the ball back quickly, plus they have the legs and experience to cover the wide areas when required.
Another possibility at right-back would be to turn to the academy.
Josh Nichols played against Bolton in the League Cup, and whilst I think he’s not on the level of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly, I do think it’s worth at least having him on the bench as a natural overlapping option.
There’s also the possibility of playing Myles Lewis-Skelly there. He is predominantly left-footed, but quite comfortable with both feet, and I think given his experience in midfield and inverted left-back, he has the potential to fill in at right-back if we need it.
Now that the club know they don’t have Tomiyasu and White for a while, I certainly think it would be worthwhile prepping Myles to be prepared for that role, should it be required.
Left-back
Arsenal do have options here. Myles Lewis-Skelly, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior have all played games from left-back recently, and will need to be utilised to keep Calafiori fresh.
Arteta needs to decide a bit of a pecking order, but also I feel it’s a bit horses for courses with these options. I sense Mikel still trusts the experience of Oleksandr Zinchenko ahead of Myles when the temperature is hot, though he clearly has a preference to integrate Myles, with the academy graduate far more likely to be at the club next season compared to Zinchenko.
Kiwior is another option altogether. He is more likely to be utilised at the end of games where Arsenal are looking to hold a lead, and maybe from the start in games where more of a defensive presence is required.
Looking ahead at our run until New Years Day, I would be tempted to do something like this (in terms of who starts at left-back):
Sporting (a) - Zinchenko/Kiwior
West Ham (a) - Calafiori
Man Utd (h) - Calafiori
Fulham (a) - Calafiori
Monaco (h) - Lewis-Skelly
Everton (h) - Calafiori
Palace (h) - EFL Cup - Lewis-Skelly
Palace (a) - Calafiori
Ipswich (h) - Zinchenko
Brentford (a) - Calafiori
That would give Calafiori 6/10 starts, 2 starts as chances to develop for Lewis-Skelly and plenty of subbed-in minutes for Zinchenko and Kiwior depending on game state. Zinchenko is a useful tool when we need a goal, and Kiwior to defend a lead, so I see them more as ‘finishers’.
Don’t run the centre-backs into the ground either
Another issue to stretch the defence further is that with White out, Timber will be the main cover for Saliba and Calafiori will be for Gabriel, meaning Arsenal need their reliable centre-back duo to stay fit and suspension-free, too.
As well as those impact minutes from the bench at left-back, Mikel must trust Kiwior to start games like Palace in the EFL cup centrally to keep their central defenders fit.