Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says “it’s impossible to play without niggles” when discussing the fitness of Martin Odegaard.
The Gunners boss, speaking ahead of Arsenal’s upcoming Carabao Cup clash, says the important thing is to manage the players’ game time appropriately.
According to football.london, Odegaard is currently dealing with a slight hip problem. A few days ago, this saw him miss a Premier League fixture for the first time this season.
Prior to missing Arsenal’s 5-0 win over Sheffield United, the Gunners captain had uncharacteristically been struggling for form for a while. It looks as though the knock was the main issue.
However, with games coming in thick and fast for Arsenal, Arteta admitted that keeping a player with minor fitness issues out until he’s 100 percent fit would mean they’d play very few games.
“We rested him the other day and now it is about how long we rest him and how we manage now the minutes and the rhythm he needs to be at his best,” Arteta told football.london.
“It is not only that. There are a lot of things that you have to do, it is impossible to play with no niggles in football at this level when you have games every three days.
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“It is impossible, if you try to do that you are better to stay in bed because I don’t know any players that are constantly perfect and in the best possible condition so you have to adapt to that.”
Arsenal boss has tricky decision to make over Odegaard in midweek – TBR View
Arteta is spot on. That’s the reality of top-level football and competing on multiple different fronts.
With several games a week, the workload (both in training and in games) means players will seldom be at 100 percent fitness.
Odegaard has sadly looked below par for a number of games now, and so it was good to see him rested on Saturday. Luckily, Arsenal didn’t miss him against the hapless Blades.
We’ll see now whether Odegaard will return for the last-16 trip to West Ham. It’s a tough fixture, but then there’s an equally tough Premier League fixture at Newcastle this weekend.
With that in mind, Arteta may well decide to keep the 24-year-old on the bench, maybe giving him a runout in the final 20-odd minutes for the sake of match sharpness ahead of the weekend.