24/25 Postmortem: Did Arsenal have enough attacking depth?

Looking at how the team came into the season set up and if they should have done anything different

As we end the season, it is time to look at some of the decisions that the team made last season and see if there are lessons to be learned for the coming summer.

I am going to go through each of the three main groups here, looking at the depth that Arsenal had and where it was sufficient and where it was lacking. Ultimately ending with building out and prioritizing what Arsenal should do this summer.

Today, we start with the attacking unit.

Overall Attacking Depth

Striker

Arsenal’s options: Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, and Leandro Trossard

Left Wing

Arsenal’s options: Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard, and Raheem Sterling

Right Wing

Arsenal’s options: Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling, and Ethan Nwaneri

When I did this in August, I think I nailed it pretty well, and even with hindsight, I wouldn’t change my analysis too much.

Arsenal's attacking depth is good but risky

No one will ever say that you shouldn’t add more talent to a group of players or that you should turn down the option of an upgrade if you can reasonably make one.

I would have been in favor of adding most of the players that Arsenal chased last summer, exactly because of that reason, more good players is almost always a good thing (there is probably an upper limit with a limited total minutes but you get the point and that wasn’t the problem for Arsenal).

Arsenal had a talented group of attackers and on top of that they were also quite versatile. The versatility is a blessing: adding the ability to mix and match, cover for each other, and offer flexibility in the tactical options, but it was also probably a bit of a curse as well because it gave a bit of a false sense of depth because you can pencil in the same player in multiple spots.

With normal injury luck this is probably fine, with great injury luck this is more than fine and quite good.

Arsenal just didn’t get that.

You could say that, depending on Gabriel Jesus was probably not smart given the last 18 months of injuries that he had coming into the season, and that bit almost right away with the knee flaring up again. However, blowing an ACL isn’t really an injury that you should foresee and that’s knocked him out through at least the fall next season.

Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, and Gabriel Martinelli have had relatively clean bills of health, and it was probably not crazy to hope that they could do that again. Instead, all of them spent an extended period on the training table, with Havertz and Saka’s injuries being especially painful for the team.

The big thing that seemed to hurt the team this season was that Raheem Sterling ended up being basically unusable in any situation that had leverage at all. Knowing now what was to happen, that’s a deal you don’t do, and look in a different direction.

Having a player that is usable in that spot makes things look better and having six good players, supplemented by a promising youth player for three spots, especially with the versatility, is probably the right number here to target. Beyond six and half to seven players and it is probably a headache for keeping everyone happy. Arsenal ended up with five after Sterling flopped and then compounded it with injury problems.

Looking ahead, Sterling needs to be replaced, ideally with a player who pushes or supplants a starter on the left. Jesus should not be counted as a player next season and anything he offers will be a bonus.

Lessons Learned

1. Be more wary about players who have had large minutes loads in addition to the age curve. Sterling came into this season at just 29, which shouldn’t typically be the age that you see a player experience such a drastic drop-off in production, especially considering that while he wasn’t the Manchester City elite player, his Chelsea seasons were still solidly in the good player range. This is something that I am going to keep in mind more moving forward, breaking the 35,000 and 40,000 minute barriers are important factor for players to consider in conjunction with a player’s age.

   

2. Versatility is important and incredibly valuable, but it isn’t a total replacement for numbers. This is a lesson I already knew but this season helped to push it up the things to consider in squad building analysis for me. Having players able to cover multiple spots is great and it can help make covering for short-term absences easier with a lower drop in performance. There is still a minimum number of players that are required to make it through a long season with four competitions.

3. You can’t avoid risk, you just move around and you have to find what you’re comfortable with. This is probably one more for fans, we saw the injuries blow up the attacking depth this season, and respond that we simply should have signed another player. That misses that signing a player is a risk as well, the team has only so much money that they can spend on transfers and wages, they only have so many roster spots, and these are often more than single-season commitments that a team makes. The team could have gone to the next name on the list that wasn’t quite the fit/didn’t have the confidence in/wanted more money/etc but that locks in that decision for the medium term and is a risk. Life is about managing risk, the team will have built a philosophy and a process that they believe in and it is in these tough moments where they need to stick to it.