Kieran Tierney’s latest fitness issue raises more questions about Arsenal’s transfer activity both last summer and during the current window.
How is it that the Gunners could allow Sead Kolasinac to exit the club, leaving no suitable back-up at left-back? If there was a desire to see the Bosnian leave north London, why was no one signed to fill a potential void?
With Kolasinac’s departure, the likes of Cedric Soares and Ainsley Maitland-Niles have both filled in on the left-side of defence in the absence of the Scotsman and it’s safe to say they’ve been appalling.
Is Kieran Tierney Arsenal's most important player?
Yes
No
The 23-year-old was asked to fill in against Crystal Palace and from the eagles’ deep-block to the attempted link-up play with an out-of-sorts Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, that experiment was never going to work. Meanwhile, Soares was asked to play out of position against his former club Southampton in last weekend’s FA Cup tie, and with Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men employing a high-press, he never looked comfortable for a second.
Tierney was labelled a doubt for the clash with Southampton yesterday and ultimately missed the clash with the south coast outfit. In his absence, the side struggled down the left-hand side in the first half and despite the victory, you have to ask questions over Arsenal’s planning for such eventualities.
Poor planning has been a bit of a theme in recent years, from transfers off the pitch to tactics on it, it seems Arsenal are never well prepared when things go wrong. How much longer can this go on until the club finally realise that their overall running of the club is well below-par?
