Agreed on Saka, who looks a shell of the player we saw post the Dubai break.
If I'm honest, he's getting on my tits a bit. I know he gets kicked a lot, but at times he is making too much of it instead of getting on with it when we're in a good position and could use him, instead of having him whining at the ref.
Happened against Wolves and had me raging at him.
He was a properly irritating little pr1ck, wasn't he?
Their LB, not Saka
I'd just like to see Saka get on with it a little more, but I understand him wanting to make a show of it at times given how often he is kicked.
But against Wolves we were in a great position and looked like scoring while he was rolling around whining at the ref instead of getting up and getting on with it. One needs to time one's gamesmanship properly imo.
That left back is an utter clown, he always has been. Amazed Pep was ever interested in him.
The problem with Saka is that there isn't that much a ref can do about it. 99% of the time they are not bad fouls, just shoves or kicks or shirt pulls to stop him getting anywhere. It is never going to stop and refs can book the guy eventually but it takes 3 or 4 fouls before he can, realistically.
We've put a lot of miles on Saka's legs in the last couple of years so it isn't surprising to see him tired. We really do need to think about how we can offer him a break next season. I expect Arteta will be looking at options for that over the summer.
The next phase of our development is going to be maintaining consistent performance alongside limited but regular rotation. Every side has players they need to field pretty much every week but we have too many of them- White, Gabriel, Saliba, Rice, Odegaard, Saka and now Havertz. City arguably have only four- Dias, Rodri, De Bruyne and Haaland.