Gunners manager Mikel Arteta has commented on the squad he has at his disposal.
Mikel Arteta has spoken out after the 5-3 pre-season win over Barcelona in the United States. While Xavi, the Barcelona technician, was busy deploring the aggressiveness of his players, the Basque coach, he expressed some dissatisfaction with the workforce he has.
“A squad of 30 players is not sustainable”
“We have 30 players here, which is not sustainable. Obviously the market is still open, and things can happen – but we are prepared,” he indicated.
Arteta wants to slim down, but he admits that he also has a lot of quality and talent within his group: “We are very happy with the squad we currently have; it is obvious that we have progress to make in terms of what we want to do during the matches, and we have to do it. Overall, I’m very happy with the team.”
Regarding the absences of Declan Rice and Oleksandr Zinchenko, the manager also said: “Dec had a pretty strong kick in training and we didn’t want to risk it, he wasn’t comfortable in training yesterday and today and we decided not to. not play it. As for Alex, he injured a muscle again, unfortunately. He’s coming back and I think he’ll be back soon, but it’s a shame he wasn’t with us the whole tour.”
