Arsenal youngster, Bukayo Saka has hinted that The Gunners will roll out some new tactics in their New Year’s day clash with Manchester United, as he says their latest gaffer, Mikel Arteta is bringing fresh ideas to the squad, megasportsarena.com reports.
Saka acknowledged that he and his colleagues are working hard to get used to Arteta’s newly introduced technical strategies and routine at Emirates Stadium, where he believes they will be able to give account of themselves when they host The Red Devils from 9pm on Wednesday.
Speaking ahead of the potentially explosive battle with Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s fast-rising side, who are now fifth on the English Premier League table, Saka disclosed that Arteta has got down to real business very quickly and has been teaching the players his own philosophy of football.
Arsenal’s first match of 2020 comes up against United on New Year’s Day, and Saka will again most likely play as left-back, having been employed in same role in the first two matches handled by the former Arsenal captain, who took over the reins as coach on December 20.
The dark-skinned Nigerian-born lad has played the left-back role for The Gunners in their last three Premier League games, following injury-enforced absences of Kieran Tierney and Sead Kolašinac, but Saka says he has nothing to complain about, even as he struggled for form last weekend against Chelsea and now battles to get used to Arteta’s regime in North London.
Saka enthused: “He has a clear strategy of how he wants us to play and we’re just really excited to work with him. He’s teaching us little things that we didn’t know before and just bringing in his own strategies, his own ways of playing.
“We can see that it’s going to work, we’re just looking forward to doing it. Maybe one thing that I’ve picked up straight away is that when nobody’s pressing you, you don’t need to pass the ball.
“What you can do is just get the ball, drive the ball forward a bit and wait for someone to come, commit a player, then pass. That man will be free or that man will have less pressure on him. It’s attracting players before you pass the ball, which will help our team-mates a lot on the pitch.”
