Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta on Gabby’s Injury and Evolving Squad Sizes
04/04/2025
Sobha Realty Training Ground, London, UK
04/04/2025
Sobha Realty Training Ground, London, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00Who wants to kick off?
00:02We'll go there.
00:03Hi, Michael.
00:04Just on the injuries, you mentioned
00:07that it's only going to get worse and worse
00:09if you're going to play more and more games as time goes on.
00:12Can you see a day where you're going
00:14to need much, much bigger squads?
00:16Because obviously you have a lot of injuries this season.
00:19I'm not going to be able to help you for whatever reason,
00:21but do you think the squad size is just not
00:23able to cope at the moment?
00:26Logically, if we demand the players to play more games,
00:31in more competitions, more travel, to more intensity,
00:35the only solution to do it is with more players.
00:37I don't see any other solution.
00:40In your case this season, it's a little bit of misfortune,
00:43I suppose.
00:44But is it difficult for you to try and work out
00:47what you're going to do this summer based on what's
00:49happened this season?
00:50Because it might have been, you know,
00:52the season before you didn't have so many injuries,
00:54so it might be harder for you to...
00:55It makes it harder because there are some players
00:57that they're going to start the season
00:59after surgical interventions,
01:02and that's always a big question mark.
01:04And there are areas where we have acquired a bunch
01:08of those players, and that brings uncertainty
01:11because you don't really know how capable those players
01:14are going to be to sustain congested periods.
01:17So that's something that we are very busy with.
01:21And do you think this problem is coming to the head
01:24in the last couple of seasons, or has it been
01:26building up for a long time?
01:27Or is it more of a recent problem?
01:29I think it's building for a while,
01:31and the fact that then, yeah, during the summer
01:34there are always competitions, you know,
01:36the African Cup, we're going to have a new competition
01:38coming up now this summer as well.
01:40So this is all adding up.
01:42And then the demands, the intensity, the quality,
01:47the pressure, everything is increasing.
01:50And it's great because we are making the game
01:53and the sport known in the world.
01:56And the quality that we can deliver is high,
01:58but I think we have to be very conscious
02:00that there are certain limits as well,
02:02what the players can do.
02:05In terms of the scores, do you have a number
02:07in your head of actually how many you think
02:09right now would be, is it another five players,
02:12another ten players, in terms of making it
02:14more suitable for a product game?
02:16Yeah, the number is important, but it's just a number.
02:19And then who is within that number.
02:21So you can have 23 players, but six of them
02:24are coming post-injury, to go to post-surgical injury
02:28to the next season.
02:30Or you can have 22 that they are all fit
02:33and they play 45 to 60 games and over 3,000 minutes.
02:37And they have a really high availability
02:39in the last three years.
02:41The number is the same.
02:43The squad's quality to cope with the load
02:45is very, very different.
02:47So the number is ideal, yeah.
02:50But tell me which profiles do you have within the team
02:53and can they play in one position
02:55or can they have the versatility to play
02:57in other positions as well?
02:59And in terms of White and Tim Brown,
03:01are they going to make a decision tomorrow
03:03to put you in Brisbane?
03:05Is it just too big of a risk to put them out
03:07if they're not 80, 90, 100 percent,
03:10if they're kind of 50 percent?
03:12Yeah, well, with 80 percent a player
03:14to play in the Premier League,
03:16it's already very tricky to do.
03:18And we know the history of him.
03:20But yesterday, again, he was much better
03:22than we all expected.
03:23And the next day as well, today he was OK.
03:25So, let's see, yeah.
03:27And White?
03:28And White was much better as well.
03:32Some players may not be able to finish the game.
03:35Could that be linked to Brown?
03:37If one of the staff can't finish the game?
03:40I cannot tell you who is able to do it.
03:43Oh, come on, we're two friends.
03:45LAUGHTER
03:50Tomorrow, is it the implication
03:52that your team tomorrow,
03:54you will have to look ahead to Monday
03:56in terms of, A, your starting team,
03:58but also the changes you make within the game?
04:01Yeah.
04:02Well, we always plan.
04:04We cannot just look ahead of one game
04:06in terms of the load that the players
04:08are going to be absorbing.
04:10And this context is not different.
04:12But not because it's Real Madrid,
04:14we always do, and understanding as well
04:16that we have some tricky situations
04:18in the last week or so.
04:20When you said to Jordan about the number of players
04:22and you said about the next season
04:24that Gabi and Kai will come off serious injuries,
04:28you don't know how they're going to react.
04:30Does that mean this affects what you do
04:32in the summer transfer market?
04:35Let's see if it affects,
04:37but we have to be very conscious of that.
04:39Because there are a lot of uncertainties
04:42in relation to what some of those players
04:44are going to be able to cope with,
04:46especially for the first five or six months of the season.
04:49OK, last couple of questions.
04:51Hi, Lucas.
04:52Hi.
04:53Pumpting injuries across the league
04:54is a common occurrence this season.
04:56Going forward, particularly next season,
04:58could it mean players like the Kyocera,
05:00players like Kylbert, who are very crucial in the outfit,
05:02might have to not play a major game
05:04as players have been doing this season?
05:07Not because of your goals,
05:09but because of the injury risk?
05:12Yeah, but I don't know.
05:14We have those discussions.
05:16I don't know how we're going to do it.
05:18For example, we have a situation with Gary Magalhaes.
05:21During the West Ham game,
05:23he felt something in his hamstring.
05:25We played three days later,
05:27six days later, and nine days later.
05:30Three days later, he said he was ready to play
05:32with a grey 1B.
05:35He said, I'm not feeling anything,
05:37I want to play.
05:38We had a massive fight not to play.
05:40Day six, this one definitely I have to play.
05:43Everybody's like, there is still a chance of a risk to play.
05:46We decided after a big fight, don't play.
05:49Day nine, another game.
05:51This one for sure.
05:53The dogs, there is a slight risk.
05:55He can miss five, six, seven weeks
05:57if he has an injury after that.
05:59We decided not to play.
06:00On day 12, he played.
06:02But I was very tempted on day six to play.
06:05If I would have played on day six,
06:07and he has the injury that he sustained now
06:09against Fulham,
06:11and he misses four weeks, four months,
06:14I would be hammered.
06:16So sometimes you protect the player
06:19for this to happen,
06:20and when the player is totally protected,
06:22then this happens as well.
06:23There is an element, guys,
06:25that we cannot control.
06:26So we try to do our best.
06:28The medical staff, I suffer for them as well,
06:30for everything that they do,
06:31because I know that they feel very responsible for that.
06:35It is difficult to put just something into something
06:39when there is a lot of thought about
06:41how we make decisions.
06:43How tricky is that for you
06:44when you have to make that decision?
06:46You want to play,
06:47because the player is coming to your office.
06:48I want to play, I want to play, I want to play.
06:50I'm ready.
06:51I know my body.
06:52Don't listen to the scan, you know.
06:55But then those things happen.
06:56That's why we have a really good team
06:58that we have to listen to,
07:00and you try to protect the players.
07:01But sometimes when you feel that they are very protected
07:03in the first half, this happens.
07:05If it happens after 80 minutes, 85 minutes,
07:08I can understand more.
07:09In the first half, it's a bit trickier.
07:11There is something else.
07:13On a human level,
07:14do you ever sit there and actually worry about
07:16the potential long-term effects
07:17that these guys will get?
07:21Yeah, I know myself.
07:22My knee, my hip, these, my ankles, you know.
07:24They are the consequence of playing
07:26at the highest level in the sport.
07:29But you have many other things in your life as well.
07:33OK, finally to Alan.
07:34You've said the only solution is bigger spots,
07:37but if that increased rotation,
07:39how much more difficult does it take
07:40to build relationships between players
07:42like William and Gabriel, for instance,
07:45if you aren't changed at the start of the season?
07:48Yeah, I mean, but that's our job as well, you know.
07:51And that's why we have,
07:52well, not now a lot of time to train,
07:54but to build those.
07:56And as well, when you're recruiting
07:57or when you are making those connections,
08:00make sure that probably without a lot of training,
08:02just their qualities fit in to generate those connections
08:06and that cohesion between the units.
08:09In your view, what would be the best way
08:10of putting that case forward
08:12to whether Premier League or the FA
08:14or to FIBA to have bigger spots?
08:17The club, the people at the club
08:19that they deal with all those organisations
08:22are the best ones with much more experience
08:24than me to put the right plan forward.
08:27Do you have a favourite memory of being that good as a player?
08:30Sorry?
08:31Do you have a favourite memory of being that good as a player?
08:35I have a lot, I have a lot.
08:37We have a European game against Fiorentina
08:39that it was after many years that the team wasn't in Europe
08:42that we had a beautiful night.
08:44But I have many.