Following the return of William Saliba, Ben White’s versatility saw him move to right back. At first, he thrived at right back. However, he has received a great deal of criticism in recent days.
His form appears to have dipped since the World Cup, and he was fully exposed in Arsenal’s last two Premier League games against Manchester United and Everton. White has failed to shine as brightly as he did before the World Cup break in these two games, prompting calls for him to be benched.
Kevin Campbell, unlike many others who have criticised the Arsenal defender, believes White is being unfairly criticised and that people should give him a break.
“We’re going through a sticky patch right now. Let me just say, everybody won’t play well all season, it’s impossible.
“Impossible, so Ben White has been incredible for the first part of the season; his level has dropped a little bit, it happens, that’s why we have a squad, that’s why you mix and match your squad,” Campbell said to the Highbury squad.
Following Campbell’s assertions and all of the talk about White, one might wonder what Arteta would do to get White back to his best. He may need a break, but there is no denying how brilliant he has been playing in a position other than his traditional position.
Is it time for Arteta to start doing some serious rotation?
Daniel O
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He still plays well generally, so we shouldn’t bench him
He’s a professional,if he needs a break I’m sure he would say, we have cover but I’d be looking to see a more consistent play through like other players do, I’d hate to lose white the now ,we have Tomiyasu who can be just as good as any defender at the top the now ,put it this way if zinchenko was out I’d prefer Tomiyasu as his cover than Tierney,my own oppion Tierney is a player who needs to either improve or be replaced with Cedric, Elneny, etc to make room for bigger and better in the summer.
The article concerns White yet ,of more interest to me is the condemnation of KT who is one of the best left backs in the Premier League in my opinion and in the opinion of a large majority of professionals far more knowledgeable than I or I may add Gunnermark.Tomi on the other hand is a natural centre back, who has adapted well to become a very solid defensive right back.He is not, and never will be a left back which sentiment applies also to Zinchenko who is a very fine, skilled central midfielder.
Grandad
I agree with all your comments, especially about Tierney. To mention him along with Cedric is just poor form, there is no comparison between the 2.
Tierney remains one of our better defenders, and offers overlapping which Zinchenko clearly does not.
Tomi has earned a chance to start with White’s dip in form, that why we have the depth to rotate within the TEAM dipping in form.
IMHO I would start both Tomi and Tierney in the fullback positions, and hopefully reignite a struggling squad at this point.
Granted it’s only been a dip the last 2 games, but the performances have dipped because the energy and intensity levels have dipped, so it’s time to introduced some fresh blood in the side.
typo, was supposed to read “…without the TEAM dipping in form.”
Rotation is a double edged sword The advantages of playing a settled team are cohesion, players knowing exactly what their teammates will do and a tean can and sometimes does have a really good run. Just as we have!
On the other hand , players get fatigued, jaded and injured, which means we need a deep squad.
The art of knowing when to change a team that remains uninjured though, is where a manager shows his brilliance. Or not.
Too many changes are not helpful. Too few changes, for TOO LONG, are also not helpful.
Spot on Jon!!
All are entitled to their opinion about Ben White, However
Often fans do start to see players through rose coloured
Classes when on a winning run of games. I’ve never been
Impressed with white, I will say he’s a better right back than
A center back and yes he can look a pleasing on the eye when
He has time and space, however when that’s not available
He turns into a very average player he’s also poor in the air
For a defender. Our Japanese player Tommy is just different
Class and with a run of game’s will prove my point.
Oh yeah Tomiyasu is definitely better than White. Saliba is also way better than Gabriel because his influence in the team is what has stabilised the defense. His positioning, calmness and the way he reads situations ad simplifies them sees him apart from all the defenders. It’s very difficult to even go past him.
I’ve opined in the past that Tomi is our best defender (defensively), but i have to admit, he’s had a few poor games this season, particularly around the world cup. I believe he’ll get back to his old self, but i think white has been ahead of him on merit so far this season. That could be shifting now, and maybe Tomi should get another chance, but i do think we should acknowledge that White has been excellent up until very recently.
I know I said I won’t comment until May when we are celebrating the EPL title but I remember seeing seeing comment which suggested we should sell Tomiyasu which made is laugh. Even the sale of Tierney is dicey because he I a proper PB even though he nay not fit the tactics. Zinchenko can be cooked defensively. As for Tomiyasu is better than White and with a run of games that wouldn’t be in doubt.
Forgive the errors. I’m under pressure over here.
At the start of the season I was very sceptical about BW being our no.1 choice at rb.
Bar a few games he has been solid
Have kept many a player quiet 🤫
Whilst he dosent look as pretty as Tomi he knows when to defend and when to venture forward
Please don’t get me wrong I love Tomi in the side as well but I do think BW is a better defender.
He also links up well with saka
I like the position we are in as now we have choices on both flanks. Compared to a few seasons ago when some were shouting AMN to be our rb.
Our centre half’s were slow weak and utterly shocking. They gave us no confidence and we had to put our hands over our eyes to shield us from the total calamity we got ourselves in to.
Playing out from the back looked like we were playing on ice.
We have moved on for the better
Onwards and upwards
Bench White and he will go on protest. He did that at the world cup.
No he didn’t!
Ben White always gets 10 out of 10 for effort but sometimes that alone isn’t enough and there have been games where we needed a real centre back on that side making overlaps and delivering crosses and making life easier for Saka. Such skills are not in Ben White’s job description.
White plays more progressive passes than any other player on the team. He was also one of our top-performing defenders since the start of the season, one recent game when everyone was poor does not change that. He’ll be back to his solid best in the next game is my estimation
Ben White has been a revelation at right back and has excellent cover in Tomiyasu who was also preferred by Arteta at left back with Tierney left on the bench. Zinchenco is also preferred at left back over Tierney so I think the real question is, is it Tierney, (who I love for his attitude and hard work) the one we should be discussing as possibly not being fully up to the job?
Agreed 100%
Ben white as probably been our best player this season IMO
Nketiah.
Trossard. Odegaard. Saka.
Zinchenko. Partey.
Tierney. Gabriel. Saliba. Tomiyasu.
Ramsdale.
I would rather
Tomiyasu Saliba Gabriel Zinchenko
Partey Jorginho
Saka. Ødeegard LeandroTrossard
Martineli
Brendford is a very skilled side and we need our most skilled merchants against,we need to score early too
One of the reasons why Arsenal are struggling attacking wise is because White, Odegaard and Xhaka are not doing enough. With Saka and Martinelli double marked all the time now, the RB and both the no8s should do more. Jesus’s absence also one of the factors as he always plays a free role. Zinchenko doing greatly as inverted fullback so Xhaka needs to transform into Duracell battery until end of the season.