Football analyst Ben Dinnery has warned Mikel Arteta that he is running the risk of devaluing Bukayo Saka if he continues to overplay the Arsenal winger moving forward.
Saka has played every game for Arsenal in all competitions this season and was on the pitch for 71 minutes in their win over Bolton in the Carabao Cup as well this week.
Arteta hooked him off at half time against Manchester City last weekend because he needed to make a defensive change following Leandro Trossard’s red card but the winger has been an ever-present feature of the Gunners side over the last few seasons.
At 23, Saka has already played 233 times for Arsenal and featured in 47 games across all competitions in the 2023/24 campaign.
That number is only going to go up this term if Arsenal have deep cup runs but Dinnery stressed that the Gunners are inviting the risk of running the winger to the ground.
Arsenal are risking devaluing Bukayo Saka, insists injury expert
Dinnery is an analyst and injury expert working in the game and he has picked up on the amount of games Saka has played for Arsenal over the years.
He stressed if the winger is expected to play 50 to 60 games every season, Arsenal are inviting the risk of watching his value and performances go down sooner or later.
Some players can withstand that workload but he insisted that managers and clubs need to wake up soon and be more cautious about how much football their stars should play.
He wants Arteta to have an open conversation with his players and work out what’s best for Saka’s fitness as at the current rate, the winger is unlikely to maintain consistency at the top level for too long.
“If the expectation for Bukayo Saka is that he’s required to play 50-60 games a season at the highest level, then Arsenal are certainly at risk of devaluing one of their best products”, Dinnery told Sports Casting (via Football365)
“The chances of him delivering good performances every week go down. Some players are able to have that consistent level of higher load and still perform well – look at the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo over the years – but there should still be some caution exhibited.
“What I will say is that Mikel Arteta has a very open dialogue with his players regarding this – we saw him rest Ben White against Manchester City due to an issue with his knee.
“There will be player-led discussions about what’s best for Saka’s fitness and whether he’s able to play in each game, so it will be interesting to see how their use of him develops over time.”
There are also suggestions that Saka has had to curb some of his attacking play in order to carry out the defensive instructions of Arteta.
