Thread by @AMonFootball

Are Saka & Martinelli THE BEST Wing Pairing in the WORLD?

A THREAD 🧵

📊 Comparing their output to other pairs
🎥 Analysing what makes them so good w/footage
☯️ Why they're perfect for each other

The humble duo. 2 of a kind.

When 2 become 1.

Night and Day, Batman and Robin, Salt and Pepper, Black and White, Lennon & McCartney.

In life, some things just work better, make more sense… together — and football is no different.

Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.

At 21 and 22 years old respectively, Arsenal’s mercurial wing talents have exploded into superstardom over the last 18 months, becoming key members of Arteta’s side as Arsenal have emerged as genuine contenders to Pep Guardiola’s super-team for the Premier League title. 🏆

With a combined sum of £6 million pounds to bring them to the club, Transfermarkt now has them at a combined market value of 200 million Euros.

If Arsenal chose to cash in (don’t), you can imagine that combined fee going even higher.

Considering the going rate for the modern winger, they are undoubtedly one of the key talent development success stories of Arsenal’s modern era.

And yet they remain genuinely humble, hard-working young men. Both of them are spoken of in glowing terms by all of those around them; their desire to learn, the example they set, their coach-ability.

It is this humility that has put them where they are, with Arteta and his coaching staff masterfully managing their development up to this point.

I would even go so far as to say I wonder whether this ability to keep their heads down and do their talking on the pitch means the wider media landscape has slightly underrated their standing in a non-PL, wider context. 🤨

A return to top level European competition for 23/24 may well mean that changes — either way they can’t be ignored for much longer, and I’m sure they both will be spoken about as two of the best players in the world by the end of this season, if not before.

If you think that’s overstating it, last season they became the first two teammates aged 21 or under to record 20+ goal involvements since Ronaldo and Rooney… by March. And those guys were pretty good at football I’d say.

https://twitter.com/Squawka/status/1649496933847781389

Individually though, on the pitch, what makes Saka and Martinelli so good?

In a recent interview for TNT Sport, Declan Rice was asked who has impressed him so far in his time at Arsenal, and he had an immediate answer.

Martinelli's pace gives him the ability to progress Arsenal 50/60 yards up the pitch in one action, but that can only happen if you can control the football at 35km/h or so — no easy feat, but Martinelli can & that puts him in a very special bracket.

His decision making in the final third has rapidly improved from his early years as he’s been coached. 👇

Breaking down defences is becoming easier as he understands how to manipulate space a lot better, timing his runs in behind well, knowing when and how to use that gas pedal.

Crucially, he’s developed that ability to stop and start defenders with a lot more consistency.

There’s no better example than his ridiculous assist for Nketiah against Nottingham Forest.

He stops and starts twice within a split second. His movement confuses the Forest number 28, catches him flat footed, and that creates that platform for a bit of the flair we know and love to instinctively flow through him. 🇧🇷

Go outside and try and do that with a football running at full tilt, and you’ll see how hard that is. Then put yourself on a pitch with 60,000 people against Premier League defenders, and it’s a whole different ball game.

Ha. Get it? ⚽️

Watch him facing up defenders 2/3 seasons ago, and you’ll see his reaction time, his body shape and his feet have all improved incredibly.

He rolls contact really well, though maybe not as well as Saka, but he has a directness that I absolutely love.

When I watch him, I sense his first thought is “Can I go forward, can I get a shot off?” — and you need that somewhere across your front 3.

His dribbling technique has come on leaps and bounds too. He’s become more upright & receives the ball well, something Arteta is big on.

Don’t want to go full tactico hipster on you, but watch his step count against Nottingham Forest again, back in 19/20.

There’s lots of theory around step count that is, I think, unnecessarily dense, but broadly in my learning about it, the key is suiting the situation, and having the ability to change how many steps you’re taking.

Mitoma is the best example of that ability.

If you’re taking loads of steps when you have space, like here, you’re probably not maximising your physical potential to move into that space sooner and could take fewer, bigger strides. 🏃‍♂️

Early on, Gabi appeared to take too many steps at times and often lost the ball under himself — despite getting the goal in this situation.

Now he seems much more able to push the ball out of his feet when he has that space and take fewer, longer strides when he needs to.

His defensive contribution is one of the most underrated parts of his game. Martinelli is really, really good at defending the box, his dogged enthusiasm for attacking seemingly matched at the other end too.❌

And positionally, over the years he’s developed an ability to come inside and interchange with his striker more frequently. Compare his heat maps from his early years to now, and you can see he’s being given licence to come centrally more often.

He’s also developed a lovely whipped ball from the edge of the box towards the back post, and he’s got an eye for a headed goal as well.

Or maybe a head, for a headed goal..... 🐸

Statistically, he’s in the top 10 percentile across Europe for some really key metrics such as receiving out wide, goal creating actions, and touches in the attacking penalty box.

And then we come to the Starboy himself.

You don’t need me to tell you how good Saka is, so I’ll keep this brief or this thread will be 100 posts long.

Receiving out wide, goal contributions, rolling contact, decision making, line manipulation, breaking games open, finishing, combinations, intelligence — this guy has absolutely everything.

I almost feel sorry for Saka. 😂

He’s so good, and so consistent for his age, that I think Arsenal fans almost forget that what he’s doing at 21 is nearly unheard of. He could be Player of the Match probably 25/30 games out of 38 in a league season, but he can’t be because that’s unfair on everyone else.

When was the last time Saka had anything less than a 7/10 performance? When did we last say Saka was “out of form” or going through a dip? Have we?

His consistency and his availability make him the most special young talent in the Premier League for me. ✨

I think he’ll be England’s most important player within 18 months.

I honestly believe Saka could have been World Class in 3/4 positions, and top class in a few others. I think he’ll come inside later in his career and show a whole other side to his game as well. 💫

He’s on course to be our greatest ever Academy product, and if he stays here his whole career and wins big things, he could be our greatest ever player.

https://twitter.com/AMonFootball/status/1686750018407927808

But like all great duos, it’s not the sum of their parts that makes them special — it’s what they do when they come together.

Their partnership has flourished, and their understanding has continued to grow season on season despite being positioned on opposite flanks.

Arsenal are making increasing use of the overload and switch in our early season games. When you have some of the most talented 1v1 specialists & wide receivers in the world on your flanks, you can really exploit that. ✅

There’s almost a read on this team that its entire purpose is to get Saka and Martinelli isolated, and I certainly think that’s part of it, as I’ve spoken about in previous threads.

https://twitter.com/AMonFootball/status/1693317822460395857?s=20

The signing of Declan Rice, one of the most reliable switchers in Europe, Raya coming in to play those long passes more evenly, Ramsdale’s longer distribution, Havertz’ signing to allow Martinelli inside all tell me one thing — Arsenal know where their threats are. 🔥

To break down a terrific block from Palace, time and time again we found themselves overloading down the right and switching to the left, or the underloaded side, to get the wingers isolated, partly because of Tomiyasu’s lack of ability to progress on the left he’s right footed.

It’s a pretty simple tactic, but it requires 3 things — the ability to switch the ball, especially from your central progressers

(Rice, White, Saliba — check)

The ability to receive reliably, plucking the ball out of the sky and going forward without missing a beat (check… the stats, their progressive passes received numbers are wild)

And the belief that your wingers can actually do something with it in the final third. Triple check.

Expect a lot more of that this season, I think, on both sides. ⬅️➡️

In 22/23, their combinations across the 6yrd box devastated teams.

Kane & Son have the record of 37 goal combinations between 15/16-22/23; 4.6 goal combinations per season.

Our boys got 6 last season... Could they get the record? 🤔

They dovetail extremely well, something that’s still developing.

I remember marvelling at their performance against Bournemouth as we searched for a winner, both of them swapping sides and interchanging in order to confuse their opponents.

As Arteta aims to be less and less predictable, I think we’ll see them both popping up in more and more interesting and unconventional spaces.

But what you have, and why they work so well, is a compliment of skills.

Saka's the ball to feet winger of Pep’s dreams, Martinelli is the box crasher. Saka works magic in tight spaces, Martinelli frees you down the left. The yin and yang makes them so incredible to watch. ☯️

All of this said, then… one question remains. Now they’re competing for top honours, at just 21 and 22… are they the best wing pairing in world football?

The only way to judge that is to look at their competition. 🏆

I’m a biased Arsenal fan who doesn’t know ball obviously, so to make it fair I will be judging this purely on statistics. If you just rate a certain player aesthetically, fair, but I think that’s hard to be objective about.

(Just a note — Saka and Martinelli are both younger than every single player I’m about to mention. They shouldn’t, on that metric, even be in this conversation let alone possibly be the favourites… but they are.)

I asked those who follow me on (doesn’t sound right) to suggest the other top wing combinations in the world, and from that I’ve created a list of 8 other pairings.

X.com

https://twitter.com/AMonFootball/status/1693962873456709714

To qualify, the pair needed to have played together at least 5 times at club level last season in their respective league, on opposite flanks (as adjudged by their heat map on SofaScore), and the pair need to still be at the club this season.

Remember, they are being judged as pairings, not as individuals.

That is then…

Saka & Martinelli
Vinicius Junior & Rodrygo
Rashford & Antony
Diaz & Salah
Sane & Gnabry
Grealish & Bernardo
Mitoma & March
Son & Kulusevski
Kvaratskhelia & Lozano

Honourable mentions to Rafa Leao, who didn’t really have a consistent wing partner last season, though may get one with Chukwueze, and obviously to Mbappe who may find a relationship with Dembele and had one with Messi, but that’s all changed.

If I was being really harsh I could technically say Rashford’s more of an inside forward than a left winger, and Vinicius & Rodrygo both spent more time on the left side and Gnabry and Sane both spent more time on the right side last season, so are they wing pairings…?

Maybe not, but it would feel weird to leave them out. Coman’s not there because he started less games than his teammates.

It’s also maybe unfair on Bernardo as he’s a width holder who kind of played everywhere, but I’ll include him for the sake of this as I can’t use Mahrez.

So. Pure output, goals and assists.

Saka and Martinelli are out on top, even in the hardest league in the world. Bosh. Thread over……

Nah. Let’s look closer. It’s more fair to judge on combined minutes per goal contribution, so let’s look at that, averaged out over the pair — e.g. Saka had a goal contribution every 127.76 minutes, Martinelli was 140.25, so the average is just over 134 minutes.

Here, it’s a lot closer.

Sane & Gnabry are out in the lead, with an average goal contribution between them every 115 minutes, Saka and Martinelli are just behind.

Next question… how well balanced is the pairing? You can’t be the best pair in the league if one is carrying the other.

Now that is interesting; remember lower is better. Lol at Antony.

Let’s do some pruning then.

Rashford absolutely carrying Antony, bin. ❌
Kvaratsheklia carrying Lozano. ❌

Then output wise I’m leaving Son & Kulusevski, Grealish & Bernardo and Mitoma and March here too; the numbers just aren’t comparable.

So that leaves us with Saka and Martinelli, Gnabry & Sane, Salah & Diaz and Rodrygo & Vini Jr. Good company.

It’s hard to compare from there. I’ll leave it up to you to fight it out say I don't know ball etc.

You could look at advanced metrics, try working out how to adjust for league quality, just base it on output.

So much is dependent on what each team asks of their wingers.

Who are the best supporting wide players in the world for example, i.e. players who allow their central striker and 8s to flourish… honestly it could be Grealish and Bernardo.

Does that make them the best "wing pairing"? Not sure.

I ran a poll to ask who my audience thinks is best of the four we mentioned.

https://twitter.com/AMonFootball/status/1694274834438447430

Honestly, Saka and Martinelli were always going to win as my audience is obviously Arsenal fans predominantly, but it’s interesting to see the order of second, third and fourth in the court of public opinion.

Considering the league, this season, if they both deliver on some big UCL nights, put up similar or better PL numbers and continue to develop their game… I see no reason why they can’t be undisputed as the best pairing in the world.

But other players get to develop too, and Vini Jr and Rodrygo have an average age of 22.5.

What do you think?

For me, though I’d individually say Saka is a top 3 winger in the world, and Martinelli is probably in the top 10...

*I pick them as the best wing pairing in world football.* 🔥

The way they come together and compliment each other’s skillset makes them the most feared pairing in our league in my view.

The combination of skill, speed, technical security, game intelligence, humility and potential means the ceiling is frightening.

Sometimes, things just make more sense together.

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