Rooney advises Arsenal to attack against Man City
"How do Arsenal stop Haaland?" Rooney wrote in The Times. "With William Saliba injured, they don't have an individual that can match Haaland's speed and power. So the only way is for Arsenal to go out and try to impose the game."
Saliba suffered an injury from the match against Sporting in the second leg of the 1/8 round of the Europa League and missed the last five matches. At that time, the medical team was concerned about the French midfielder who would miss the rest of the season. But Saliba has returned to training in recent days, raising hopes of being able to attend from the away match of Man City on April 26.
However, according to British newspaper Sportmail on April 24, that hope was "disappeared", when Saliba's recovery process did not take place as effectively as expected. The source said the 22-year-old defender is suffering from a problem with his lumbar disc, and will certainly be absent when Arsenal arrive at the Etihad. He may even miss the next game against Chelsea on May 2. In recent press conferences, coach Mikel Arteta also admitted that he did not know when the students would return.
Earlier, the Arsenal leadership was said to want to take a risk when ready to "burn the stage" to bring Saliba back from the match against Man City. He is considered the optimal solution to contain Haaland - an explosive striker with 48 goals in 42 matches since the beginning of the season, including 32 in the Premier League and 12 in the Champions League.
With Saliba certainly absent, Rooney advised Arsenal to focus on exploiting the Man City defence, instead of worrying too much about Haaland. "Arsenal needs to have the mentality: no one thinks we will be here, fighting for the title. So let's go out and aim for victory," he added. "If Arsenal had that kind of approach, it would have been great."
According to Rooney, Arsenal will be like choosing a slow death, if the policy is to defend and wait for an opportunity against Man City. "Man City are very strong and cannot be controlled. So the question is what Arsenal can do in attack and play without regrets," the former Man Utd striker continued.
Rooney emphasized that the last two Champions League quarter-finals showed that Man City was "vulnerable" to transition situations. According to the former England striker, the most obvious example is the situation when Bayern counterattacked in the 49th minute of the first leg at the Etihad, but Leroy Sane did not beat goalkeeper Ederson in the face-to-face position.
Both rounds, Bayern played better. In the first leg at the Etihad Stadium, Bayern held the ball more with 56%, but could not score from 12 shots and lost 0-3. When the rematch at the Allianz Arena, Bayern held the ball 58%, shot 19 times with seven shots on target, compared to Man City's 7 and 2, but only resulted in 1-1, and were eliminated with a total score of 1- 4.
According to Rooney, Arsenal have players in high form who can take advantage of opportunities in a way that Bayern cannot, including Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus.
