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Danny Murphy baffled Arteta doesn’t use 24-year-old Arsenal player more
Danny Murphy has claimed that Arsenal seem to have become too predictable and named the player Mikel Arteta should be using more often.
Arsenal are going through a very poor patch right now. The Gunners have won just one of their last seven games in all competitions. And they have lost their last three.
Unfortunately, it appears that all of Arsenal’s attacking players have gone off the boil at the same time. They have only scored five goals in those last seven games, one of which came from Gabriel Magalhaes.
Kai Havertz missed a number of chances against Liverpool in the FA Cup at the weekend. Meanwhile, the likes of Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard look set to go nowhere near their goal tallies from last season.
Danny Murphy wants Reiss Nelson to play more for Arsenal
Arsenal obviously have the quality to turn their fortunes around. They showed that last season as they came agonisingly close to winning the Premier League title.
But speaking on , Danny Murphy believes that Mikel Arteta needs to be more proactive in turning the tide. And he thinks he could start by giving Reiss Nelson more opportunities.
“The easy thing is to go they need a 25-goal striker. And I get it because if you had someone a bit more reliable, I get it, because they make chances, playing well and are losing games. I look at it a bit differently sometimes and I don’t think this gets talked about enough. So he very rarely deviates from this 4-3-3,” he said.
“And normally in all the big games, if Martinelli, Jesus and Saka are fit, they play. Now even in games, you don’t get switching of wingers, so Saka and Martinelli sometimes have a switch, mix it up, even put Jesus wide where he played brilliantly for Man City for years on the right. Give Saka a little breather down the middle like Salah does, go in there, cause problems, headaches for defenders. And this thing where he always plays Saka and he doesn’t really bring him off, sometimes even when he’s not playing well.
“I was at the game against Liverpool, Reiss Nelson’s a good player. He’s got something about him. Why doesn’t he ever give him a game? He played him away at PSV who haven’t been beaten at home in god knows how long. Hard game to come into when you haven’t played many.
“Give him a chance in some games. Trossard gets goals. Maybe half an hour before the game ends and you’re 0-0 or 1-0 down, maybe go Jesus and Nketiah up front and stick two wide men on. It’s become a bit predictable.”
Gunners may have missed the boat with winger
Nelson is yet to start a single league game for Arsenal this term. In fact, the 24-year-old has not started a Premier League fixture since the 2019/20 season.
Nelson has admitted that he is not happy with his game-time. And he is attracting interest from the likes of Wolves and Sevilla. So perhaps a departure could be on the cards, particularly if Arsenal want to raise some funds to pursue their own targets.
Unfortunately, it seems that he has come through at the wrong time, given that he plays in the same position as Saka.
But Murphy thinks that he could actually make a decent impact if he did get more chances to impress for Arsenal.