Arsenal midfielders need to be worried not only by Ethan Nwaneri but also by Myles Lewis Skelly.
Last weekend, Gooners were frustrated Mikel Arteta wasn’t brave enough to play Lewis-Skelly at left back. On Wednesday night, amid a mini-defensive injury crisis, Arteta gave the Hale End Star a shot in the starting 11, and he impressed.
Gooners can’t stop raving about Skelly’s performance in that 3-0 win over Monaco.
The teenage sensation had 53 touches, 45/47 completed passes, four ground duels won, two successful dribbles, and a beautiful pass building up to Arsenal’s first goal of the game.
If you’re talented enough, you are old enough, and this kid has a higher ceiling. The fact that he is originally a midfielder shouldm’t surprise you.
But from how he influences the game, he’s surely way too talented to be wasted at LB long-term. As an apprenticeship, it’s fine, but whoever has to move out of his way in midfield long-term, so be it; he and Ethan Nwaneri will be the guys the Arsenal engine room will be built around.
Mikel Arteta letting young midfielders Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira go and replacing them with 28-year-old Mikel Merino wasn’t just an out-of-nowhere transfer decision.
He surely was making the path clear for the Hale End duo. That said, at times he may not want to play them, but sooner or later he may have no choice but to.
Nwaneri could be the ultimate Arsenal Right Central Midfielder; some of us Gooners can’t stop highlighting how he’ll replace Martin Ødegaard. On the other hand, Lewis Skelly could be that all-phase Left Central Midfielder that Arsenal crave; how forward-thinking he is and how he naturally creates a lot of underlapping/overlapping runs from the LW could see him flourish in that “Granit Xhaka Arsenal 2022-23 role.”
That said, so why is Lewis Skelly playing left back? He’s playing there (like Saka did at the beginning) so as to develop his all-round game, in terms of positioning, how to track opponents, and how to connect the different areas of the pitch. This is just a development stage before he’s unleashed, and I fully expect him, along with Nwaneri, to be Arsenal’s dream midfield of the future.
Don’t you?
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
If he ends up in midfield, I’ve no doubt MLS would play as the deep lying anchor, which be halfway does from his left back role anyway. He’s incredibly press resistant.
We better not iron him then.🤣😂👍
Nice pun DEREK 👍🏿
Onyango,
My pleasure, I try my best.😉👍
But Arteta hates youth players so none of them will get any chances lol
Arteta does not hate youth players he giving them time to get into the game and not throwing games at that at a young age
Possible, but possible he never plays in the midfield.
Remember Zinchenko? that midfielder plays as a left back. Tomas Partey? How many times has he played RB this year, when other options were available?
Just because MLS came up as a winger means nothing in Arteta’s tactics, so don’t get your hopes up.
We have currently
1. Jesus a winger plays as a backup striker
2. Havertz a 10 plays as a striker/false 9
3. Rice a DM plays as a CM
4. Zichenko a midfielder plays as a inverted LB
5. White, Tomiyasu, Kiwior mostly play as fullbacks
6. Partey has moved to backup RB role often
Arteta prefers “versatility” over being a master of your position, so don’t be disappointed if MLS stays at LB due to the obsession with inverting the LB, regardless of who plays there.
MLS came up as a midfielder, not winger my apologies.
In my humble opinion Durand,
Its alright having all these so called versatile players for when absolutely necessary.
But to me, you can’t beat round holes in round holes.
Surely you’ve got a better chance of said player, playing at a more consistent level in their preferred position, than you do keep chopping and changing their positions.
They must wonder if their coming or going sometimes.
The notion of a footballer playing a fixed role/position is becoming less important in football. I don’t think it’s strictly an Arteta or Arsenal thing. It is happening everywhere. I think it is part of the evolution of the game we love. Watch Liverpool,City,or Chelsea.They all have versatile players. They’ve all made use of the inverted fullback tactic with players like Trent,Lewis and Cucurella respectively.
With enhancements in the physical and technical quality of footballers,the best way to beat opponents is through tactics and having players who are not ‘glued’ to a specific position is a tactic that can outsmart opponents. Because of this,versatility,which might have been considered a disadvantage two decades ago is now a strength. The aim is to have players who are comfortable in multiple areas of the pitch. Even the greatest player of my generation,maybe all time,Lionel Messi,was versatile and it was never a problem. Played right wing,false nine and attacking midfield to great effect.
With respect Onyango, if you think the modern day player is superior technically than guys of yesteryear, you are very much mistaken.They may be fitter, but better in terms of ball skills and football intelligence, no way.
Grandad I think there were a SELECT few players of the past who were likely very technically gifted. My understanding is that number tens,central midfielders and sometimes wingers were required to have good technique. The rest just needed to be good athletes.
On the other hand,today even goalkeepers are required to have good technique. Defenders as well.Wouldn’t you agree that today’s defenders have better technique? In the past,defenders and keepers just needed to hoof it up the pitch.It is because everyone is now required to be technically sound that I think the pool of technically gifted players is bigger than it was in yester years.
Lewis-Skelly didn’t come up as a winger, I think he played mostly at central midfield, but also left back. I don’t think the position is particularly new to him.
Your ideas about what players are and aren’t are in some cases just your opinion – jesus has played vastly more games as a striker than winger in his career. He played maybe 10% of his matches for city as a winger purely to get more game time, won the title mainly playing as a striker and “came up” as a striker – that’s his “natural” role but maybe he’s not good enough to do it at the very top level as a starter. I remember Eidur Gudjohnsen transitioning from a very good striker to a brilliant CM which allowed him to stay on at Chelsea when they started becoming more competitive and to play for Barcelona. Maybe something like that would be appropriate for jesus – the more time goes by and nothing changes, though, the more I think he’s just going to fall away, unfortunately.
Similarly, havertz doesn’t look good enough when he plays as a 10 in a top side – reminds me a lot of firmino in that way (a 10 who had his most successful period playing at CF) – he’s better at getting into the box than at controlling play and picking passes, so it’s not crazy for him to be played up front – just don’t think he’s ideal to be our main CF, looks more like a decent backup striker to me.
Rice is fairly mediocre at passing but great at pressing and defending – he can play either CM or DM but for a top side, his engine is more useful for a box to box role than sitting in front of the defence – that’s only useful for when we’re expecting to be defending all game. Maybe if we had a brilliant CM to play alongside odegaard, I suppose – someone like Bernardo who is creative but also extremely disciplined.
Zinchenko has played most of his football at fullback at this point – I doubt he’d be good enough to play midfield for a top side but would like to see it tried at least once tbh
White and Tomi have worked as fullbacks, so don’t understand the complaint, and kiwior has only played there in emergencies.
Similarly partey has played RB in emergencies, for the most part – there may have been other options at times, but they’ve often carried similar risks.
To my mind, for the most part, arteta values versatility so that he has multiple options to cover for injuries – players like white can become naturalised to a new role (similar to players like Lauren and Toure in the past), which is fine – white is a recognised RB now. The only one who regularly changes positions is timber but the others have a main position and only really change when we need to cover for injuries. Makes sense to me..
Onyango,
I don’t say that there’s no place for versatility.
But I still think that in the long run a player is going to perform to a more consistent level, if he’s played in a regular position.
If you need a versatile player to fill in for whatever reason then fine.
But for me personally, it’s round pegs in round holes. I believe that it would prove to be more successful in the long run.
It looks like were going to have to agree to disagree on this one, my friend.😉👍
I get your point Derek. Specialization is important in mastering a skill,but perharps there’s a middle ground. I think the core/spine of a team should consist of specialised players i.e. Goalkeeper-Centre Back-Defensive Midfielder-Centre Forward. The rest can have a little more freedom to move around. For instance,we see Odegaard predominantly in right midfield. I think he’d do just fine on the left as well. Maybe out of 11 players,you can have 7 who stick to one role and 4 of the versatile kind. Too much versatility indeed has its cons.
Being versatile is useful as long as it doesn’t undermine the strength of main position. There surely has to be a balance between a “one trick pony” and a Jack off all trades and a master of none
Onyango,
You’ve won me around, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what you said.
And Sue, your follow up piece wasn’t to shabby either.
Well said the both of you.
What’s wrong with me, I’m being nice.😂🤣😉👍