“I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt” Redknapp says Arsenal man will eventually shine

Jamie Redknapp is confident that Thomas Partey has what it takes to become one of the best players in the Premier League despite his rocky start to life at Arsenal.

The Gunners signed the Ghanaian from Atletico Madrid in the summer after triggering his release clause late into the transfer window.

He had built a reputation as one of the finest box-to-box midfielders in the world while he played for Atleti.

When he moved to Arsenal, the club’s fans and football lovers around the world were confident that they had secured a major signing.

However, his first campaign in England hasn’t been as good as expected with injuries limiting the games he played and Arsenal languishing in mid-table.

He would get the chance to have a proper pre-season with the squad in the summer and Redknapp says the jury is still very much out on him before backing him to prove his worth next season.

He said on Sky Sports as quoted by Sun Sports: “It’s been tough for him, he’s had injuries, it’s been his first season in the Premier League and we have to give people time.

“Some just come to the league and they just thrive. Others find it really difficult. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“There have been games where I watched him and thought I would have hated to play against him. He’s got all the attributes.

“But there are other times when he gets into what I would call ‘Arsenal mode’.

“I don’t want to see him like that, I want to see him high energy in that midfield running games. Next season that is what he needs to do.

“He needs to come into next season absolutely flying because his performances have been too up and down for my liking.

“But next year we will see the real Thomas Partey.”

Tags Jamie Redknapp Thomas Partey

10 Comments

  1. Well, as long as Jamie is giving him the benefit of the doubt, everything will be fine next season – no need to worry avnymire😂😂😂

  2. At Atletico, Thomas was very much a player who played the ball forwards, yet here at Arsenal he has been coached to play sideways. Well that just does not suit a strong forward moving midfielder. Imagine Patrick Viera doing all this slow sideway and backwards nonsense, he just wouldn’t have accepted it. Why not play Partey playing power surges….you know, in the direction called forwards?

    1. Preach Sean…I’ve been speaking about this all season…we’ve had no real presence in the middle of the park between the DM and the striker, so whenever he looks to take a more direct approach there’s nothing but pylons standing beside an opposing player…of course, he should have made the necessary adjustments as the season wore on and not been caught on the ball so often, but the fact this was even the case speaks volumes about our tactically naïve approach…it’s clear that he possesses some world-class skills on the ball, but it comes as no surprise that another player had to accept a dumbed-down role due to our abject negativity, which ultimately led to an overabundance of sideways and backwards football

    2. I said it before he should be going from box to box and you’ll see the best of him and give us much more going forward

  3. The scary thing is how he has dropped off big style from Athletico and his first few games. Why has he gone from the dominant, top notch midfielder we need to struggling with the system?

  4. For Partey it’s been a tough adjustment to the power and pace of the EPL, and the injuries made it even harder. However he’s shown many flashes of his ability and quality, so just needs to become more consistent and commanding. I think it will come with a bit more time. Also he needs to get used to playing with a quality partner most games instead of having to chop and change with Elneny / Xhaka / Ceballos due to red cards / injuries / etc.

    1. I think it is about adjustment Yossarian and he hasn’t made it.

      I didn’t know much about Partey before he arrived, the only Athletico matches I had watched in full were the two against us in the Europa League semi final games and I had no recollection of him from those, not sure whether he even played in them but he must have been a good player in a good team both domestically and having played in two European finals.

      That plus the £45 million paid meant to me that he needed to make an immediate impact, a noticeable improvement to our performances, he hasn’t

      A couple of very good passes, one to Laca who scored and one to Auba who didn’t, but that’s it, I don’t think he has even been our best midfield performer, certainly never looked like scoring, a clear missing part of our team, a couple of goal scoring midfielders to take the pressure off of our closely marked forwards would have made a big difference to our season in my view

      I have read plenty of excuses, blame the coach, the other players around him, injuries etc but I am not convinced by any of that to be honest, so far I just haven’t seen a player that his reputation implied I should

      I would obviously love that to change, I’d happily eat my words with gravy but not for the first time a TV football pundit has come up with an irrelevant comment

      We have no choice but give the benefit of the doubt that he will come good (as Pepe has to be fair) as we didn’t keep the receipt, we can’t take him back as we can with Ceballos and Odegaard who also haven’t made sufficient impact.

      I believe we are strong at the back, potentially very good up top with the options we currently have but need to come up with a much better regular midfield for next season in my opinion

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