Kieran Tierney may have played his last game for Arsenal after being loaned to Real Sociedad this season.
The Scottish left-back has been among the finest players in his position in the Premier League for much of his time at the Emirates.
However, Arsenal signed Oleksandr Zinchenko last season, and the Ukrainian is considered a superior player.
While Tierney is a good left-back, he struggles to play in an inverted role, which Zinchenko excels at.
Despite having a good time at Sociedad, injuries have also limited his contributions to his loan club.
As Arsenal has moved on, if Tierney is not signed permanently by Sociedad in the summer, he will need to find a new home. Journalist Charles Watts claims he does not seem to have a future at the Emirates.
He said, as quoted by The Sun:
“I think Tierney’s time at Arsenal is coming to an end. I don’t know where he’s going to go in the summer, Arsenal are open to selling him permanently.
“Last summer they couldn’t do that, no real bids came in for him, so they sent him off to Sociedad.
“Whether Sociedad will turn out permanently in the summer, we’ll have to wait and see.
“He’s made a good impact there, but he has had injuries again which have disrupted his season… I don’t see a way back for him at Arsenal.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Tierney’s time is past now, and we have to sell him at the end of the season when he returns.
Hopefully, he will be in fine form for the remaining weeks of the term to attract a new club.
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Really a nice honest guy. But Arteta did not think he would fit in his style of play.
I hope Arteta would give him another chance.
The most important thing about Keiran Tierney’s future at Arsenal is that Mikel Arteta does not rate him. Tierney is a superior defender to Zinchenko, but is perceived to be unable to adapt to the inverted role. In attack.
He has always had a strong engine, overlapping and putting in excellent crosses. Unfortunately Arsenal has not played with a tall strong CF to take advantage of these crosses. Maybe Kai Havertz can grow into this role.
One thing is for sure. Tierney will not get roasted defensively at left back, like Zinchenko, who appears a weak link against teams (top teams in EPL and Europe) with strong attacking right sides. Tierney is a quality option at LB, who strengthens Arsenal defensively against such teams.
Tierney has a good engine and is quick. However, there have been limitations to his game.
The narrative that Tierney “will not get roasted” at LB is not credible. Tierney has struggled against quick tricky wide players in the past.
Quotes from Tierney suggest that he himself is aware of his limitations as an inverted FB in Arteta’s system.
Indeed there’s a day Tierney really struggled against Salah. I think Tomiyasu is the only guy to have managed to deal with Salah in our matches against Liverpool. Also think Arteta is now prioritising footballers who can keep possession,keep it ticking with simple passing,whereas Tierney’s instinct is to run with it up the wing,which increases the chances of turning over possession. The fact that his style doesn’t fit with Arteta’s current philosophy and being injury prone will make it difficult to have him back in the squad.
With kiwior showing how good he is in that position, timber also playing there along with zinchenko and tomiyasu , Tierney has no future
An excellent player but his injury problems were at celtic before he joined us. A likeable player and I really do hope he joins a club where he can still compete for trophies not just some mid table club. His injuries will return unfortunately this happens to players – even though he has had injuries at sociedad I personally believe a better climate will prolong his career rather than coming back to the PL where the physicality and speed of the game will see him break down more often
He has to find another club. No minutes in cl game yesterday so not first choice in Sociedad. For Arsenal you need to be mentally clever and mobile. Not sure he is either as we were susceptible to attacks and crosses coming in from his side. With the full backs now there is a different profile of player. Please note technically Zinchenco is light years ahead of him even if he is not a defender.
Technically Zinchenko is superior to virtually every other Arsenal player.In terms of defensive attributes he is, without doubt, the weakest Arsenal player.
I think we all warmed to Tierney – with lots of posters suggesting he would make a great captain.
Like Ramsdale, Tierney has fallen foul of Arteta’s requirements and should move on to new pastures, notwithstanding his poor fitness record which will hamper him wherever he goes.