Former Arsenal man, Kevin Campbell believes a lack of game time is the reason Nuno Tavares is struggling at Arsenal right now.
The Portuguese youth international was terrible in Arsenal’s last match against Crystal Palace and he lasted only the first half of the game.
Mikel Arteta signed him in the summer as a backup for the often-injured Kieran Tierney.
However, he has failed to live up to expectations, and on the evidence of his performances against the Eagles, he is not ready for regular first-team action at the Emirates.
But Campbell says he did well the last time he had a sustained run in the team and claimed the defender is struggling now because he has been unused for a very long time.
He tells Football Insider: “Tierney was always going to be the number one and that means Tavares has had a severe lack of game time. When he was playing regularly he looked good. But he has not had the opportunity to build momentum up recently.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Not playing for a long time could make a player lose momentum, but that is one of the poorest excuses Tavares can make now.
When you are battling with a better player for a place on the team, you need to keep working hard and be ready at all times to take your chance when it presents itself.
Tavares will be lucky to get picked again. Hopefully, if he gets another chance, he will take it.
People need to chill with the way they are scapegoating this lad. There are 11 players on the field, he’s the only one I have seen people criticize. He’s not even getting encourage by the coach, the fans and pundits are adding more salt to his issue. We always scapegoat players and none of them is ever good enough for us.. I remember when many of you were hailing arteta for signing perfect players during his stay at the club so far. I guess he wasn’t among the players that were signed by Arteta.
I guess you want Arteta to encourage him publicly
How do you know that he is not being encouraged by the coach?
How many times does your boss encourage you after paying you?
This guys are getting paid excessively, besides they’ve got almost everything at their disposal, what else could Tavares want than to pick himself up and improve.
I will reply base on the comments here. You all asked why does he needs encouragement. The same thing can be said by our manager. He didn’t get sacked or pulled down by the board after doing extremely poor pro before this season. He get the support he needed maybe not by the fans but surely by the board that we had to lower the club standard to take him. Why can’t he put the same faith on the lad. In that match Gabriel was accounted for 2 goals and I didn’t see him being replaced. Or let me guess you will say that’s the only poor game he has this season so far ?? Or white haven’t make any mistake leading to goals since he arrived. Why are they not getting subtitled or replaced in the lineup.. many of you praise all his signing to be perfect, what changes in less than a year?? Moreso I am not against critism, but he’s the only one being called out by everyone which is not fair.
Good response. If Arteta hadn’t removed Tavares, many would not have been scapegoating him. I agree with the comments above that Tavares is paid a lot just to kick a football and he should be held accountable if he isn’t performing, whatever the excuse. But I also want the same treatment to be given to other players and even the coach
Tavares will improve
We should start him against Brighton, once he gets that first half an hour under his belt iat the office, will dictate how we move forward with him.
Hopefully he’s not over targeted by the opponent, his development can ethier continue here or he goes out on loan immediately at the end of the season with Pepe.
Now someone needs to put there hands around his shoulders and give him the assurance, that they believe in him and that’its only a matter of time before he finds his feet, the kids has quality, all he seems to need is a little nurturing and getting up his confidence.
His behavior in a game I saw after he was substituted left much to be desired, so I realized the gaffer had work to do, he should be shown the clip on the match and accept his mistakes, he will realize Guendouzi at his age was performing better, but attitude was a little over the top, so his attitude must improve immediately for a start.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if he have a great game in the office and even knick a goal