Gary Neville says clubs will target Arsenal’s new signing Ben White because of his limitations.
The Gunners made the Englishman their top summer signing recently after pursuing him for much of the transfer window.
White has been one of the most improved players in England in the last year, having shone on loan at Leeds United in the 2019/2020 campaign and back home for Brighton last season.
The Seagulls played hardball with his transfer after he earned a place in England’s squad for Euro 2020.
He has been tipped to transform Arsenal’s defence, but he didn’t make a good start to his time in London as Arsenal was beaten 2-0 by Brentford on his league debut for them.
He was at fault for the second goal and Arsenal struggled to defend against the Bees who are in their first top-flight season.
Having watched the match as a pundit, Neville says teams will take advantage of White’s physique and put their big attackers on him.
He said as quoted by Sun Sports: “I said before the game that nobody is going to remember at the end of the season how many good passes Ben White has made.
“And you know when we say he’s good on the ball, that was something we used to say 15 years ago when a centre-back was good on the ball.
“I actually think most centre-backs now, in top six clubs, are competent on the ball. They get it out their feet, play good passes, they can play diagonal switches.
“Harry Maguire is good on the ball, John Stones is good on the ball, Virgil van Dijk is good on the ball. They’re all good on the ball. Thiago Silva at Chelsea is good on the ball.
“So we’ve got to stop saying he’s good on the ball because every centre-back in the top-six is.
“The difference will be whether he defend his goal. Can he make a difference to this Arsenal team?
“And it’s too early. We’re talking about tonight but lets be clear, those Ivan Toney clips, those five or six clips where he’s got nudged around, that’s going to be the pre-match analysis of everyone who is going to play Arsenal.
“If you’re playing Arsenal next week, you’ll be thinking, ‘We’ll stick it on him, we’ll put it up against him, we’ll put our big man on him on set-pieces’, and he will be a target.
“He’s got a £50m price tag and he’ll have to come through those early months of pressure and expectation and people like us talking about him.
“That’s what happens. This is not an attack on Ben White, it’s just a reality club that he’s at a club where he’s going to be judged differently than he was last season at Brighton.”