Nuno Tavares has been famed for being a goal-scoring full-back since he joined Arsenal and has done well on loan at Olympique Marseille this season.
A defender’s first job is to defend and scoring is only secondary, but Tavares is one full-back eager to get forward as soon as a match starts.
The left-back is one of the leading scorers at his loan club Marseille this season, which is commendable, but he leaves so much space behind when going forward.
That does not seem to bother him as he explained his approach in a recent interview:
Tavares said via Maxi Foot: “My flaw? I don’t control myself. I struggle to stay in place if we have a few minutes and need to win the game. I want to always run and lose all my stamina. When I keep going back and forth, I lose my defensive lucidity, but I need to make the effort.
“Am I too energetic? Yes, in most games. If we’re winning 2-1 for example, I want to score the third goal. I don’t like seeing the other team in our side of the pitch. Pushing us back. That’s my mentality, but sometimes that’s not possible. I need to stay back, but it’s against my nature.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
The eagerness to always get forward is one of the reasons Tavares is not the best at the back at OM or Arsenal.
The defender is still young and improving, but he must become solid when defending or switch to becoming a winger where he can freely spend time up top, with his defensive duties coming as a second choice.
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Not got much going for him then as a defender if he can’t or won’t play in that position when on the pitch. It’s all very well bombing forward but his primary job is to defend and he seemingly doesn’t want to do that.
A revealing self admission that the iron discipline vitally needed to be a defender is alien to TAVARES .
Not welcome words I suggest, until you accept that he NEVER WAS and never will be any good as a defender but that he IS talented, provided he is played in the correct and attacking minded position.
He still needs to mentally mature though, IF he is to ever be any REAL USE TO US.
This is up to the manager to see ,the rightful position for this young player.Saka was being played as a left back,he can also feel in on attacking left wing
the lad has to specialise either to attack or to defend otherwise he will not achieve something big in panic
I love this guy.Brng him back to Arsenal.Play him in defensive mid field or understudy to Saka.You can see he has a winning mentality.Teach him to play to win from any other position except the back positions.He will score more goals without causing the errors in our back four.