Kieran Tierney is a player at Arsenal who many agree deserves more playing time, especially after losing his first-team spot to Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Zinchenko’s impressive performances in the previous campaign have made it understandable why Mikel Arteta has chosen him as the first-choice left-back at the club.
While Arteta is pleased with Zinchenko’s contributions, he also values Tierney and has stated that the Scotsman remains part of his plans at the club.
Despite being in Arteta’s plans, Tierney has not been receiving the expected game time. Alan Hutton, a former Aston Villa player, speculates that there could be an underlying issue between the manager and the player, leading to the reduced playing opportunities for Tierney.
Hutton said via Football insider
“Something is obviously going on if he is saying himself that and he has been left out for other reasons then that is obviously an issue between himself and the manager.
“I think he is an unbelievably talented footballer and it is a real shame that he has gone down there and it has not quite worked out.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Tierney is a good player and should play often, but Zinchenko is doing a fine job at the club, so it is hard not to play him.
Arteta is in a tricky spot, but he is right not to allow Tierney to leave because Arsenal needs more than one top left-back.
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I don’t where people get this idea that Tierney is not playing. Of all the players that have played at LB this pre season,he’s by far accumulated the most minutes. People keep saying Arteta has fallen out with this player or that but then the players themselves deny these rumours and speculation. Today it’s Tierney, sometimes it’s ESR, Saliba,Martinelli,Pepe
Gutter press if you ask me
*I don’t knoe
There is so much rubbish talked about Tierney, especially from Scottish pundits, that it is worth remembering what has actually happened.
Tierney signed four years ago and was carrying a groin injury going into his first season and ended up playing only 24 games. It was the sort of injury that only really gets better with prolonged rest but most professional footballers do not get that opportunity. The next season he did a bit better and played 38 games but after that it went back down to 25 due to a knee injury at the end of the season.
This it was obvious that we needed another top quality left back and Tavares looked way off the mark. We simply could not rely on Tierney to play a whole season.
We brought in Zinchenko, which was ideal as he was a very different sort of left back to Tierney, which gave is a lot of options. Zinny’s biggest strength is his ability to underlap onto central midfield giving us an overload on that area. He was so successful that it was always going to be tough to replace him as the team was depending on his passing ability. Even so Tierney got a lot of substitute appearances and with domestic cups and Europe ended up playing 35 games, more than he had done in two of his other seasons and actually more than Zinchenko.
It actually seems like good management of an injury prone player to me but that has not stopped all sorts of rubbish coming out of the Scottish press including the mad idea that he will be loaned back to Celtic. Last season was the first season he has has been injury free at Arsenal and thus available for all of Scotland’s game. It would be nice to seem some recognition of that but we just get conspiracy nonsense from Hutton.
This season could be superb for Tierney. Zinchenko has missed pre-season so an opportunity has opened up. Kiwior may offer up tough competition but Tierney has a good chance here, especially as we have the option of playing a more attacking right back to underlap into midfield – Timber or Partey. If Tierney grabs that chance he can keep Zinchenko out the team.
This a refreshing take on Tierney. From some of the comments about Tierney you could get the impression that Arteta was at war with Tierney.
Banish to merely playing in second half of games the Scottish has been nothing but outstanding whenever he gets his chances to play.
Instead, Kiwior, Tamyasu and Timber have all been given the nod at left back, with the Scottish getting his chance to stake his claim during the second halves, And to his credit, he certainly made the most of the opportunities particularly between Man United and Barcelona.
He was impressive in his 45 minutes against Man United as he not only operated as a traditional full back,but he did a good job inverting at times too.
In his twenty minutes against Barcelona he demonstrated a solid defensive display an assist for the very intelligent Tossard.
Mark my word, given those two perfomance against quality opposition, it is going to be difficult for the gaffer to move him on.
👍 Won’t be difficult to move him on, if Tierney is not selected in the starting eleven.
A strange one for me. I do think he will go given half a chance.
Tierney is a fantastic player! Supporters forget, when Arteta first took over, many established players let him down. The player’s that stabilize the team, and turn the results around, were Saka, Tierney, Martinelli and Smith Rowe. I still remember the home game against Chelsea, some players went down with apparent Covid, these youngsters really stepped up!
Tierney has always given one hundred percent and is a leader. Zichenko is an excellent player, and gives Arsenal more options going forward.
I would argue , Tierney is actually a better defender. Both players offer Arteta more flexibility tactically. Definitely Tierney will only get better (hopefully less injuries) and is a player, we must retain. Most supporters, really like his attitude, commitment and he is a gifted player.
And Arsenal’s defense is improved leaking fewer goals, when Tierney plays.