Poor old Tavares should take a cue from Saka By Sylvester Kwentua
Good day friends. Nuno Tavares is surely not enjoying the best of times at Arsenal right now. His defensive error that led to a goal against Liverpool, and his numerous misplaced passes in the second half, has surely thrown him up for scrutiny, and at his age, I don’t know how well he can handle this, but I sure can give him a piece of advice.
I actually fear for Nuno, because if not properly managed, his error against Liverpool might hunt him for a long time, and it may affect his development as a player.
Bought by Arsenal in the summer as an understudy to Tierney, the young Portuguese has shown in several games that he is ready to take over from Tierney if the need arises; but his mistakes against Liverpool may have humbled him and given his coach a different thought pattern.
So, should his mistake against Liverpool stop his development? I don’t think so, but what I know is that Nuno has made a mistake, and it is up to him to either allow the mistake define his career or not. And If he was to look for any inspiration on how to handle this dark patch of his career, then he should ask his fellow teammate, Bukayo Saka how he managed the backlashes he got after missing a penalty for England in the Euros.
Playing in the final of a major competition is what every young player aspires for; and in the case of Saka, he got to represent England in the tournament and even got heavily involved in their final match against Italy. In that game, he hardly put a foot wrong until it was time for penalties.
Bukayo Saka missed his penalty kick against Italy, England lost the game, and Saka was one of those who took lots of stick from English fans. They sent uncomplimentary messages to him, threatened him, and even racially abused him. At that moment, it seemed his whole world was crumbling and there were fears in some quarters that Saka may not recover from all the bashings. But guess what? He actually recovered and several months later, he is playing an important role for Arsenal. How he did it, nobody can really say, but somehow he dusted himself off, and right now he is doing greater things.
Nuno Tavares is facing his own baptism of fire right now, and all I ask is for him to be level headed, calm and patient. He needs to strive to perform better when next given an opportunity. With a good performance, he will win back the love of a few fans who feel he did them wrong. Hopefully, Tavares gets back to enjoying football and making better impact at Arsenal but if he needs a shoulder to cry on, I suggest he gives Saka a phone call.
We are Arsenal and proud.
Sylvester
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