‘I don’t accept a substitute role at Arsenal’ – Eddie Nketiah sends strong message to Mikel Arteta after the match against Man United
Last season, Gabriel Jesus was Arsenal’s number 1 choice in the center position. When the Brazilian player was injured, Eddie Nketiah was the substitute. The player born in 1999 played quite well, but that was not enough for him to win the trust of coach Mikel Arteta.
Shortly after Gabriel Jesus returned, Eddie Nketiah was back on the bench. Next season, the competition at Arsenal will be even greater by the return of Balogun on loan. Most recently, Eddie Nketiah announced he did not accept the substitute, this player said:
“No I don’t think I have accepted being a backup and I will never accept that. That’s not my mentality. That’s not why I signed here to sit and be second best. I want to be the best, I want to play and that’s the mentality I have.”
“I realise I might not play every game and that’s the coach’s decision but it’s never going to be my mentality to accept not playing.”
“I am going to always push in training to get opportunities to show why I think I should be playing and to give the manager a headache. Most players should have that mentality. There’s ways to do it. There is no point sitting around and moaning every day.”
Eddie Nketiah is currently with Arsenal on a summer tour in the US, he needs to take advantage of the opportunity to prove to coach Mikel Arteta. Because in the recent match against Man United, Nketiah was completely lost in attack and could not find the necessary connection with his teammates.
Data from Sofascore show that, despite being present for more than 70 minutes, Nketiah only had one shot towards the Man Utd goal. At the same time, he also launched only 12 accurate passes.
Need to know, Nketiah lost in both air battles and only won 3/6 of the hand-to-hand dispute situations. Notably, after 24 touches of the ball against Man Utd, the English striker had 7 situations that made Arsenal lose control of the ball.
Scored 6.3 points by Sofascore, it can be affirmed that Nketiah is one of the worst players in this match. Obviously, he will have to make great efforts to find the opportunity to play regularly in the new season.
