Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney will be ‘rightly frustrated’ at the lack of game time with the Gunners ‘evolving away from him tactically’, suggests Football.London reporter Kaya Kaynak.
Mikel Arteta signed Oleksandr Zinchenko at the beginning of the season in a move from Manchester City, meaning Tierney has fallen down the pecking order.
Arsenal news – Kieran Tierney
A recent report from The Mirror suggested that Newcastle United are interested in signing Arsenal defender Tierney during the summer transfer window. The report claims that the Scotland defender is open to a move to the north-east in order to satisfy his need for regular minutes.
Arsenal have changed the way they play with Zinchenko operating in a different role than we’re used to seeing Tierney operate in.
Zinchenko plays as an inverted full-back, a role explained superbly by The Coaches Voice, who uses the Ukrainian defender as an example.
With Tierney your more traditional full-back, this has led to a significant drop in game time this season for the 25-year-old.
What has Kaynak said about Tierney?
Tierney has seemed to handle his situation well by not kicking up a fuss, but the lack of game time is inevitably frustrating the Arsenal left-back, suggests Kaynak.
Speaking to GiveMeSport, he said: “I think he’s a very good player and I think he’ll be rightly frustrated at the lack of game time he’s got this season. But, you look at the way Arsenal are evolving as a team. They do seem to be evolving away from him tactically.
“If you look at the kind of player Zinchenko is compared to the kind of player Tierney is, that seems to suggest that Arsenal are going more for that inverted full-back rather than the traditional overlapping full-back that Tierney is.
“He responded well earlier in the season when Takehiro Tomiyasu came in at left-back when Zinchenko was injured. Obviously, that would have been frustrating for him.”
Should Tierney be looking to leave Arsenal?
With Arteta strictly sticking to his system at the Emirates Stadium, Tierney is going to struggle to start many games for Arsenal due to him not being a like-for-like replacement for Zinchenko, due to their different profiles.
Tierney has started just four Premier League games this season, even with Zinchenko missing eight games in total, as per FBRef.
Signing from Celtic for a fee of £25m, as per Sky Sports, Tierney proved last season that he has the ability to play at Premier League level. As per SofaScore, Tierney wasn’t dribbled past once in the whole of the 2021/2022 season and he would surely be a shrewd signing for a number of top sides up and down the country.
