One good season doesn’t make Tavares the one that got away!
As some of us may know already, Nuno Tavares is currently having the season of his life in the Italian top flight. His loan move to Lazio will sadly be made permanent come the end of the season as a result of the mandatory buy clause included in the deal.
A sell on clause was also included which should net us a slice of the profits from his potential sale in the future. His performances this season have understandably left a bit of envy among the Arsenal faithful, this has been further heightened by our defensive woes in the fullback positions this campaign. It’s very natural to feel Envious of a player doing well outside the club but it becomes strange when it leads to outright criticism of the club for letting such player go.
This has been the case in recent times due to our struggles with injuries at the back. A minor section of the fanbase view the transfer of Tavares as a huge mistake by the Gunners with some even going as far as saying he was the best long term choice at left-back for us. This is a completely outrageous claim fueled by recency bias. There are many, and I mean many, reasons why he wouldn’t have replicated this sort of form with the Gunners.
Firstly, he was very erratic and way too offensively minded to be a valuable asset to Arteta. His tendencies to make errors in advanced positions with the ball is why we didn’t need him to be so attacking. Think back to the away performances against Liverpool and West Ham in the 2021/22 season then you can very much see why he was shipped off in the first place. Although we won the latter (West Ham), his erratic decision making and sometimes chaotic style of play was nearly fatal that day.
Furthermore, he didn’t fit the system envisioned by Arteta at the time. The following season was when he brought Oleksandr Zinchenko in to play the inverted role in midfield, it clearly paid off considering we finished just behind Man City for the title while also returning to the Champions for the first time in seven years at the time. He was crucial to our limited success in that campaign which wouldn’t have been the case if Nuno was there.
There are many factors at play for his fantastic form in the Serie A, too many to say for certain he would have replicated such in the Premier League. He’s a very good player, outstanding in fact now that he has matured, but he is certainly not the sort of profile that will thrive under Mikel Arteta, not at all!
Thoughts?
BENJAMIN KENNETH.
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