Arsenal are keen on Oleksandr Zinchenko and he left Graeme Souness impressed with his performance against Scotland on Wednesday night.
Ukraine’s rescheduled World Cup playoff clash with Scotland took place on Wednesday night.
Delayed due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the game had many cheering for Ukraine in order to give the country something to celebrate.
Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk had Ukraine 2-0 up before Callum McGregor pulled one back for Scotland.
A late push didn’t amount to much though before Artem Dovbyk sealed the win for Ukraine in added time.
That 3-1 win for Ukraine means they now face Wales on Sunday for a spot in the World Cup later this year.
Arsenal are keen on Oleksandr Zinchenko
One of the key players for Ukraine was Manchester City ace Zinchenko.
Whilst we have mostly seen Zinchenko as a left back in the Premier League, it’s easy to forget that he was a midfielder.
Zinchenko joined City as a playmaker before being converted by Pep Guardiola.
Ukraine deployed Zinchenko in a midfield role against Scotland and he was superb, earning praise from Graeme Souness.
Sky Sports pundit Souness suggested that Zinchenko ‘ran the show’ and showed what a ‘really, really good’ player he can be in midfield.
Souness hailed Zinchenko for his usage of the ball in Ukraine’s win, believing he knew exactly what to do with it at any given time.
“Zinchenko ran the show,” said Souness. “I don’t think there’s any surprises in what we saw from him tonight, because when he’s at City, he’s in and out, flits between left back and central midfield – where he’s been played tonight – and when he goes in there he’s a really, really good football player.”
“I think he was the catalyst for keeping the ball, turning and going backwards when it was right, threading the ball through when it was right, he played like a seasoned midfield player tonight,” he added.
This praise comes just as Arsenal consider moving to sign Zinchenko this summer.
The Daily Mail claim that Arsenal want to sign Zinchenko to reunite him with Mikel Arteta.
The idea seems to be for Zinchenko to be utilised as cover for Kieran Tierney at left back.
Yet Zinchenko’s display in midfield for Ukraine may leave Arsenal wondering whether he can play a key role in their engine room as well as covering for Tierney.
That’s something for Arteta to consider, but if Zinchenko is available this summer, he will have plenty of suitors.
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