Sebastian Salazar has expressed his shock at Matt Turner claiming that he has ‘massively improved’ at Arsenal following his summer transfer, as he told ESPN.
The American TV pundit was backing Turner, who has played once for Arsenal this season, to be the USA’s number one goalkeeper ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
It’s not a given for Turner because Zack Steffen, who moved to Middlesbrough on loan this season from Manchester City, is the keeper coach Gregg Berhalter has pushed as number one previously.
But the Manchester City loanee is currently out of action, which has opened the door for Turner to start, and despite the USA suffering a defeat to Japan recently in a friendly, Arsenal’s new signing didn’t let himself down.
Luckily for the 28-year-old, it’s game on top of game for Mikel Arteta during these coming weeks, so Turner should be handed his chance in the Europa League.
Nonetheless, this is what Salazar had to say about Turner possibly being USA’s number one and his improvement at Arsenal.
“I think we saw a lot of rust from guys,” said Salazar. “A lot of whom aren’t playing every week for their team. One guy who isn’t is Matt Turner and I don’t think he looked rusty.
“One of the things that I saw recently, he has come out and he has spoken about his time at Arsenal. He says he has massively improved.
“I have to be honest, when I saw that, then I rolled my eyes. I thought he you have played one game. How can you have massively improved?
“It doesn’t seem like he is missing playing every week. He seems like he’s the best goalkeeper in the (USA) pool right now.”
TURNER WOULD BE IMPROVING IN TRAINING ALONE
Turner doesn’t need to be playing games just to improve at Arsenal because the step up he has made, in training alone, will improve him.
From working alongside England international Aaron Ramsdale to the information he is being fed by Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff.
It will make Turner a much better individual, and then to boot, he will be able to showcase all of that off in the Europa League.
With Ramsdale the undisputed number one in the Premier League, it seems as though Arteta is backing his summer signing in the Europa League.
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