Tony Adams told Premier League Productions (22/08/21 at 7:15 pm) that he would have brought on Ainsley Maitland-Niles at half-time during Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday.
It was a struggle for many Arsenal players yesterday, including left-back Kieran Tierney, with both goals coming down from his end.
Romelu Lukaku and Reece James were the players to find the back of the net, as Mikel Arteta was out-thought on the sidelines and his players out-fought out on the pitch.
But given Tierney’s struggles out wide, Adams shared that the Scotsman should have been pushed further forward after the break.
“When you have got that system and Mount was coming in with Havertz,” said Adams. “You are leaving Reece James, the wide guy so free.
“I said it at half-time that maybe Maitland-Niles should have gone in at left-back and pushed Tierney on.
“Tierney is fantastic going that way, but we just needed somebody to sit in there and cover that space.”
Maitland-Niles is yet to play a single minute in the Premier League this season and there doesn’t seem to be any signs that will change.
Whilst someone like Joe Willock wowed in his goalscoring loan spell at Newcastle last season, which he has since made permanent, his fellow academy product struggled and was relegated with West Brom.
It hasn’t helped Maitland-Niles’ cause because he is now in a situation where he can’t get into an Arsenal team that has lost their opening two games of the new season.
This time last season, Maitland-Niles was earning an England call and dreaming of playing at Euro 2020 – all of that is a thing of the past now.
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