Last night, Arsenal fans were forced to watch Bukayo Saka bizarrely play in a left wing-back position as England suffered a 1-0 defeat to Italy.
Gareth Southgate strangely opted to use the 21-year-old in that role despite the fact Mikel Arteta has used him exclusively on the right of the attack this season.
Unsurprisingly, Saka struggled.
Arsenal star Bukayo Saka criticised
Well, Gazzetta dello Sport certainly weren’t impressed with the Arsenal No.7’s performance.
The Italian news outlet describe Saka as a ‘ghost’ and suggested that he is still ‘in shock’ from his last outing against Italy – the EURO 2020 final at Wembley, where his missed penalty handed victory to Italy.
In our view, that is very unfair.
Saka still managed to record two successful tackles in the unfamiliar position – as WhoScored shows, no England player won more.
In fairness to Gazzetta dello Sport, they do note that Southgate somewhat stitched the Hale End graduate up by playing him as a left wing-back.
Despite that acknowledgement, the Italian news outlet handed Saka a 4.5 match rating.
As we all know, he can obviously do a lot better.
In seven Premier League appearances this season – while being played on the right – Saka has provided five goal involvements for the Gunners, helping them sit top of the division.
Arsenal should be annoyed with Bukayo Saka treatment
In our view, Arteta should be frustrated with Southgate after last night’s game.
Saka doesn’t gain much from being deployed as a left wing-back, and if anything, setting him up to fail like this will only have a negative impact on his confidence levels.
Hopefully, for his sake, the England international doesn’t read what was written about him in Gazzetta dello Sport.
If Southgate continues to use Saka in this fashion at the World Cup, it would be a shameful waste of talent.
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