Marseille secured an important 2-0 win against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League on Wednesday night and on-loan Arsenal defender Nuno Tavares lasted the entire 90 minutes – but French media Foot Mercato were unimpressed.
Tavares, 22, has made an excellent start to life at Marseille. With ex-Arsenal stars Matteo Guendouzi, Alexis Sanchez and Sead Kolasinac, Tavares has scored three goals in his 13 games. He is one of the first names on the team sheets.
It was in fact Sanchez and Guendouzi that scored for Marseille in Portugal, in what was a comfortable night. That was largely thanks to Sporting Lisbon, who ended the match with nine players. It is a wonder Marseille did not score more.
Despite all this, Foot Mercato criticised Tavares in their player ratings piece. They were not impressed with Arsenal’s £8.5m signing. The report said that Tavares often “forgets” about his teammates, and “stupidly” loses possession.
“Enterprising often on his flank. But as often also, the Portuguese man tends to forget his teammates by launching solo raids. The left-back also lost too many balls stupidly, like his dribbling – just 1/7 successful,” Foot Mercato said.
French media unimpressed with on-loan Arsenal defender Tavares
Marseille should have put the game to bed in much more of a convincing style. But ultimately, it was a good win for the Ligue 1 side and gives them a real chance of qualifying for the Champions League knockout stage.
Marseille are next in action against PSG, and Tavares will be up against the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. He will have to look after the ball better for Les Phoceens, if they stand any chance of getting a result against the Champions.
Indeed, if he is to resurrect his Arsenal career, he needs to be better on the ball. His goals, though, will certainly intrigue Mikel Arteta. But he remains third choice left-back at Arsenal and there is a lot to do.
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