Paul Scholes accuses £35m Arsenal star of ‘killing’ struggling teammate | Football
Paul Scholes has accused Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard of holding his team back and “killing” Viktor Gyokeres.
The Norway international has just celebrated the north London club’s fifth anniversary following his move from Real Madrid.
Odegaard has been a central figure in the various incarnations of Mikel Arteta’s top teams since his appointment as manager, but the 27-year-old’s influence appears to be waning.
A series of injuries may have played a part, but his lack of contribution in attack now represents a real concern.
With just one goal to his name all season, Odegaard is struggling to justify his place in the team, especially with summer signing Eberechi Eze champing at the bit to prove his worth.
“Odegaard could be the problem,” Scholes told The Overlap when discussing Arsenal’s goalscoring problems from open play.
“Odegaard wants to play as a number 10 and if you don’t play good football, it’s his job to make your team play good football. Good attacking football. I don’t think he does that.
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“He drops to midfield. Look, I like him, technically, he’s bright and nice to look at. But he goes down to midfield. I played number 10, if they came into the midfield area and played where Roy should be, he would say “f*** off”, get up there. He doesn’t do it enough in the areas where he wins games.
Odegaard has also struggled to create any sort of chemistry with summer signing Viktor Gyokeres, who has been deprived of the kind of service he feasted on during his prolific spell at Sporting Lisbon.
“You think about the teams we’ve seen win the league like Liverpool and Man City, it’s exciting to watch,” Scholes added.
“They are exciting because of people like David Silva, Phil Foden who receive the ball on the edge of the box where it matters.
“It also kills the center forward who he has no one to play with. They are imperative for your team to play good football.
Gyokeres was back on the scoresheet last night as Arsenal ended their Champions League campaign with an eighth consecutive victory.
This game represented the first opportunity to pair Gyokeres on offense with Kai Havertz, who started his first game since the final game of last season and the two struck an instant rapport.
“It’s a great feeling to score goals and help the team,” Gyokeres said. “I think we could have done better in the whole game, but of course I’m always happy to score.
“It was great to have Kai back, and he played really well in that match, even though he only played 45, so yeah, it went really well, I think.”
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