Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been using Cedric Soares at left-back due to the absence of Kieran Tierney in recent games and according to Armand Traore, the Spanish boss is making a blunder.
Tierney has been on the sidelines for the past couple of weeks due to a calf injury and during that time Soares has been in filling in at left-back. And Traore feels that Arteta could pay a big price for using a right-back on the other side of defence.
Traore said on Stadium Astro: “I am against it.
“I would have liked to see a left-back coming in for cover for Kieran Tierney because I believe that Kieran Tierney has got a lot of injury issues at the moment, so the fact that they didn’t was a bit disappointing.
“I don’t like seeing Cedric at left-back. He is a right-footed player, he creates imbalance within the back-four within the whole squad, I believe.”
Kieran Tierney is the only recognized left-back in the Arsenal squad right now and his recovery from the calf injury seems to be taking a bit too long than originally expected.
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While Cedric Soares has done a more than a decent job for the Gunners at left-back but we can’t help but agree with Traore on this one.
It’s still not clear as to how long Kieran Tierney will be out of action and with games against Man City, Leicester City and then a North London Derby coming up, using Cedric at left-back could be like a ticking time-bomb.
We are sure Arteta would have loved to sign a backup left-back during the January transfer window but the Arsenal boss was working on a shoestring budget and he eventually chose not to waste unnecessary money.
During the 2020-21 season, Cedric Soares has played in 17 games for Arsenal across all competitions, out of which five have been on the left-hand side of defence.
