Gary Neville praises Lucas Torreira

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has praised Arsenal star Lucas Torreira for his impact on the club so far. Torreira joined Arsenal from Sampdoria this summer.

He struggled to find game time during the start of the season. However, he has now become an integral part of Arsenal and has produced some remarkable performances for the club. Torreira has played a key role in Arsenal’s 21-match unbeaten streak.

In addition to being terrific in midfield, the young Uruguayan has also scored some two very important goals in Arsenal’s last three league games. He scored a fine goal in the 4-2 win over Tottenham before netting the late winner against Huddersfield last weekend.

As of now, Torreira has two goals and three assists from his 21 appearances in the season so far.

Neville hailed the 22-year old, saying that he has changed the thinking of the club. The former Red Devils skipper said, “I’ve been massively impressed. I watched him in the World Cup. I did the France vs Uruguay game live and he was tenacious. In the first half an hour to 40 minutes you thought he gets around the pitch and he’s like a terrier, but then actually as France started to get on top he started to get dominated.

Obviously Uruguay got a bit desperate but with the likes of Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi in midfield and Antoine Griezmann dropping in, I just remember thinking he couldn’t get around the pitch. So when Arsenal signed him you just wondered how it would be? But his impact upon that team is huge. I think it’s the biggest impact actually if you think about the character Arsenal have shown this season in terms of the second-half performances, keeping going and the tempo they sometimes set in games.

I think someone like him leaves his team-mates with nowhere to go. We’ve talked about Arsenal’s approach to games over the last two or three years and there was never that feeling that you felt as though it mattered at times. At times in big matches they always disappointed and you felt there wasn’t a leader out on the pitch for the players to look towards. If you look at him in that derby last week against Tottenham getting forward into the box he’s almost like this bundle of energy that everyone else in the team responds too, and this team needed that.

With this Arsenal player over this three, four, five, six years that they’ve needed you’ve always got this picture of Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira in your mind – a strong presence in midfield. He’s diminutive, not very big but then he’s tenacious. He gets into the box and he’s scored two goals in the last week. He’s good on the ball, he’s tidy on the ball and takes it and shows courage. He’s a massive upgrade on where they’ve been but most of all the impact he’s having on Arsenal’s mentality is huge.”

Arsenal are currently 5th in the Premier League table. Their next fixture is their final Europa League group game against Qarabag on Thursday night. Arsenal won the away leg 3-0 and will hope to register a bigger win at home.

After this, they play Southampton on Sunday.