Former Manchester United captain and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has advised Unai Emery to leave out the youngsters in their trip to Liverpool this afternoon. The Englishman feels it is necessary for the Gunners to field more experience given the quality of Liverpool’s squad and the atmosphere at Anfield.
Speaking about the matter, Neville said,
“I think for me it’s all about Arsenal. I think we always know what Liverpool are like at Anfield, their record there over the last 12-18 months has been outstanding.”
“Arsenal have got a poor record and every time I’ve watched them in the last few years it feels a bit to me like they lack competitiveness at times, they melt. I worry about them when they go to Anfield, I always feel like it’s a difficult place to play but there’s a lack of adaptation.”
“I’m not for them changing their whole style of play, but just for them respecting where they’re going to play and learning. They haven’t got a player in their squad that’s won a league game at Anfield and that really is a problem for them. And I’m not quite sure how they can change that.”
“They’ve got four Under-21s in that team: Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Willock and Nelson. This is not a kindergarten place, Anfield, you need to go with a little bit of experience and I think some of the players on the bench [last week] and maybe Xhaka need to come in.”
He continued: ‘When we were going to Anfield in the sort of early days when we were young lads coming through into the team, that was the one ground where we were left out, at Anfield. As 19 or 20 year olds, maybe one of us might play but three or four of us weren’t thrown in.
“It was just too much, it’s intense, it’s hostile, it’s fast, it’s furious. Liverpool have a great record and now actually have a team to match as well. Surely you can’t go there with four players under the age of 21, particularly those two [Willock and Guendouzi] in midfield.”
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