Kurzawa: A Good Short and Long Term Option at Left Back

Kurzawa with the ball

Kurzawa joined Paris St. Germain for €23 million on a five-year contract in 2015 after his spell in his first ever club, AS Monaco. He broke into the Monaco setup when he was 18-years-old and suffered the ignominy of relegation at the end of the 2010/11 campaign, but stayed with the club in the French Ligue 2 for two seasons before the South Coast club returned to the Premier division in 2013.

Kurzawa caught the eye in the 2013/14 season with his attacking displays as well as goals from the left back position, which earned him a call up to the French national team. In his time at Paris St. Germain, Kurzawa struggled to nail a first team berth, first by being a backup to the more experienced Maxwell, before playing second fiddle to Maxwell’s long term replacement, Juan Bernat.

With his contract expiring at the end of the season, and no potential for a new deal in sight, Kurzawa remained hopeful of sealing a move out of the club and it seems he would get his desires as Arsenal has shown interest in his services with a loan deal that will see the Gunners pay his wages before snapping him up for free in the summer.

Arsenal are favorites to seal the deal for the French defender in July, but injuries to Kieran Tierney, and more recently, Sead Kolasinac, has made Arsenal fast track their plans to get the defender this month. As it stands, Mikel Arteta has only Bukayo Saka as his first team option in left back,

“We are playing with full-backs that are not full-backs. They are wingers or central midfielders and could we afford to lose full-backs? No, but we don’t have any full-backs.”

On the right flank, Hector Bellerin is unavailable for selection due to his consistent injury problems, and with Stephan Lichtsteiner gone with his pension funds, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, a midfielder by trade, does that job as an auxiliary right back. Sokratis Papastathopoulos featured as a right back against Leeds in the FA Cup third round, but he is not a long term option. Brazilian teenage sensation, Yan Couto, is a long term option at right back but word on the street is that Barcelona is interested in signing the lad as well.

If Kurzawa joins the club in January, he will slot straight into the first team with Tierney’s long term injury layoff and Kolasinac’s penchant for picking up niggles here and there. Kurzawa is a full fledged French international with 12 caps to his name and at 27, he is a very experienced option for Arteta to choose.

I also would not mind the fact that he poses a goal threat, which will come in handy, as the Gunners are over reliant on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for their goals.

Sayonara

Follow Gooner Daily on Twitter  @goonerdaily. I’ll follow back

Visit Gooner Daily’s  Facebook page.

Click on the “Follow button” to join Gooner Daily’s Mailing List

 

About enigma106

An Arsenal fan with a good sense of humor

Posted on January 17, 2020, in Arsenal, Football, Premier League, Transfer Gossip and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: