Arsenal loanee slaughtered by his manager
FT Desk
- 18 Sept 2022 08:24 BST
- 3 min read
Arsenal loanee Ainsley Maitland-Niles "isn't ready" for first-team action at Southampton according to Ralph Hasenhuttl, and didn't even make the matchday squad on Friday.
Maitland-Niles joined Southampton on a season-long loan from Arsenal on transfer deadline day, and made his debut in the 1-0 loss at Wolves in early September.
But he was nowhere to be seen on Friday as the Saints fell to another 1-0 defeat, this time away to Aston Villa.
🚨 Arsenal loan out Maitland-Niles to Southampton pic.twitter.com/dv6ARa0fe1
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) September 1, 2022
"We have with Ainsley a lot of work to do also because he has to adapt to our game, and this is something that takes time a little bit," Hasenhuttl explained.
"We see also during the week what we ask him to do and especially in the midfield position it takes a little bit to understand how we want to do it.
'Doesn't make sense to throw him in'
"It doesn't make sense to throw someone in who isn't ready for what we want to do. When he is ready and on the level we think he has to be then he will help us for sure."
"I think he's a very good player on the ball, but he has to learn that our game starts when the ball is not with us.
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"I think this is something he had never needed to do in the clubs he was playing in.
"But meanwhile it's modern football, this is a very crucial part, you can see this is still something he has to learn; therefore we are investing our time to make him better.
"He's not the loud speaker, if you want, he takes responsibility on the pitch when he has the ball, definitely, he wants to show his qualities there.
"But I think to have a big impact in the future in football he has to add a few parts to his game he hasn't had so far, and we will help him doing this."
