Why Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is heaping praise on loanee Guendouzi
Robin Bairner
- 24 Jan 2022 15:35 CST
- 3 min read
Arsenal loan star Matteo Guendouzi has earned regular praise for his performances since joining Marseille from the Gunners last summer.
Out of favour at the Emirates Stadium because of his explosive attitude, Guendouzi has not featured for Arsenal since June 2020.
Back in his homeland, however, he has played 29 times for OM, scoring two goals and creating nine, thereby becoming a virtual ever present in the system of head coach Jorge Sampaoli.
His time at Marseille has not been without incident – notably an on-field despite with team-mate Gerson – but in general his performances have been strong.
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Henry says Guendouzi is stepping up
Guendouzi has even been singled out by Arsenal legend Thierry Henry for his displays, and notably that from Saturday’s 2-0 win away to Lens, which has kept Marseille third in the standings.
It was a highly polished performance from the France international, who created both of his side’s goals but also contributed heavily all over the field.
“We've seen that for quite a while now,” Henry, a pundit for Amazon Prime, explained of the 22-year-old. “And it’s true that against Lens we’ve seen it again. Now if he wants to go higher, he’s going to have to reproduce that even more often.
“We’ve seen from time to time that he can disappear in the tactics of Sampaoli. He has finally understood his role against Lens, which was as a No.10 or a false No.9.
“When Marseille played without a 9 at the start of the season, I found that they were difficult to play, but the return of Arkadiusz Milik from injury derailed everything. It’s maybe a signing error because he’s not really the type of player who can feature in this system.
“But Guendouzi, he’s really on course to step his game up a level.”
Marseille are expected to take up an option to buy Guendouzi on completion of his loan deal next summer.
Meanwhile, Guendouzi’s Arsenal club-mate William Saliba, who is also on loan at OM, was named in L’Equipe’s Ligue 1 Team of the Week for the first time this season thanks to his strong performance against Lens.
