Arsenal Opinion: Why Arsenal should beat Spurs to sign Layvin Kurzawa
According to the Calciomercato, Tottenham Hotspur are interested in signing PSG’s French international left-back Layvin Kurzawa in the summer.
The same report claims that Manchester United are also in the race for the out-of-favour full-back while Atletico Madrid also want the 26-year-old as a long-term replacement for Filipe Luis.
Kurzawa has lost his place in PSG’s starting eleven, with former Bayern Munich star Juan Bernat establishing himself as the first-choice since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel.
Kurzawa has made paltry 8 appearances in all competitions for the Ligue 1 champions this term, his lowest tally since his arrival from AS Monaco in 2015. The 26-year-old Frenchman has made a total of 87 appearances for the Ligue 1 giants in all competitions, accumulating 12 goals and 19 assists. A former youth international for France, he has also won 11 caps at the senior level,scoring once.
Regarded as a modern-day flying full-back endowed with good attacking and defensive attributes, Kurzawa is noted for his swashbuckling runs down the flanks.
He is someone who always has a tendency to burst forward with pace but he has commendable levels of tactical awareness as well, which not only allows him to time his overlapping runs to perfection but also to track back and keep the opposition at bay.
The 26-year-old has the ability to link up with his teammates down the flanks, often creating chances with key passes from the wide areas. To add to that, he has a wonderful left foot that is capable of setting up goals for the strikers with perfectly-weighted and well-timed crosses into the penalty box.
Furthermore, he boasts of appreciable game-reading ability at the back and often puts his body on the line to make last-ditch challenges.
To put things into perspective, Tottenham’s links with Kurzawa comes as a piece of intriguing news to the fans, with Mauricio Pochettino already having the likes of Ben Davies and Danny Rose at left-back. To be more precise, Kurzawa, with his well-rounded attributes, should be a wonderful fit for Arsenal and the Gunners would definitely strike gold by making a move for the 26-year-old next summer.
While Arsenal have promised a lot in the attacking third in their first season under Unai Emery, the Gunners have struggled at the back due to recurrent injuries to several of their key defenders. Centre-back, left-back and right-back- Emery needs to invest heavily in all areas at the back to bolster squad depth.
The long-term injury to Hector Bellerin has forced Emery to field the likes of Shkodran Mustafi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles as makeshift right-backs while Nacho Monreal’s absence meant that Granit Xhaka was required to fill in at left-back.
Arsenal need a replacement for Nacho Monreal as the Spaniard’s performance levels have dropped alarmingly, with the 33-year-old moving towards the last phase of his career. Sead Kolasinac, though really dangerous with his powerful attacking runs, isn’t the greatest of defenders.
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Layvin Kurzawa hasn’t played much in recent times but he was one of the most-sought-after full-backs in Europe just a couple of years back. His stocks might have dipped a bit due to injuries but Arsenal would do themselves a world of good by entering the race to sign the wantaway star next summer.
Also, the fact that Unai Emery knows the Frenchman very well from his managerial days at PSG should work in favour of a move actually materializing.
