Olympique Marseille’s Nigerian-born youngster, Etthan Nwaneri, who arrived on loan from Arsenal of England earlier this year, has been told by the French Ligue 1 club’s coach, Habib Beye, he has to adapt to the intense style at his new base.
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Sports247 reports that Nwaneri again started on Marseille’s bench against AS Monaco on Sunday, thereby raising more eyebrows about the import of his movement from Emirates Stadium in London to Marseille’s Stade Velodrome.
Nwaneri eventually entered Sunday’s game in the 73rd mibute, but could not save Marseille from falling 2-1 to their hosts, whose winning goal came from fellow-Nigerian-born attacker, Folarin Balogun.
However, while Monaco’s Nigerian-born Canada international has now scored in back-to-back fixtures of Ligue 1, Nwaneri is still in search of relevance at ‘OM.’
That has left analysts raising eyebrows, as Nwaneri arrived with so much promise in January, when Arsenal’s coach, Mikel Arteta reckoned that Marseille’s gaffer at that time, Roberto De Zerbi would assist the youngster’s progression.
Unfortunately for Nwaneri, De Zerbi left Marseille in February, and the 19-year-old Nigerian-born winger has since found minutes hard to get under Beye, who has not given the England youth international a single starting spot.
Incidentally, Nwaneri started and scored on his Marseille debut under De Zerbi, but he has not been in any starting 11 since the arrival of Beye, despite having played a total of seven games in Ligue 1 this term, with two goals to his name.
Despite it all, Nwaneri profited from fellow-England whiz-kid, Mason Greenwood’s injury against Lille last time out, as he scored after replacing the former Manchester United forward on the right flank after just 18 minutes of play.
He also hit headlines during the recent international break, as he notched a brace in England’s under-21 team’s 4-1 victory over Moldova, thereby showing that he still has the top quality that made him a multiple record breaker last year.
However, Nwaneri will have to keep working harder, as Beye insists the lad has to do more than just scoring goals and declared: “He is a great talent who needs to adapt to Ligue 1 and its intensity.
“Against Lille, he scored, but there are still aspects of his game that need to be much stronger. He needs to understand that he is arriving at a really top-level club. What is good is that he also scored with his national team.”
