Speaking to Sky Sports, Thomas Partey has been reviewing his performances since joining Arsenal last summer.
The Ghanaian came to north London from Atletico Madrid on deadline day in 2020, and unfortunately, he’s not hit the ground running in the Premier League.
Indeed, one pundit even claimed that he was the worst signing of last season, and the midfielder has admitted that he could do better, giving himself a four out of 10 for his showings so far.
Partey appraised his showings so far for Arsenal, claiming that he needs to read the game a bit better and learn from the poor aspects of his game.
Generally, Partey’s message to himself was that he needs to play smarter.
“I give myself four [out of 10], because there are moments I can really hurt the other team but there are also moments where I allow myself to lose focus and that’s when everything goes down,” Partey said.
“This is when you realise that you have to get better.
“From the start [of the Manchester United game] I had a couple of moments where I gave two balls away and someone watching on TV from home or in the stadium, it is normal that they see this.
“At the end, I have to be happy with some moments, I have to learn from the bad parts and try to do better. I think they demanded more and personally I know I can give more. I have to keep working and at the end I will get the results.”
“I have to read more of the game. Now I am having a lot of continuous games, it is normal that some games, or some moments in the games, I will be down.”
As much as we hate to be critique any player, Partey needs to improve on these fronts quickly.
It’s all well and good for a young player to say that they need to read the game better or improve on areas that are proving to be a problem, but Partey turns 29 next year.
This is a player with almost 300 senior career club appearances to his name, he should have learnt all of this by now.
However, some players are just generally late bloomers and if Partey can add a few more aspects to his game he could still move up a gear or two at Arsenal.
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