Martin Keown: Arsenal 24-year-old is not the finished article
By Dominic Toner
Martin Keown believes that Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi is nowhere near the finished article yet.
The 24-year-old moved to the Emirates Stadium in the summer for £35million from Spanish club Valencia.
He has managed to form a strong partnership alongside team-mate Laurent Koscielny at centre-back and was unbeaten in his first 22 appearances for the north London club.
However, the Germany international has since been involved in four defeats, including the 5-1 demolition away to Bayern Munich in the Champions League last-16 first-leg.
Mustafi was heavily criticised for his performance against Bayern and is yet to convince some of the supporters.
Ex-Arsenal player Keown claims that the defender still have much to improve on before he becomes the finished article.
“People remember the finished article and not the beginning – Mustafi is still at the beginning of his road at Arsenal,” Keown said, as quoted by the Daily Mail. “He needs to build the determination to ensure it (Bayern performance) doesn’t happen again. He needs to be more on red alert when he plays.”
Mustafi has managed to cement his position as a first team regular under Arsene Wenger and has settled fairly quickly to English football.
The centre-back will be hoping to make up for his errors in Munich with a much improved performance in their next game away to Liverpool in the Premier League.
He is fairly experienced for a 24-year-old and made 81 appearances for Valencia before his switch to England.
Mustafi also has 15 caps for Germany and is expected to develop into a top defender for the Gunners.
In other Arsenal news, the club have been alerted as a manager shares the details of his contract situation.
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