Mikel Arteta told the young star of Arsenal, Folarin Balogun, that he needed to improve his hold up play to progress. That is by his old academy coach Kevin Betsy. He was speaking in an interview with The Athletic.
Upon returning to Arsenal for pre-season Folarin Balogun has featured in both of their friendlies so far. The US striker came on as a substitute in their 5-0 win vs the MLS All-Stars.
With lots of speculation over his future. And with a hefty £50m asking price, Balogun will hope to impress in Arsenal’s remaining pre-season games.
Next up for Arsenal is a friendly against Manchester United on Saturday. And they will then also face Barcelona and Monaco. This is all before Arsenal’s curtain-raiser. That is against Manchester City in the FA Community Shield.
Whether Folarin Balogun will still be an Arsenal player for that game will be an interesting thing to see. Any potential move away is already one of the key transfer sagas this summer by the way.
Arteta prefers Nketiah over Balogun and don’t mind cashing in on him this summer
Betsy said during his interview:-
Albert (Stuivenberg) and Mikel would do a lot of his game reviews.”
“They were very clear in terms of what his development plan was. Flo needed to improve his hold-up and link-up because he was very good at running into space and finishing.”
“The other thing they wanted to improve was his reactions to start pressing.”
Balogun had plenty of success with Arsenal’s U21s. He absolutely thrived whilst out on loan at Reims last season.
The US international scored 21 goals in 37 Ligue 1 games. He is now linked with a £50m move to the likes of Inter Milan.
You would expect that Balogun improved in a lot of areas. That is targeted by the Arsenal coaches during that year in France.
