Rangers manager Steven Gerrard hailed Joe Aribo for thriving in a new left-back position in the club’s 3-0 win against Livingston on Wednesday, reports Completesports.com.
The playmaker was surprisingly deployed in the position by Gerrard and acquainted himself well.
“What can I say about Joe Aribo? Gerrard told the club website.
“I tell you what I’ll say about him – good players can play football, and top players can play anywhere on the football pitch and a manager can ask a player to do a role.
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“Good players can do some and can’t do some, but Joe Aribo is a top player, so whatever I ask him to do, he goes out and gives it his best shot.
“He is my ‘Man of the Match’ tonight just because when you think about it, he is a number 10 and he is just so comfortable at left-back and cruised it and breezed it.
“That left-back performance is as good as we have seen in my three years that I have been here.
“So well done to him for parking his ego and doing a fantastic job for his teammates – well done.”
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COMMENTS
This is how they begin to distort a player’s playing orientation… I wonder if Gerard ever played right full back in his own career since he was a top player himself. What happened to Calvin Ughelumba?
@ Jimmyball, very well said. Just seems like a “never let him reach his height” agenda. Constant distortion of players playing mindset starves off the motivation to play.
Steven Gerrard played as centre back for Liverpool under coach Brendan Rodgers. Unfortunately, it was his slip against Chelsea in April 2014 from the centre back position that allowed Demba Ba to race through and score the goal that all but obliterated Liverpool’s title ambitions.
I am happy that we have players in the Super Eagles with dynamic capabilities. Aribo, Iwobi, Moses Simon, Samuel Kalu, Etebo and Shehu Abdullahi are players who can slot into offensive or defensive positions effortlessly.
This augurs well for resilience and strength in depth within the Super Eagles.
As for Aribo, I like what Gerrard said about him in the article above.
“So well done to Aribo for parking his ego and doing a fantastic job for his teammates – well done.” Said Gerrard. This speaks to exemplary attitude of Aribo who does not feel too proud to play any position when required by his manager.
That is the sort of dedication we need in the Super Eagles. So, yes, we’ll done Aribo.
Wow, Aribo, Aribo, Aribo! I’m pleasantly surprised. Played the left back role like he was born to do it. The dude was just bombing forward, supporting the attack, and gave the Livingston right back a torrid time. He also defended quite well.
Very energetic, and intelligent play on the left flank. Based on what I observed today, he can also be deployed as a left winger, or left wing back.
I thought his best position was AM or right winger. I’m not so sure any more.
If it were my decision to make, I would use him on the left flank in the SE. Left winger, most likely. And left wing back when we play 3-5-2. The left back position appears to be locked down by Sanusi, but Aribo looks like he could play that role really well too.
Before we get ahead of ourselves though, we must acknowledge the fact that Aribo’s game is heavily dependent on the quality of the pitch. To get the best out of Aribo and our other players in coming world cup qualifiers, the matter of pitch quality needs to be addressed. On the poor pitches we’ve been playing on so far, I doubt that Aribo will produce a performance anywhere near his best, even on the left flank.