Keown expresses his reservations on new Odegaard position | OneFootball

Martin Keown says he has reservation about Martin Odegaard taking over the number 10 position and pushing Emile Smith Rowe to the left-wing.

The Norwegian joined Arsenal in the last transfer window on loan for the rest of this campaign.

He is one of the most exciting players to watch, but he joined an Arsenal side that already had Smith Rowe pulling the strings from the midfield.

Many people wondered how Mikel Arteta wanted to field both players as Odegaard only made the move because he wanted more playing time.

The Spaniard has now managed to squeeze both creative midfielders into his starting lineup, but it has cost Smith Rowe his place as the team’s number 10.

Keown says the Englishman has been playing that role very well before the arrival of Odegaard.

He adds that the Norwegian hasn’t played so many games this season to take that position, but he can see that Arsenal is trying to build their team around him.

The 54-year-old told BT Sport as quoted by Sun Sports: “A lot of the problems for the Arsenal team is finding that spare player.

“It’s been Smith Rowe in the recent run. Odegaard has been given the luxury of playing in there.

“We’re still waiting to see, I think there’s a player under there but he’s not played much football for Real Madrid, maybe seven or eight games this season, maybe a bit short of fitness.

“But if you don’t give him the ball you can’t see what he’s capable of, but there were moments when he had the ball, good passes.

“He does really well for the goal, he’s a player they want to try and build around.”

Keown further added: “The reservations I have is Smith Rowe was playing especially well in that position.

“Now, perhaps he [Arteta] didn’t feel he was getting enough from [Nicolas] Pepe defensively so Smith Rowe’s gone into that position.

“Now you’ve got Saka and Smith Rowe in wide positions.

“They have really good movement, tuck inside nicely, they give that space for the full-backs to get wide and they know when to press.

“But maybe they lose a little bit, for the time being, until Odegaard is ready to match speed. There were glimpses of really good play.”