Portugese defender Nuno Taveres has been a hit at his new club Lazio where he joined loan this summer from Arsenal.
Taveres has been one of the players who arrived at the Emirates with huge expectations and never lived upto the manager’s choice. The 24 year old joined Arsenal in 2021 but played only one full season at the club before going out on multiple loan deals. The full back proved crucial in Lazio’s recent encounter with giants AC Milan.
NUNO TAVARES’ TIME AT ARSENAL
Nuno Taveres is an academy graduate of portuguese club Benfica. The full back enjoyed two full seasons with the senior team of Benfica before making a switch to the Emirates in 2021. It was Arteta’s second full season at Arsenal and was trying to build on a new system at the club. Taveres had arrived for 8 million pounds in the summer and was one of the starters for Arteta in that season. He faced tough competitions from established left back Kieran Tierney at times. But consistant injuries to the scottishman had yielded chances to the Portuguese. Arteta often played the build up from back set upt like all the modern managers. During the time Tavares arrived the Gunners passed it around the back before kick starting an attack. Taveres is known for his attacking provess the pace and the overlapping runs.
As the season progressed his defensive side of the game deteriorated. Arteta found better replacements like the experienced Oleksandr Zinchenko and youngster Kivior who actually fit into his set up. The roles of full backs changed drastically during the time. The game demanded full backs to sweep into the middle of the pitch and act as an added presence in the midfield. We also remember the day Taveres giifted Liverpool a goal when he miss passed in the defensive third of the pitch. Moments like those also lead Nuno Taveres to fall out of favour at Arsenal.
He went on loan for the last couple of season at Nottingham Forest and Marseille respectively. The spell at the City ground wa disastrous as he featured only 14 time fopr the club that season. He regained some of his form with Marseille but returned to Arsenal after that. For the third consecutive season he has went on loan and this time it is Lazio. The Italians also have a buy option raging from 7-8 million pounds according to teamtalk.com.
DEBUT FOR LAZIO
Nuno Taveres was loaned out for the third time after joining Arsenal. He joined Italian side SSC Lazio lead by manager Marco Baroni. The portuguese got injured before the start of the season. So he had to wait until just before the international break to make his debut for his new side. They were up against AC Milan who have had not the best of the starts to the season. But they went ahead earlier in the eighth minute through Pavlovic.
On his full debut for Lazio, Nuno Taveres turned the game on it’s head in the second half with two brilliant assists from the left hand side. First one came at the 62nd minute when Bloulaye Dia thrusted the ball into the path of Taveres who made an overlapping run and then sweetly put into the middle of the box for Castellanos to strike past Maignan. And just 6 minutes later another counter attack lead by Nuno Taveres ran all the way to the top before pulling in back for Dia to tap in for Lazio’s second.
It’s clear that Taveres has hit the ground running on his Lazio debut but a long to go this season though. It’s just a good start. As the old saying goes it’s not how you start the season it’s how you end, that matters. So yeah Taveres is clearly out of favour at Arsenal and has been replaced by others in his position. He should now and try to impress at Lazio so that the Italians trigger the buy option and make the move permanant.
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