Rio Ferdinand has named the three Arsenal players who deserve more playing time this season under Mikel Arteta, including Max Dowman.
There was a lot of hype around Dowman in pre-season after a number of stellar performances, with the teenager even compared to Lionel Messi.
But the 15-year-old wonderkid has only played 27 minutes of Premier League football this term and hasn’t featured in the top-flight since August.
Dowman, who plays as an attacking midfielder or as a winger, has recently been ruled out with an ankle injury but once he is back fit, Ferdinand is adamant that he should be handed more playing time.
Ferdinand also feels Arsenal’s 18-year-old star Ethan Nwaneri and second-choice left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly should be getting more minutes.
Nwaneri’s lack of action has seen him linked with a possible exit in the January transfer window, while several Premier League clubs are understood to be monitoring Lewis-Skelly after he lost his spot in the Arsenal XI to Riccardo Calafiori.
Speaking on his YouTube podcast, former Manchester United defender and football pundit Ferdinand said: ‘Can I just say something where I think Arteta can improve?
‘Martin Odegaard was injured. You’ve got Nwaneri sitting there. A young kid. Everyone’s going, ‘He could be this, he could be that’.
‘You’ve got Lewis-Skelly after an amazing breakout season. He can’t get a kick. No games.
‘A couple of weeks ago just gone, You could play him. Ben White played three games in a week. He ends up getting injured.
‘Just put him in. Then you’ve got arguably one of the [best young] talents in Europe right now, Dowman.
‘You’re going, ‘Surely there’s a way in to this team to get glimpses of this kid’.
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‘This kid is another one who’s going to give you that little bit of uncertainty when you’re talking about other teams preparing for you, trying to be structured.
‘Dowman brings that element of uncertainty, ‘Who’s this kid? Where’s he come from?’ – these are moments that can change your season.
‘This is where Sir Alex Ferguson was a joke. People like Federico Macheda. He comes on the pitch against Aston Villa, no one knows who he is, he produces a moment and we go and win the league [that season].
‘These are the maverick moments. These are the moments where you’re just smelling the time to do it.
‘If [Arteta] can add that to his game to unlock opponents and just bring something different to the to the table, I think it’ll be a really positive outcome for him.’
Arsenal currently sit top of the Premier League table and are hoping to clinch their first top-flight trophy since 2004 this term, having finished as runners-up for the last three seasons in a row.
