Earlier this week, we covered an article from Portuguese newspaper Record which was criticising Arsenal loanee Joel Campbell for not defending when his team needed him.
It seems they weren’t the only newspaper to have this opinion, as O Jogo have now managed a couple of interviews to talk about the player’s positioning during his first week at Sporting.
The newspaper describes Campbell as a ‘fish out of the water’ during his 45 minutes against Rio Ave, when Sporting were losing 3-0 at half-time and the player was subbed off.
“I don’t know if he’s going to adapt to Jorge Jesus’ tactical system, playing on the left”, said Leandro Salino, his former teammate at Olympiakos.
“In a 4-4-2, it’s not easy to play on the left, because he doesn’t defend. He doesn’t help the fullback, by nature, but maybe Jesus can change it and teach him. It needs time and work.”
Josef Miso, current manager of Universidad de Costa Rica, said: “It’s hard for him to take part in the defensive process. He has all the conditions to help the fullback more, but he still lacks some capacity of sacrifice. He needs to mentally realise that this is very important to do well in Europe.”
Miso said Jorge Jesus should start Campbell centrally: “I think it could minimise his defensive problem and also help him to be more decisive in attack, making him play as a second striker; that’s how he plays for the Costa Rica national team.”
He also claims that the player can only play on the wing in other systems: “It would only make sense in a scenario where the team played 4-3-3.”
Campbell has one goal and no assists for Sporting in four games so far. The general opinion in Portugal is that he’ll take a little more time to adapt and be a regular fixture in the starting eleven.
