Marseille boss hits out at Arsenal star Nwaneri as Greenwood ‘sanctioned’ due to internal ‘friction’ | OneFootball

Marseille head coach Habib Beye has hit out at Arsenal star Ethan Nwaneri, while there is reportedly ‘friction’ with Mason Greenwood.

Nwaneri joined Marseille on loan from Arsenal during this winter’s transfer window and he has had a difficult time in Ligue Un.

The Gunners permitted the talented teenager to leave so he could further his development elsewhere and play more regularly after barely featuring for his boyhood club at the start of this campaign.

Nwaneri scored in his Marseille debut, but he has struggled in recent months and has only made three Ligue Un starts.

He was an unused substitute in Sunday’s 1-1 draw against OGC Nice, and Beye said post-match that he needs to “give us way more” and questioned his “commitment”.

“He’s a quality player, but he has to give us way more in his day-to-day commitment,” Beye told L1+.

“Other players gave way more.”

After a recent loss to AS Monaco, Beye hit out at Nwaneri and insisted that he “needs to adapt”.

“Ethan has great qualities, he’s a great talent who needs to adapt to the intensity of Ligue 1,” Beye explained.

“We saw that when he came on against Lille, he scored but when we analyse his performance overall there are still aspects of his game that need to be much stronger in terms of counter-pressing, his defensive efforts to win the ball back.

“He seems like the ideal replacement in Mason [Greenwood]’s absence but we also have the opportunity to change our system and our playmaking, so we have several choices and choices with quality players.

“Ethan is a young player who needs to understand, arriving at Marseille, he comes from the Premier League, from a big team in the Premier League but he also arrives in Ligue 1 at a very, very high level club and inevitably the adaptation takes a little time.

“What’s very good is that he scored for the national team. Sometimes with the national team, you get playing time, and that’s very positive for us.”

Greenwood ‘friction’ at Marseille revealed

Former Man Utd forward Greenwood has 35 goal involvements in his 42 appearances for Marseille this season, but he was also named on the bench against Lille.

Greenwood was brought on for the final 27 minutes, and Beye claimed that they refused to “put him at risk” against Lille.

“We’ve been looking at Mason since the beginning of the week; he’s very limited by the injury he sustained in Lille,” Beye added on Greenwood.

“He’s been playing two matches with significant pain, we can’t put him at risk.”

However, a report from Foot Mercato claims Greenwood was ‘sanctioned’ due to ongoing ‘friction’ behind the scenes.

The report claims: According to our information, [the injury] isn’t the only reason for this decision.

‘The former Manchester United striker is also paying the price for some friction with his coach during training this week. He was therefore relegated to the bench for this match.’