Lee Dixon has compared Arsenal transfer target and Brighton star Kaoru Mitoma to David Beckham by praising the winger’s decision-making, as he told ITV Sport.
The Highbury legend added that ‘Beckham had already seen the pass’ before the ball got to him during his playing days and he thinks Mitoma has a mixture of being able to run with the ball and play that ball early, which then makes him difficult to defend against.
Even though Brighton continue to lose their top talents, Arsenal duo Ben White and Leandro Trossard are examples of that.
They still continue to churn out outstanding players without any real notice and Japan international Mitoma is the next one off the block.
The 25-year-old is effectively a replacement for Trossard, who joined Arsenal in January, but with five goals from 17 Premier League games, that transfer hasn’t hurt the European-chasing side that much.
Nonetheless, when analysing Mitoma’s game, Dixon, who was one of the best defensive fullbacks during his playing days, shared what would be difficult about coming up against the expert ball carrier.
“The difficulty of playing against Mitoma is his decision-making,” said Dixon. “When you have a winger that does certain things well, then you can work him out as a fullback and go ‘right, he likes to run with it, so get tight, stop him running with it, stop the ball to his feet and stop the supply line’.
“But because he is so good at making the decision before the fullback has got there. Beckham was the same. You can’t get near Beckham. He has already seen the pass.
“A couple of crosses Mitoma got in there. He got them in early. As a fullback, you are then caught in between the two. You can’t close him down because you know he is going to whip it in. I think his decision-making is his biggest asset.”
ARSENAL’S LINKS WITH MITOMA
Surprise, surprise. Another Brighton player is being touted for a big move and Arsenal are high on the list.
This time it’s not their hard-hitting midfielder Moises Caicedo who is getting the spotlight, but claims that Brighton will set their asking price for their forward Mitoma in the summer amid Arsenal links.
Given the way Brighton are heading, it wouldn’t be a surprise if, one day, they manage to get £100 million for a player because, whilst it’s not helpful that they lose players, they sure know how to sell them, just ask Chelsea about Marc Cucurella.