Expert view: Arsenal target Layvin Kurzawa has been a major disappointment

Arsenal are without long-term injury absentee Kieran Tierney until at least March and the club's other left-back Sead Kolasinac has been battling ongoing ankle and thigh injuries. The Gunners are woefully short elsewhere in their defence, with Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin struggling to regain fitness after lay-offs.

Kurzawa will be a free agent as of the summer, but the Gunners are hopeful of sealing a deal in January, with the Athletic adding that the Gunners are hopeful they can sign the 27-year-old without paying a fee.

We asked Eurosport France’s Vincent Bregevin for his expert opinion on the full back.

Not really. He has not lived up to the hype since he joined from Monaco after a very promising season. This season, he’s backup to Juan Bernat at left back but Abdou Diallo can play there too, so my guess is that PSG have no reason to keep him. He’s been a major disappointment.

He simply hasn’t proved to be good enough for this club.

He has regressed. Kurzawa was in the French national team when he arrived from Monaco in 2015. He was Maxwell’s backup at first and performed quite well when he played. The idea was to promote him step by step as a starter to prepare for Maxwell’s retirement but Kurzawa didn’t take this chance in 2016-17. He failed to show he was of the required quality, made too many defensive mistakes and did not offer enough going forward.

Still, he was supposed to be the starter in 2017-18 after Maxwell retired but he lost the starting role to Yuri Berchiche, who was signed that summer as his backup. Since then, groin troubles have held him back.

Arsenal need a more reliable defender that Kurzawa. Still, Kurzawa’s priority is to get his real level back – the level he showed at Monaco. Until/if that happens, I can’t see him succeeding in the Premier League.

He has an attacking mentality and gives width to the game, but his crosses, which were really good when he played for Monaco, haven’t been good enough for years. Still, he can bring danger in the attacking end but the problem comes defensively. His positioning is not good enough, and he lacks concentration. He has not given the impression that he is mentally prepared for the elite level in football. He must demand much more of himself. His mentality has always been a question mark since he was young (see Guidetti vs Kurzawa). I think he never reached his potential because of that and I’m not sure he will change at 27.