ESPN pundit believes £45m Arsenal star isn’t being utilised properly

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Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus has been urged to get “more central a little bit more often” for Mikel Arteta’s side.

Pundit Craig Burley told the ESPN podcast that the Gunners man needs to do this to stand a better chance of getting goals.

Despite Jesus’ outstanding quality in build-up play, there have been criticisms over his finishing abilities.

For instance, Emmanuel Adebayor recently told talkSPORT that Arsenal “need a striker that doesn’t care about coming out to be a part of the game.”

And Burley suggested that Jesus isn’t quite the finished product yet, acknowledging his link-up play is great but urging him to do differently in games.

Jan Aage Fjortoft asked Burley of Jesus: “Can he score 30? Can he score 25?”

Burley replied: “Well, not between January and the end of the season, if he does that he’s going to win the Ballon d’Or!

“His link-up play is great but they’ve got two wide players, they’ve got Martin Odegaard, I’d like to see him just a little bit more central a little bit more often.

“I mean I love when he comes out and he links up but the more he’s in that penalty box, clearly, the bigger chance he has of getting the goals that Arsenal need.”

Gabriel Jesus playing how Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is telling him to play

While it’s all well and good advising Jesus to do this instead of that, chances are he’s playing exactly the way Mikel Arteta has told him to play.

He does a great job of bringing the best out of the likes of Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard. Overall, he makes Arsenal attack better.

If Jesus were to stay in central areas more, he’d get more chances to score, but it would dull the attacking impact of the rest of the team and his teammates may suffer without his movement.

At the same time, Arsenal could do with a stronger attacking option up front, to enable a sort of Plan B. However, signing a prolific target-man in January is much easier said than done.