Danny Wright

Tue 2 February 2021 10:15, UK

Sky Sports pundit Alan Smith admits no one is quite sure of what Ainsley-Maitland Niles’ best position is after West Brom signed the player on loan from Arsenal on Monday.

Albion completed an eleventh-hour loan swoop for the 23-year-old on deadline day after a topsy-turvy day initially suggested the England international was heading elsewhere.

However, the Baggies eventually won the race for Maitland-Niles’ signature amid promises he would be played in his preferred midfield position and get plenty of game-time to boost his chances of getting into the England squad for the European Championships later this year.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has handed Maitland-Niles 21 appearances in all competitions this season but he’s regularly played in different positions.

Ex-Gunners striker Smith claims there’s an issue there that needs to be resolved in terms of Maitland-Niles’ best position and he hopes he can help show that at West Brom.

“It’s good for Ainsley if he’s not going to get a game under Arteta,” said Smith on Sky Sports News on Monday [04:36pm].

“It’s a funny situation with him. He’s clearly a talented boy but I think the problem is what’s his position? Is Arteta all together sure what his position is?

“He’s done ever so well in the wing-back role. You think back to last season in that FA Cup run.

“I don’t see him though as a defender or somebody when pushed onto the back-four, that he’s got that grittiness, that tenacity to stop that cross, to make sure that player doesn’t get past him. I don’t think his mentality is that way.

“He’s more of a creative force. For him, we all know, he would prefer to play in central midfield and you would assume he gets that chance if he goes to West Brom under Sam Allardyce in a real relegation scrap.

“He’ll have to dig in there but it doesn’t sound like a permanent move. Whether there’s an opportunity in the summer to come back to Arsenal and compete for a place, we’ll have to wait and see.

“But Arsenal have got so many players on the books they needed to shift and Arteta’s done pretty well in that direction in this window.”

Where does AMN fit in?

Sam Allardyce and Luke Dowling have made the squad stronger in January by getting rid of players who weren’t cutting it in the Premier League like Charlie Austin and Filip Krovinovic and signing proven top-flight players in Robert Snodgrass and Maitland-Niles, as well as strengthening the spine of the team in Mbaye Diagne and Okay Yokuslu.

Maitland-Niles is a good signing no matter how you look at it because he can play in so many positions.

Albion need strengthening in the full-back and wing-back positions and Maitland-Niles can help out there if Big Sam opts to play a back-five again some time this season.

But it sounds as though Allardyce wants Maitland-Niles to play in the midfield and we’re unsure how he slots into that role.

After signing defensive midfielder Yokuslu on loan from Celta Vigo, West Brom have him, Conor Gallagher, Jake Livermore and Romaine Sawyers who can play in the middle.

Is Big Sam hoping to play a central trio of Yokuslu, Gallagher and Maitland-Niles? Or is someone like Gallagher going to drop out and Livermore starts?

Either way, Matheus Pereira has to be left as the central attacking force in the midfield because he’s by far the best option.

We’ll see how it pans out but it’s going to be interesting to see how Big Sam manages the promising Gunners ace.

In other West Brom news, this Ligue 1 club wants to sign an Albion attacker.

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