According to Oleksandr Zinchenko, Bukayo Saka should receive the same level of protection as renowned footballers Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Zinchenko made this statement after Saka was repeatedly targeted and roughed up by an opponent during a game at Villa Park.
Saka has been subject to similar treatment throughout the season, often resulting in injuries.
The referee of the game, Simon Hooper, was lenient and only issued three yellow cards, one of which was given to Saka when he became frustrated and threw the ball to the ground.
Zinchenko believes that referees should pay extra attention and take action when special players like Saka are subjected to rough play by opponents.
Zinchenko said: “Bukayo is an unbelievable player, all the full backs from the other teams know he’s so dangerous, so they try to provoke him, tackle him and the referees should know this.
“We can speak about Messi, Cristiano, Neymar and players like this. The referees need to protect this kind of player. Apart from Bukayo, we have other front players who are so dangerous and the referees need to be careful, they need to look after them of course.”
Although Saka sustained injuries and was seen limping during the first half, he managed to play the entire 90-minute game. However, his manager, Mikel Arteta, cautioned the young star that he should expect to receive similar rough treatment from opponents in the future. He’s fine. He got kicked quite a lot today again,” he explained.
“But he’s going to have to deal with that, not every week, but every three days and sometimes in training as well because it’s his game and teams are not stupid and they want to stop him. That’s why we need to protect him.”
Asked if they wanted more of that protection to come from officials, he added: “We will discuss that. We will look at the images again and report that if it’s necessary.”
Remarkably, after seven years in England and 92 appearances in the Premier League, Oleksandr Zinchenko scored his first goal in the league.
However, despite this achievement, the former Manchester City defender expressed regret for his performance in the first half of the game. Zinchenko admitted that he made an error which contributed to Aston Villa’s first goal, scored by Ollie Watkins.
Zinchenko added: “To be honest, the performance in the first half wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t happy at all but in the second half I’m happy to help my team with the goal, but my priority was always three points.
“The quality is there but we can’t stop, there’s a lot of things to improve but if we work hard to improve ourselves then we are on the right way to go.”
