Hertha BSC sporting director Arne Friedrich says the club are very happy to have a ‘fantastic player’ like Matteo Guendouzi for the season.

One of many Arsenal loanees this season, Matteo Guendouzi joined Hertha BSC in the hopes of getting back out onto the pitch regularly following his falling-out with the bosses at his parent club.

Hertha took advantage of the unexpected opportunity to sign the 21-year-old for the campaign, and he’s made four appearances for them so far. It would’ve been more if not for a positive Covid test immediately after his arrival.

From what he’s seen so far, Hertha sporting director Arne Friedrich is very pleased with the midfielder.

“He’s a fantastic player,” Friedrich said. “He’s so calm. He wants every single ball, even under pressure. He has his own understanding that he wants to win games.

“[Guendouzi] has this intrinsic motivation to just show the world how good he is. This is what we need, this is what everybody needs and he is highly confident, which is also very important for our team because our team is still looking for structure.

“We are very, very happy to have him here and he’s worth every penny.”

From an Arsenal point of view, I’d like to see Guendouzi show consistency across the entire campaign. He had some wonderful performances for us in some tough games, but he let others pass him by or lost his head.

The talent is clearly there, but it’s the discipline to show it on a weekly basis that would be most encouraging. He doesn’t have to be the best player on the pitch every match, as long as he’s generally hitting the levels he should be aiming for.