Southampton: Broja's 'underrated skill' is 'improving all the time'

Journalist Tom Barclay has praised Armando Broja’s loan spell at Southampton, highlighting his ability with the ball at his feet in recent games as one of his biggest strengths.

The 20-year-old is enjoying a highly successful spell from Chelsea this season and turned in yet another impressive performance against Manchester United on Saturday.

With just one senior appearance at Chelsea and a loan spell at Vitesse under his belt, when Broja made the loan switch to Southampton last summer, he would have been relatively unknown to the majority of Premier League supporters.

But some six months later, the £8.1m-rated attacker is taking the top-flight by storm, and has already grabbed the attention of Arsenal, who are monitoring the Albanian international’s situation.

In just 12 Premier League starts this season, Broja has scored six goals and laid on one assist, while he’s also scored twice in the Carabao Cup. But in recent games, the youngster has proved himself against the best, turning in outstanding performances against Tottenham and United.

In the victory at Spurs, Broja scored the crucial equaliser to make it 1-1, and while he wasn’t able to get himself on the scoresheet at Old Trafford, his pace and aggression caused constant problems for the entire United defence.

And Barclay has particularly been amazed by Broja’s pace and ability to run at players in tight spaces.

He told GIVEMESPORT: “He’s tall, physical, fast. But his ability to run with the ball is very impressive, it’s getting better with every game.

“There’s a lot of times in recent games where he gets to the by-line, and you’ve not got a lot of room to work with and he’s got the control to take it down and not knock it out of play or lose it.

“I think that’s