Southampton boss hails Aribo, explains why Nigeria midfielder has limited playing time

Southampton’s head coach, Martin Russell, has heaped praise on Nigeria midfielder, Joe Ayodele-Aribo for his attitude despite getting limited playing time, Soccernet.ng reports.

The former Rangers man has played 31 of The Saints’ 42 league games this season, starting just thirteen of those. He has also scored three goals and created another.

Despite the limited playing time of the 27-year-old Super Eagles midfielder, Southampton’s Russell Martin has regarded Aribo as one of the important players in his squad.

The Brighton-born manager cited Aribo’s trip with Nigeria to Ivory Coast for the AFCON 2023 tournament as the major reason the former Charlton Athletic man has had few minutes under his belt.

“He has been excellent. He hasn’t played a huge amount of minutes since he came back from the AFCON but he has been excellent. It was a huge amount of minutes for him in the last few games. Joe is a top player. It took him a while when he got back because he hadn’t played for three or four weeks at AFCON. He had a brilliant tournament with some fantastic experiences, but he came back and took a while to get back up to speed,” the 38-year-old manager told the club’s official website after Southampton’s 3-0 win over Preston North End.

Southampton are currently 4th on the EFL Championships table, four points behind Leicester City in the direct qualification spot with three games left to play till the season ends.

N.B: We want to know your thoughts. Do you think players leaving their clubs in the middle of the season to play in the AFCON tournament should affect their playing time when they return to their clubs? Let us know in the comments.