Elneny more than just a midfield destroyer, says former coach Bradley

New Arsenal signing Mohamed Elneny is more than just a midfield destroyer, according to his former Egypt coach Bob Bradley.

The American took charge of the African nation between 2011 and 2013, with Elneny making his senior debut days before his appointment.

Elneny arrives at Arsenal in the absence of injured defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin but Bradley believes he can also offer the Gunners an attacking threat.

“He is an all-round midfielder capable of playing different roles,” Bradley told NBC Sports’s Pro Soccer Talk. “He reads the game, he moves well and he can play a little bit deeper.

“He’s an all-round midfielder who can play deeper when needed, he can move forward and shoot from distance but he’s not just a guy who stays in there and breaks up plays.

Bradley also backed Elneny to adjust to the pace of Premier League football having featured for Basel against English sides in European competition.

“It is an adjustment for anybody but I think that his experience of playing against Premier League teams in the Champions League and Europa League is going to help,” he added.

The former USA coach, who is now in charge of French club Le Havre, says Elneny’s consistent application on the training ground has enabled him to rise to an elite level.

“When Elneny started he was still young, he was only 19, but you could see that he trained really well every day,” Bradley explained.

“In training he was improving technically. You could tell how he worked and how he wanted to get better. Little by little he became an important part of our team.

“His passing got sharper. He started to improve his ability with long passes. He was always a player who didn’t hesitate to shoot from distance and at that time it wasn’t always that he was scoring a lot, but you could see all these starting points.”