Chief among Mikel Arteta’s early realisations as Arsenal coach was that Granit Xhaka was not a deep lying playmaker. When Xhaka was signed in 2016, Arsene Wenger seemed to struggle to define the player, first describing him as a ‘box to box’ player, before situating him at the base of the Arsenal midfield. Xhaka, somewhat confusingly, described himself as ‘a false 10.’
Wenger’s first instinct about Xhaka proved to be correct. He was more of a shuffler, who preferred to run in straight lines. He was not quick but very durable, an endurance athlete. While he was a talented distributor, playing him at the base of the midfield exposed his athletic shortcomings in large spaces, hence the errors and the yellow and red cards over the years.
Arteta instantly saw Xhaka as more of a ‘left eight’ than a deep lying playmaker. That’s why Thomas Partey was one of Arteta’s first big money signings. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how Declan Rice ought to be considered more a Xhaka replacement than a Partey or Jorginho heir (though he is clearly a different player to Xhaka).
Rice is a good passer of the ball; but he probably isn’t quite good enough to be a primary distributor and I think England’s Euro 2024 tournament illustrated the same point. Within that article, I also wrote about how Rice’s preference for the left side had pretty much ended Zinchenko’s primacy in the team. The two like to operate in similar spaces, albeit in very different ways.
I have to say I suspected that Arsenal would prioritise a ‘young Jorginho’ in the transfer market this summer to complement Rice. Perhaps that is still in the plan but depends on Thomas Partey being sold first. Yet interestingly, the two central midfielders Arsenal have been credibly linked with so far this summer, Mikel Merino and Amadou Onana, are not in this mould at all.
In fact, both are excellent at winning duels (Mikel Arteta gets very upset, etc, etc) and profile much more closely to…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/07/different-faces/
Author : Tim Stillman
Publish date : 2024-07-25 12:00:08
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