Torreira jets in, so how do we line up next season? by Konstantin Mitov
In the most un-Arsenal fashion, another signing will be coming up this week as we all know Lucas Torreira is coming in! This is very exciting as we finally sign a player known for being a defensive midfielder! Not a DM, wanting to be a number 10 or a creative midfielder! This is very important and also adds the question of what happens with the squad we have right now?
I firmly believe that we will start Leno in goal instead of Cech. Then comes the defence which will have Monreal, Sokratis, Mustafi/Chambers or a new CB and then Bellerin. Even though we signed Lichtsteiner I think we’ll give Bellerin the starting role and use the swiss only if Hector fails us again.
Then comes midfield and the options here are plenty. Emery is best known for playing 4-2-3-1 which he used a lot in Spain as well as the 4-3-3 he used in PSG. If he opts for the first tactic which is very familiar to Arsenal, then you could argue that the 2 DMs could be Torreira and Xhaka, with the swiss given more freedom to move forward.
Then the three players behind the striker will be Mikhi, Ramsey and Ozil and up front we’ll have Auba or Lacazette. We have two very good strikers and this creates a dilemma with this system. Do we drop one, or move one to the wing? If we do so, then a midfield player has to drop out and I’d opt for Xhaka.
We can put Ramsey next to Torreira and give and move either of our strikers to the wing. I’m not sure I like this too much, because I feel having both worked well last season, even though everything else in the squad was falling apart. The problem is that someone will have to be a make-shift winger. And with Iwobi being the closest thing to a winger we have we might have to have 2 make-shifters.
Some obvious candidates for this are Henrikh Mikhitaryan and Danny Welbeck. Ozil, Auba and Laca are also options, but Mesut is a definete no in my opinion, and I don’t like either of the other too much on the wing. It’s difficult to put out the best 11 on paper that we have into this formation as we’re overloaded in some areas like the number 10 and very short in others like the wing.
We could try playing a 4-4-2 with a diamond shape, With Torreira as the DM, Xhaka and Ramsey in midfield then Ozil/Mikhi as the number 10 and Auba and Lacazette up top. It’s very interesting what we do with Ozil. He had a poor season and a poor World Cup, but we’ve given him the number 10 shirt and we need to rebuild his mentality for the upcoming season.
So a lot of work is still to be done and a lot of options are available. Do share your own opinions in the comments but keep in mind we might yet sign some more new players as Banega and N’zonzi are linked so this could further change our plans. Anyway, I’m very happy so far. It’s so nice to see the transparency with Arsenal after Wenger left.
You can clearly see the emphasis on the new training methods, something that was obviously neglected during the Arsene days. Another great thing is that honestly I don’t know what to expect next season as there won’t be silly excuses if we fail to win a game. That’s me done for now. Wish you all a happy summer!
KONSTANTIN