Calafiori’s imminent Arrival may breathe new life into our Brazilian starman. by Kenneth
As of the time of writing this Article, Arsenal have agreed a package worth up to €50 million with Bologna for the Italy international defender Riccardo Calafiori. In what has almost been a mini transfer saga, the gunners have seem to have gotten their man, with personal terms already agreed upon a few weeks ago it means that only the small matter of passing a medical remains before the deal is made official.
His unique profile and versatility will allow us to set up differently depending on game state or level of opponent, The imminent arrival of a left sided defender who is both technically sound and defensively astute has got me excited for one player in particular, Gabriel Martinelli.
How will Calafiori potentially improve Martinelli?
Before answering this question it is important for us to know that this is under the condition that Calafiori is played at leftback, his versatility and ability to play comfortably both as a leftback and left centerhalf means that he can be deployed somewhere else. If played at leftback though, here are two reasons (in my opinion) why I think Calafiori’s unique profile might improve Martinelli next season.
Just to hit this home, Riccardo Calafiori provided, on average, 1.76 shot creating actions per 90 mins last season, putting him in the 97th percentile among defenders, this perfectly explaining his style of play and how he impacts a teams attacking play.
I can just speculate but we all know who has the power to decide which way best improves the team and that’s Mikel Arteta, he might decide to use Calafiori in a completely different role to that stated above such as potentially moving to a back three, utilizing him in a more inverted role or even dropping Gabriel and partnering him with Saliba at the heart of the defence.
Furthermore we must Also take into account how long it takes him to adapt and fit into a new system, given the tactical demands of a manager who has a keen attention to detail. With this in mind it is imperative to realize that Martinelli improving and getting back up to speed is not entirely down to Calafiori’s arrival, but tactical tweaks here and there by the manager can get the best out of him.
We also have to remember that Jurrien Timber was deployed at leftback last season but only got a glimpse of how he fared there due to the season ending injury at the start of the campaign, who knows, if he had stayed fit maybe Martinelli would have had an exceptional season. Furthermore it might have been an off season for Gabi and might just see him back to his best this upcoming campaign, fingers crossed !
Kenneth Benjamin
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2024-07-26T15:25:09Z dg43tfdfdgfd