Lucas Torreira (signed, closed)

Just ask him about Arsenal :mustafi:

Anyway, back to Lucas. Assuming Ramsey stays does this mean we’re playing a three man midfield with Lucas, Xhaka and Ramsey?

Does that mean it’s a 4-3-3 with no room for Ozil unless he is willing to play from the wing? Or a 4-2-3-1 using Lucas and Xhaka as the two?

Hopefully not. I would be very underwhelmed if Emery employed 4-3-3. It a formation he never favoured until he was forced to use at PSG.

It has to be a 4-2-3-1. You can’t waste a creative mind like Ozil on the wing, he has to play AM. Move Ramsey to the wing, it makes total sense

The last. A 4-2-3-1 with Ramsey as number 10 and Ozil on the wing.

First game in eight days against Boreham. But there we probably won’t see it yet since Torreira will join a couple weeks later I guess.

Yes but he wasn’t a first team regular and wasn’t expected to be part of the first team at the start of the season :thinking:

I agree…I want us to move away from 4-3-3 next season especially at the Emirates and 4-2-3-1 is a better fit for the players we have although I can see 4-3-3 being the preferred formation away from home or in tighter games. Ozil has to play centrally in the middle of the 3, although he will always wander out wide when he wants to…

BUT i disagree with…

Ramsey out wide would be totally ineffective…he even complained a little before when Wenger played him on the wing. Ozil is a better option on the wing than Ramsey, but to get the best of both, I would play Ozil in the middle of the 3 and Ramsey as one of the 2 deeper midfielders…

In my view our first choice pairing in midfield would be Ramsey and Torreira with Xhaka and Elneny as their respective natural replacements, with Maitland-Niles as a back up option.

That also means if we do sign Torreira, and as Xhaka has signed a new deal and as Ramsey is expected to sign a new deal, I can’t see us signing another CM player, unless we look to sell Elneny…or just keep him as a squad rotation player.

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Ramsey is not disciplined enough to play in a pivot. But maybe Torreira is the player who can clean all his shit up.

It doesn’t make sense to give a starting player a long-term extension and than bench him.

Fair view.

I lean against having Ramsey in CM under Emery. Looking his CM pivots in the past, the role is one where you aren’t expected to make forward runs into the opposition’s box, it’s more about controlling the midfield and pressing effectively. Ramsey doesn’t suit that profile.

It would be a total waste of Ramsey’s attacking qualities to play him deeper. By playing on the wing you can use his energy for pressing from the front and he has a licence to attack.

But the discussion is moot until we see what this side looks like with some results. I’m just waiting till the first few games to get an idea of Emery and his tactical set up. It’s be interesting to see how he adapts his ideas to the existing squad

If we’re actually going for

        Auba
Ozil   Ramsey    Mkhi
  Torreira   Xhaka

I can’t say I’d be too unhappy with it, for the first season at least.

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It’s probably the most balanced team we’ve had in ages, even if the LB might be found vulnerable from time to time. Though we could absolutely do with some more depth in either CM or LM as Ramsey will no doubt get injured fairly early into the campaign and Ozil will be shifted central.

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The problem I have with that; there is a genuine possibility that is our team for the next three seasons.

Iwobi and Maitland-Niles bruvv lol.

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I seriously doubt this will be our starting XI in three years. Even if Ramsey signs an extension I can see us moving someone else in the squad on (Lacazette perhaps?) and buying a younger wide forward.

I hope you’re right. I hope we sign a winger this summer.

I would agree that Ramsey and Xhaka cannot play in a pivot, as neither are disciplined enough to track back and defend. However with Torreira, he would provide the cover and allow Ramsey to venture forward and play as a box-to-box midfielder. It could work very effectively IMO.

Whenever Ramsey plays on the wing, he naturally wants to come back more centrally, which leaves us exposed on the wing. The same is true for Ozil, but to a lesser extent, but unlike Ramsey offers next to no defensive cover for the team.

Also…Xhaka’s new contract, along with Chambers, is the reaction from Arsenal to avoid another Alexis/Ozil issue again. All players are going to be offered new and updated contracts every few years to make sure contracts don’t just run down. We have brought in a whole new team to address this issue. It doesn’t mean that Xhaka is guaranteed to start as regularly as he did last season.

Xhaka never had positional discipline issues. He’s useless in a two man pivot because he lacks mobility and defensive awareness but for the most part he stayed deep and was positionally aware last season.

He was largely caught out in counter attacks because his midfield partner (Ramsey) was absent when support was needed. This is the main reason I don’t want Ramsey anywhere CM.

I hate the idea of contrast partnerships in midfield, reminds me of typical Wenger inefficiency and disorganization. It’s a fantasy to expect one player to police the width midfield when we’re in an attacking phase or build up and to stifle opposing counters.

Emery at Seville employed two well rounded CMs as the base of the midfield who didn’t vary from each other majorly in terms of style. His CM pairings have always been defensively minded workers doing the unspectacular but necessary work when it comes to pressing, organization, positional awareness, maintaining possession and winning the ball. Ramsey doesn’t suit that profile.

I’d like to see Torreira x Elneny to start off with

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I would like to see:

-------Auba--------
Pavon–Ozil–Mkhi
-Torreira–Xhaka/Elneny/AMN

An attacking midfield of Ozil, Ramsey, Mkhi is too heavy on ball players and play makers, without anyone that can beat a man on the dribble, cross like a traditional winger, or make runs behind. We need to add a young talent in attack but we also just need player like Pavon or Lozano that is more a winger or wide forward than a wide playmaker.

Its worth remembering that Emery’s wingers at Sevilla were players like Vitolo and Vidal, guys who could beat a man one-on-one, could get to the touchline and cross the ball, and worked hard. Its hard for me to imagine us regularly lining up without anybody like that in the side, at least on one of the flanks.

In central midfield, I’m not sure who will be the best partner for Torreira but I hope there is an open competition.

I’m fine with 2 defensive type mids partnering each other in those positions, but we’d want to sign someone that’s an upgrade on Elneny for a starting position.

With Emery it will be less of a problem anyway because he will set Arsenal up more defensively.

I don’t buy that last part. We let Wilshere walk and if we offer Welbeck or Campbell a contract renewal because of that, that would be just stupid.

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