What a defence
Just been to Italy for a few days and I read an interesting article about Calafiori and why he became a center back for Basel and Bologna and the Italy national team.
The Basel manager used wing backs who had quite a bit of pace and this is something which Calafiori lacks, so unless Arteta goes for a 3 at the back he’s just going to be an upgrade on Zinchenko which means he’s going to have to learn his defensive responsibilities and his positional awareness in a different way than when he plays centrally.
So basically what was said as long as Gabriel and Saliba do their job it will give Calafiori the freedom to advance and break up play maybe playing as a deep 6.
Just to reiterate these aren’t my words just from a journalist who has followed his career not from someone on a football forum guessing where he’s gonna play.
If you expect him to play the Ben White role but on the left it may be a bit of a worry.
Personally I have a bit of a feeling he may be playing quite a bit in Partey’s role.
Signing a defender who becomes a DM is what the Arsenal fanbase wants most of all.
Calafiori isn’t going to be playing as a No.6. It is so clear he will play at LB/LCB initially. Probably likely to be the long term successor to Gabriel at LCB. I don’t think he will play the Ben White role on the left initially, but clearly will learn that role over the course of this season.
You really didn’t understand a word I wrote, take the cotton wool from your ears and stick it in your mouth and try again
Have you ever actually watched Arsenal play?
You watch Arsenal play every gameweek in the stadium live and still make absurd observations like ‘Nketiah is a far better player than Greenwood’. You can’t act like an authority on the subject coming out with bollocks like that.
I get what @Jesseviolin is saying, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Arteta deploys all of White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori and Timber in a match day squad, as well as Rice in midfield.
This would allow a pretty aggressive high line with at least three of those players effective at roaming forward and filling in as an extra man in midfield according to the game state.
If you read the thread I actually retracted my statement. Greenwood has been out of the mix for so long now, and I hadn’t appreciated his goal record at Utd. Nketiah is still a good striker though and will do well at another team. I still maintain that we should get decent money for him.
I’m sure this is aimed at no-one in particular
https://x.com/afcstuff/status/1815572417168765224?t=1NgXEMWbhKsSS6PF38DU0A&s=19
Kinda confirms what has been said regarding Timber’s minutes this coming season - similar to how we integrated Jesus’s return.
Calafiori will come in and be a starter for Arsenal.
With any signing like this I always like to have a nose around rival forums and see what they’re saying about it.
Redcafe for example, up until the middle of this month were raving about this guy, they’re gutted we’re getting him and had such a “clear run” at signing him. Consensus seems to be it’s a really good signing only negative seems to be the injury record.
Preposterous ScoreAtEase
Kiwior is better than most of those defenders.
When you put it that way
He’s better than all of them.
Yeah, think that’ll be the case. White-Saliba-Gabriel-Calafiori will probably be our back line come August 18.
I really hope that Calafiori settles in quickly cause that back 4 looks fucking mean on paper.