Let’s talk about left-backs today because we’re at the phase of the transfer window when Arsenal fans start to get flustered about fees and who we’re buying.
David Ornstein said Arsenal is going to the mat with Manchester United over the signing of Ajax defender Lisandro Martinez. The fee is around £40m, the player likes both clubs, and the decision is up in the air. I think most of us reckon he’s going to take the United move, but who knows, he might fancy a more adventurous/pivotal/trendy position in the Arteta system as a left-back that builds play.
The fee is big. Arteta loves defenders that have specialist moves. Lisandro is one of them.
‘BUT HE’S NOT A PRIORITY’ is something I keep reading.
Firstly, as humans, we derive much pleasure from the idea that things happen in order. It’s easier on our primitive brains to imagine the thing we see as most important is the thing that is addressed first. We like dinner served in order, no ice cream as a starter, sustenance before a sugar coma. The milk goes into the cup after the hot water has been served when making a tea unless you are a psycho. No one puts a shirt on before their socks. Simple things.
I guess from an evolutionary perspective, when we were hanging out in caves, prioritizing things like food and fresh water over a new cave couch were probably beneficial to our survival. We might not worry about catching food now, and plenty of folk will buy a new DFS couch over more important things, but our desire for order is still the same: but now, we layer that quirk over football transfers.
This is wrong.
The order of transfers doesn’t matter. Arsenal will be working on lots of deals, with lots of clubs, all at the same time. If you worked in order, you would miss out on players, and it would be incredibly inefficient. Teams of people work on these things. Teams are collections of people built to withstand the burden of multiple tasks. A left-back moving up the queue doesn’t mean we’re ignoring other positions.
There are people that don’t think we need a left-back at that price, again, I would disagree. Kieran Tierney is a monster player, we love him, his attitude, his character, and his Tesco bag for holding training gear.
… but, we need to think in a more ruthless manner because we have struggled at left-back over the last 3 seasons.
Firstly, the numbers. The last 4 seasons (one from Celtic) have not been good for Kieran Tierney in the league. He has only played 48.5% of the league minutes available. His best haul was his second season at Arsenal where he clocked 2300 minutes. Joao Cancelo clocked 3200 EPL minutes last season in the league, 4200 overall. Trent managed 2800 last season, 4200 overall. KTs best minutes total over the last 4 seasons has been 2900 in 20/21.
What makes his injury issues even more problematic is that in 2 of his 3 seasons, there has been more than one breakdown a season. Take last season, he missed the first batch of games, which went to Nuno Tavares. Came back for a chunk, imposed himself on the style again, made himself important, then we lost him on international duty. Why is this important? Because our back-up players haven’t been ready to go because they’re either not at the level (Kola) or too young (Nuno). When KT breaks, so does the team, has tended to be the pattern.
If you want to be like the best two teams in the league, you have to find full-back solutions that can hit 3800+ minutes. Trent 4200, Robertson 4000, Cancelo 4600, even Kyle Walker at 32 is delivering 2700 minutes. 4 seasons’ worth of data would suggest it’s going to be unlikely that Kieran will be that player.
Arsenal has a history of not making moves when it’s clear there are weaknesses in players. I remember Arsenal waiting year after year for Abou Diaby to recover so he could replace Patrick Vieira. It never happened. We suffered for it.
The need is clear, you have to have a left-back at Arsenal that can manage more than 48% of the Premier League minutes. Would Arsenal have found an extra 3 points if we’d had Kieran T available for those 51.5% of the minutes? Absolutely.
… but, key with this window is that we are making the mini-crisis work for us. The question going around at Arsenal will surely be: ‘Do we need to find a like-for-like backup, or could we do something more innovative?’
Arsenal is doing the latter. Don’t listen to those that think a setpiece obsessive manager is signing a 5ft9 centre-back, no, Martinez is a left-back option for Arsenal. What is the motive? We’re a little one-dimensional with Kieran Tierney at left-back. We have a power move where we catch him on the overlap and the delivery isn’t always to level we need. Lisandro Martinez is a full-back more in the shape of Joao Cancelo. He’s a build-up player. Signing him will mean Xhaka doesn’t need to drop into a deeper position to build the play. It means we have a player that can invert, join the midfield, and contribute to our attacking play. It means we have someone that can find long accurate balls to release our pacy frontline. He’s also a monster in the air, which adds an additional shield of cover if the opposition counter with hoofs over the top. If your fullback can step into midfield, you can blitz with your forwards.
Now, is this move a guaranteed win? Absolutely not. There’s a huge difference between the Premier League and the Dutch one. There are a lot of examples of players that looked the real deal, only for them to land in our league, and totally tank. Just look at Donny, he looked like Ramsey on steroids, but he’s been dreadful. It ain’t the system, it’s the reality that it’s hard to adapt here.
The price is high because there aren’t many defenders that can do what Martinez does. If Arsenal are moving for him, with the money they have at the ready, it’s because he’s been heavily scouted and analyzed and the club think he’s a gem. There are too many people that spill their views into the ether when they don’t watch anything bar youtube clips. Unless you have an Ajax avatar in your bio, or you’ve been talking about Dutch football consistently, I can’t listen to your views on the player.
Let’s see where the deal goes, if we don’t get him, there will be other targets, and if one of them looks like Zinchenko, I’m not going to be sad, because we know he can do it in the Premier League.
Right, that’s all I have, I’ll see you in the comments.
Later on today, we’ll be rolling with a Sunday Post-Season special with a special guest appearance from Sophie over at the excellent Highbury Squad Youtube Channel. Subscribe to the channel below, click the little bell, and tune in, it’ll be a cracker!
- LONDON: 9PM
- NEW YORK: 4PM
- MIDWEST: 3PM
- CALI: 1PM
First
Trophy
This is too easy. Where is groovy daddy?
Guess I’m the only one here tonight
Nice one China
Lets hope we can get some bodies in the key positions in the door this week. Time is of the essence.
Uh oh, another summer window and another ‘the order we sign players in doesn’t matter’ post. Well it mattered last season as we toiled on with Xhaka so……
Not bothered about Martinez to be honest, yes he can play at LB but in his career to date he’s been a CB the vast majority of the time. Want a LB? Sign a LB, no need to over complicate things.
And I always put my socks on last.
Good post Pedro. I have always been of the opinion that we need squad depth in terms of quality. Regardless of bad squad management we didn’t have have proper squad depth last season. It is necessary if we really want to clinch 4th position.
If you make tea in a pot the milk goes in the cup first. Don’t @ me
Martinez is a Hybrid. If only wishes were horses we will get everything in order.
De risking ……what English is that?
Roaming from 🇹🇷 We signed anyone else yet?
I don’t think Zinchenko’s going to want to come here to play left back.
Good post Pedro
If we’re going toe to toe with United for Martinez it means they’ve gotten positive feedback from the player but I don’t think Edu/Arteta told him they’re signing him to play LB, if they did, I would think the response from the player wouldn’t be as positive as I’ve imagined. Yes he’s athletic and can play LB in emergency situations but I don’t think he has the pace and liking for this position.
Pedro
‘ The price is high because there aren’t many defenders that can do what Martinez does’
That the same thing you said when they went after Ben White
If we don’t get Martinez, we need to just have people tail the Brighton scouts because you know they will 100% replace Cucurella, so much for ‘there aren’t too many defenders’ talk.
If clubs like Brighton can keep finding them at lower prices, why can’t we?
cucurella woulda been class but he’s on his way to city diss. plus if i remember right we were in for him at one point but it seemed like a case of KT in front of him not being able to guarantee minutes…
Time matters in everything that we are to do. The earlier we bed in our players the better. And I always put on my socks last before the shoes. Why put on the socks first?
Socks are always last. Otherwise you are a naked man in socks. Ain’t no one got respect for that.
nb- take a bow, never has a truer word been posted on Legrove!
Still feels like we’re dragging out heels when we have priorities!
We need another striker, if Jesus is injured, we have just Eddie for a few months, not good enough.
We need a central midfielder and we need left back cover….. But at the moment we’re only looking at LB cover and we’re dallying, it’s so Arsenal, lose a player because of 3-5m…..
I think we’re dallying because we’re desperate to sell before we buy…… And that could cost us all out targets.
This Sinner fella is legit.
TeeCee, how do you know ‘we’re only looking for LB cover’?
Pedro with a bad take on socks 🧦 😂
Honestly I’m against Martinez, I get the utility aspect but a CB isn’t needed, which is what he is, we have 3 quality CBs and Holding.
As the article states, we need an out-and-out LB if KT only manages half the games, that’s not cover thats 2 players who are LBs. At this point the value in Grimaldo is exactly what we need, good rotation, good cover, solid enough player, and for 6-8m, perfect business…. Now sort out Tielemans and a wide CF with the funds saved.
Alex Grimaldo from Benfica £10m
pedro nice post. I look forward to the podcast. I really enjoyed when you went over to Sophie channel some weeks back. The AOP is really doing great. Nice one
“If Arsenal are moving for him, with the money they have at the ready, it’s because he’s been heavily scouted and analyzed and the club think he’s a gem. There are too many people that spill their views into the ether when they don’t watch anything bar youtube clips.” Sometimes it feels like Pedro thinks the majority of his readers are morons otherwise how else can one the statement above? We are literally spending money to buy a left back after we bought one last year. Is Pedro saying Nuno Taveres wasn’t scouted and he was bought based on a… Read more »
Nuno Tavares feels like a mistake. We were signing potential but he is/was no way ready to be a solid LB. Whoever is scouted needs to be a capable defensive LB, anything else is a bonus.
“Nuno Tavares feels like a mistake”
The same people who scouted Nuno are the ones scouting Martinez.
Azed,
The same people that scouted Mo Salah scouted Steven Caulker.
When you write things like that, I do think you are a moron.
Every club makes one or two mistakes arsenal-pepe, chelsea-lukaku, mancity-glearish, liverpool-keita, spurs-ndombele, man u-numerous lol. The thing about mistake is that you learn from them.
I have watched Lisandro Martinez play for Argentina and I think he is pretty solid buy . Zinchenko was my 1st choice though .
Just dont tell me we are after another Benfica LB after signing one last year please .
I don’t want Martinez, especially for £45m. His aerial win rate over the last three seasons in the UCL & EL knockout stages is 51.5% over 33 90s, so I don’t buy this argument that’s he’s a aerial monster. Pair him with Ben White and you’ll see us struggling on every other set piece and cross. £45m for any fullback is a lot of money, but paying that much for a player who primarily plays at LCB is insanity. I don’t think he can do that inverted full back role any better than Tierney, for the same reason: his right… Read more »
Tavares is currently nowhere near the required level. He was backup for Grimaldo at Benfica, and the jump from backup left back at Benfica, to playing in the PL for Arsenal, was too big of a jump. He’s got all the raw ingredients to develop into an exceptional left back, but he likely needs to go out on loan, and learn the game at a lower level. He needs serious work on the positional + tactical side of the game, and also needs to work on his decision making. He cost around £7million, he’s reportedly not on big wages, if… Read more »
“The same people that scouted Mo Salah scouted Steven Caulker.”
They took one on loan and the other was signed outright.
Nice try.
Oh well. Should be grateful that no one has actually been “taken out’ by Pedro’s disciples. I can see him stroking a cat ordering positive Pete, nicely and England’s best, to ” show them the errors of their way”
:😁
Lets not forget tavares was keeping tierney on the bench in some period of last season. The guy just need some confidence and he will bounce back.
Lets not forget tavares was keeping tierney on the bench in some period of last season.
As off today, Taveres is not a competition for Tierney.
azed
As of today, a crocked Tierney poses no competition for anyone.
A good solid DM one that can actually tackle without breaking every 30 seconds. You reckon Madrid knew he was a crock
Has anyone thought of Dwight McNeil of Burnley as back up LB?.
I know he’s more of a LWB or LM. He could play LB, young, has great LF delivery, cheap 10 to 12 mil and EPL proven.
Neto at Wolves another baller we can sign with good price and if we want experience superstar, we’ve our old boy Gnabry
Tavares will be a very good leftback all he needs to do is to add mental concentration to his game.
Put on Nigerian time next time pedro
Tavares is a wing back more than a left back.
Now I’m having vivid memories of Andre Santos.
Al, you don’t make sense. Pedro is right, the appeal for Lisandro to come to Arsenal over Ten Hag and higher salary would only be if he likes the idea of venturing out through CDM and LB. That and possibly the trajectory of us over them. Your idea to keep it secret from him is silly. Spend 40 mil on a player, then risk having a disgruntled player within a week of showing up. Most likely he’ll choose his old coach and we will have driven up his salary higher from United having to convince him. I’m plenty happy if… Read more »
Sophie just sold me on Lisandro Martinez on the AOP podcast. Going great
Some of these comments are laughable, it’s very difficult to learn from buying a player and having them flop, what you gonna learn other than that player is not suited to the PL, please… Also refusing to buy a LB from the same club as Tavares is absurd, are you telling me you had a bad Burger King chip when you were 5, so never ate chips again…? Seriously think before you speak, different players, different teams, different managers weild different results; the world of football is notorious for it, Torres, KDB, Salah, Gnabry on and on… Martinez is great,… Read more »
Nightmare, we’ve got to be so careful with our African international quota, losing players off the back of a busy Xmas + New Years schedule, is how seasons go up in smoke.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/afcon-rescheduled-how-affects-liverpool-27388027
I read guys on Twitter, like Pedro and others with big followings, same for guys with big podcasts…. these guys all have pretty good sources, and reasonable opinions about the club and where we are heading. Was listening to a couple pods this week, and they were talking about Ben Whites first season. No doubt it was a good season by any FAIR standard, and they all give him the credit he deserves, and he will probably even get better as he matures. There are people here who will never give the guy a fair shake because they didn’t like… Read more »
Jesus to be announced tomorrow
Pedro you’re right that the order doesn’t matter but only IF said players are actually signed and the timeline DOES matter You were pushing the same line last season. We didn’t complete some of our main signings until after the season had already begun. We lost the first 3 games. You told us those games basically didn’t count and we should be paying attention only after we got our signings in and the window closed. The funny part is you know just as well as we do that if arteta had been addressing CM before winger and people were moaning… Read more »
Spanish Dave,
Generally I assume you’re just a troll, but de-risking is a massively important term in the world of finance.
If you have not heard of it ever in your life, I’m not surprised.
You probably shouldn’t show off your own ignorance.
Like rap said, he has barely any minutes at left back, but if that’s where Arteta sees him then sweet.
But I’ve not heard/read a single person say lb (or fullback cover in general) isn’t a priority.
In fact lb and cm along with a striker were the only priorities this window.
Raphina at 60m, now that is where people were freaking out, because 60 can get us exactly what we need in positions of extreme need. Not just a rotation option for Saka
The order doesn’t matter, but not getting in what you need, or getting in players after the season already started, Pedro how the hell do you spin that as good work?
Oh wait I forgot, because Arteta made the decisions.
Careful now Nigel. You’ve already been spoken to by management about hater rhetoric.
I hope we can do our business properly. But this club makes it hard every window to be optimistic. Like why did it take so long for us to bring in ode, he was told by real early that he was surplus to requirements. He was essentially ours all preseason if we weren’t dilly dallying. He would have made more of an impact those first 3 games, definitely. And then having 2 RBS on the bench for Brentford with chambers RB and Mari and white in the centre. Then against Chelsea, Cedric comes in, as well as holding for white.… Read more »
Nigel, no one except you gives a shit how many followers a person has.
More followers does not equal more knowledge ffs
Sorry odegaard was in for the city match, but city was always the most likely winner, point still stands he should have been here for pres season
Even things like Sambi just chucked in the deep end. Where was elneny?
Or more importantly, where was our biggest priority signing? Well we still haven’t seen that player yet.
Arteta uses his squad soooooo poorly
I feel that with Jesus signing Arteta has pretty much got the first team signings done atleast for the first few round sof matches. That’s why the club is comfortable to negotiate for Martinez, Tielemens and right wing.options. these will probably get done late in the window and options are being looked at. Thats the only logical explanation that i can think of considering the mess we wre in last season for the first 3 matches. This season we will have the center forward that we want and both Partey and Tierney are back from injuries. So the first team… Read more »
If CM is considered a luxury to be fixed at the end of the window and the stars align and everything falls into place then it’s just a dice roll and nothing less
It takes ages to announce a signing. Some got thier targets and within 24 hrs it will be official. Gnabry and Raphinha deals will not be done. That one we have to accept!
Nigel single handedly driving people away from Le Grove in droves with his boring as hell posts. I don’t think I have seen one contribution where he doesn’t moan about moaners. No original thought, just spouting an opinion that has been said hundreds of times before by other people. Pedro must feel like he’s between a rock and a hard place. While he probably appreciates that simple Nigel backs up literally everything that Pedro says and has nominated himself as Pedro’s unofficial mouthpiece, he also probably realises even himself that he is the most boring and repetitive poster on here.… Read more »
Gabriel Jesus finally confirmed now time to bring in that CM
So Jesus finally announced.
Have held back on my comments on him and will to a degree reserve judgment because he was playing with WC players at City and quoting his numbers there in comparison to the numbers achieved by others at lesser clubs isn’t in mind proof of anything
Good points across the post Pedro. As much as signings and departures take in no set order, I don’t have the confidence that we’ll have most, if not all, of our players ready for pre season. I hope I’m wrong though.
I’m not so bummed out on Martinez coz I didn’t know the guy up until he was mentioned in the tabloids. He can be a Tomiyasu or Tavares for all I care. Let’s just have another barely known player linked to us and say he’s the next Viera…..seems like that’s the nature of this TW
G Jesus finally drops on the .com
Jesus finally!
The announcement video certainly didn’t keep them from presenting him earlier, I’ll say this much.
Yeaaaaaaah buddy. Tick the striker off priority needs. Now get in tielemans and a fullback all rounder and we are absolutely cooking
At last Jesus is official……..Pedro could’ve done a waaaaaaay better job on that clip TBH 😂😂😂😂.
Arsenal sent out email just before 9.00 am announcing signing of Gabriel Jesus who is wearing Arsenal shirt in photograph.
So at least this piece in jigsaw has been finalised.
CM this week please. 4 weeks to the first game and don’t want to be doing a Thomas Partey again. Im still struggling to understand as well our lack of outgoings. its madness
Mr SergeJuly 3, 2022 23:23:33
Jesus to be announced tomorrow
As I said yesterday
Rich how come you never predicted this ? 😜
What’s that Goal involvement stat of Jesus ?
Mr SergeJuly 4, 2022 09:14:58
Mr SergeJuly 3, 2022 23:23:33
Jesus to be announced tomorrowAs I said yesterday Rich how come you never predicted this ? 😜
Maybe because he’s got a life mate…..
G Jesus through the door, let’s hope we can seal some more targets. Kick off against Palace will be here before we know it.
I feel genuinely excited by the prospect of Gabriel Jesus linking up with Saka / ESR / Martinelli/ Odegaard, even Nketiah. Feels like a major signing up there with the likes of Sanchez and Ozil .
Great news on Jesus finally.Interesting article from Talkshite showing the all time Prem league points table.We’re 2nd surprisingly ,behind Manure.Despite not having won a title for nigh on 19 years.Sad .Need to start digging into that.Regularly this time.
Haha Johnny gunner ease up there mate. Just a joke
Gabriel Jesus – most sensational signing since Sanchez.
Yeah Jesus, while I had the same sentiments on a physical/technical beast up front as Pedro did earlier, is a quality signing.
So many options up front that all look great on paper to me.
Jesus – Eddie – Saka
Esr/vieira – ode
Partey
Marti – Jesus – Saka
Marti – Eddie – Jesus
Esr Jesus Saka
Even Marti Eddie Vieira in Europa.
Tooooo many good combos for the front 3, just the lb and cm upgrades and we seriously look good
Mr Serge, this one came from nowhere, I hadn’t even seen we’d been linked…..
Gabriel Jesus ✅
Happy with this one, loved his interview on the official site, seems like a really humble lad, came across as ambitious, but grounded.
Exciting signing.
Jesus announced. This is one of our most important signings in recent windows. He will score plenty of goals at Arsenal. And who knows may be being the top dog might even help him become a more prolific goalscorer.
Jesus definitely looks fired up in the interview , clearly says his best position is no.9 . So he is here to claim that CF position . Also worth noting that 3 clubs were trying to poach him from City apart from Arsenal , according to Romano . Chelsea , Spurs and ____ any guesses ?
Positive
Great news on Jesus finally.Interesting article from Talkshite showing the all time Prem league points table.We’re 2nd surprisingly ,behind Manure.Despite not having won a title for nigh on 19 years.Sad .Need to start digging into that.Regularly this time.
Interesting just how close it is between Arsenal in second and Chelsea in third. Three points
Divine
“clearly says his best position is no.9”
Say what? Say what?
For a club that have been out of the CL for so long Jesus is a coup signing make no mistake about that.
Will he be fantastic at Arsenal though?
No idea as I don’t know whether Arteta will get the best out of him as well as the whole side offensive wise.
There’s a player there though we all know that.
“football, to me, is Art”
he’ll be the making of Art.
Pedro’s latest blog titles have become more abstract in conjunction with the slowing down of Arsenal’s “greatest ever transfer window in history”
Terraloon-yep the chavs close because more title wins.By the way we came top when it came to the all time points accumulation from start of old 1st Div up to 2000.Which was an achievement.( 100 years or so)Let’s hope for more of the same this century!
Divine- Barcodes?(that inc Juve)😉
Asked about what kind of role Arteta had earmarked for him, he said, “I’m the number 9! I’m a striker, you know.
“I thank God every day I can be alive, and that I can play in three or four different positions, but I think my position is 9!
“I have come to score goals.”
Gabriel Jesus . Awesome .
Positive pete,
Yet some posters speak about the past like we were a bottom dweller team that raised spoiled fans under Wenger and how we should be fine with our results in the last years.
Positive Pete
I think it was either Juve or Bayern . Dont know for sure . The fact he outright rejected Chelsea and Spurs is enough for me .
Naughty Jesus telling fibs to Pep before to get game time.
Naughty! Naughty!
lol as we said before he says what is in conjuction with what he has been earmarked for by the manager at the time.
Pep had Aguero so wants Jesus to play wide a lot and Jesus says he likes that.
Arteta has earmarked Jesus for striker so he says yes that’s a bit of me.
Damn, people freaking themselves that Jesus was announced earlier. That’s the world’s worst kept secret – Jesus was announced over 2000 years ago. Yaal must be Pharisees and Saducees to have missed something so settled a long time ago.
Goobergooner
Haha Johnny gunner ease up there mate. Just a joke
It was a joke on my part Goober.
I thought a little ‘dig’ was in order after he told me to ‘jog on’ last week after I had the audacity to stand up for Tom. Told me it was an Arsenal blog…….no shit? 😂😂