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.
- Ball carrying ability: perfectly exemplified by the assist he provided for Italy’s equalizing goal in the final group game of Euro 2024, picking the ball half in his own half before graciously driving and committing defenders then laying it off for his teammate to finish off the move, his ball carrying ability is exceptional.
- To first time watchers it may have seemed outrageous but to his long-term followers it was nothing new, this is owing to the fact that he had consistently been serving moments of brilliance like that throughout last season. Among his many strengths his ability to drive with the ball at his feet from deep positions will favor us the most and will make Arsenal not just press resistant but also allow the Forwards (particularly Martinelli) to exploit spaces left between the opponents midfield and defence.
- One of the many benefits of ball carrying to a team is the added advantage of eliminating defenders through dribbling and this in turn will provide more space to the attacking players to express themselves and create goal scoring opportunities. Given that Martinelli excels more as a transitional player it means that Calafiori’s dribbling will allow him to get back to his brilliant best.
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.
- Combination of Defensive solidity and good attacking play: most of us might think of the attacking play when trying to find logic on how he’ll improve Martinelli but his defensive solidity will also have a say, he’s reading of the game is excellent and has this knack of not diving into tackles unless he’s absolutely sure of winning the ball, to put this into perspective, he recovered the ball on average 7.43 times per 90 which has him in the 98th percentile among defenders in Europe, impressive.
- Having such a solid profile behind Martinelli will give him the license to stay high and wide to provide a crucial outlet against tougher opposition or in the latter stages of games where we have to defend a lead. Also, having Calafiori make underlapping runs will provide much needed support and space which was lacking for the majority of last season, it’s been no secret to us gooners that our right side dynamics are much stronger than our left, and this has greatly affected Martinelli’s performance this due in part to many factors but the inadequate support in the form of runs by the fullback behind him has been the most damaging.
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