Gabriel Magalhães, Martin Odegaard, Nuno Tavares, Fabio Vieira, Pablo Mari and Oleksandr Zinchenko. All Arsenal signings by Mikel Arteta and all left-handed. Six of Mikel Arteta’s 14 field signings have been left-handed, allied to players he inherited such as Bukayo Saka and Kieran Tierney; this balance is clearly important to the technician.
Six of Arsenal’s 12 most used players this season are left-footed. Arteta has looked to bolster his collection of southern paws and the first place he addressed that need was on the left side of his central defensive partnership. Arteta inherited Mustafi, Luiz, Holding, Chambers and Sokratis in the center half.
Pablo Mari arrived on loan in January 2020, weeks after Arteta’s appointment, but I’m skeptical about how involved he was in that deal. In the summer of 2020, he asked the club to spend £27m on Gabriel de Lille in France. The benefits of having a left-footed central midfielder are obvious, he opens up the field. First of all, for the convex pass to the left wing and for the diagonal from left to right.
Left-footed central midfielders are also more comfortable guiding attackers towards the left touchline (there’s a phrase in training that says “the touchline is your best defender”). Tellingly, the purchase of a left-footed center midfielder was one of Arteta’s first orders of business.
Gabriel has been a mainstay in that position since he arrived in the summer of 2020. That’s not just because of his favored foot. He has quickly become a very important player for the team and an important defender. Every defense needs a balance between fire and ice at center half and Arsenal have discovered that balance in the last 18 months, first with White and Gabriel pairing up during 2021-22.
When William Saliba, the epitome of the Gunners’ icy backline presence, returned for the 2022-23 season, Gabriel wasn’t about to be ousted. Instead, Ben White moved to the right back. Gabriel has played every minute of Arsenal’s league campaign so far. Where others have been allowed to dip their ankles in an ice bucket for cup games, Gabriel has largely been on duty.
He started four of Arsenal’s Europa League games and came on as a substitute in another. He also played the full 90 minutes against Oxford on Monday night. With the transfer of Pablo Mari, Arsenal does not have another left-footed central defender to intervene and one cannot help but think that it is an issue that will be resolved in the summer.
However, Gabriel also has a crucial defensive role in Arsenal’s system. In the 2-3-5 / 3-2-5 system in which they operate, there is no player more stressed, positionally, than Gabriel. The arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko has allowed Arsenal to exercise more control over matches, largely because he doesn’t really play left-back. (No one averages more touches in the middle third for Arsenal this season.)
Zinchenko is effectively Thomas Partey’s midfield partner, roaming the pitch to overload midfield. Zinchenko is incredibly effective in that role, but his wandering comes at a price, and Gabriel foots the bill. Because indeed, Arsenal don’t really play a left-back and that means Gabriel is being asked to cover a lot of space and become a hybrid half-back and full-back in the defensive phase.
His athletic ability helps him do very well; but it takes more than just speed to execute that role effectively, timing and appreciation of space must be finely tuned throughout. A hero lock isn’t always required to remove the hazard, either. Coaches often teach defenders the value of holding back opponents and Gabriel is excellent at this: running into space and just keeping the attacker where he is or pushing him towards the touchline until the cavalry arrives.
Gabriel is often characterized as reckless or slightly error-prone, especially by those who don’t watch Arsenal every week. That ignores two salient facts. One: he is exposed and it takes a lot of cunning to get out of those situations. A sword swallower is more likely to have an accident at work than an accountant. (That said, Gabriel has only one error leading to an opposition shot this season, Saliba has four, which is probably just a matter of experience.)
It also ignores the marriage of defensive styles that every defensive association needs. Tony Adams needed Martin Keown snarling and biting the kneecaps next to him so he could keep his shorts clean. Laurent Koscielny conceded a few red cards and penalties in his time because he had to bring the athletic yin to Mertesacker’s elegant yang.
You can’t have two Bobby Moores on defense, you need a Jack Charlton to launch missiles out of the penalty area, and you need someone who isn’t afraid of a bloody fist if the game spills into the parking lot afterwards. When Arsenal came under unusual bombing this season at Elland Road, who walked away with the man of the match award under their arm?
gabriel That game was a fight and the Brazilian feels right at home with a knuckle strapped to his fist. Ben White and William Saliba are outstanding defenders, but without Gabriel, the defense would be so slack that it would eventually collapse. But Gabriel is far from just a street fighter, the distribution of him is also excellent.
When Arsenal lost 1-0 at home to compact Leicester City in October 2020, Arteta said https://arseblog.news/2020/10/arteta-our-center-backs-must-help-the-attack/, “They (Leicester) played 5-4-1 and the striker came back with the holding midfielder… if you don’t use your central defenders you are playing eight [men] against 10 the whole game. It is a really difficult game to play.
“Them [the centre-backs] they have to intervene, they need to know which spaces to attack, which players need to engage, which players have to provoke, the areas we have to provoke as well. They become crucial.” Gabriel passes into the final third 4.76 times per 90 minutes compared to Saliba’s 2.92 per 90, which is not to criticize Saliba’s passes, which are excellent. He just highlights how effective Gabriel is at passing the ball into areas that ‘taunt’ as Arteta put it.
It’s even more impressive when you consider that he normally receives the ball to the left flank while Zinchenko or Tierney are reversed in midfield, which means he doesn’t have a wide view of the pitch available to him. The lack of an orthodox left-back at his side often means he has a less easy pass open to him. Every good team needs a Gabriel, the biggest problem for Arsenal is to find another one like him.
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