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Arsenal should pursue Marco Verratti over Mario Gotze
By Josh Sippie
One of the main reason why Mario Gotze is having a tough go of things at his land of milk and honey, Bayern Munich, is because he has to fight to earn a spot in the starting XI. If that be the case, then stay clear of Arsenal, because he will not be waltzing into the club’s ‘unsittable’ list, seeing as how that list has never been created.
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Gotze is a talented individual with massive skill on the offensive side of the ball. He may not track back defensively, and that would irk Wenger to no end, but he is still a massive talent. However is he worth upwards of 40 million pounds? I am not so sure.
When Marco Verratti has a projected value of less than that and his upside is far more conclusive, you have to vote in favor of calling off any conceivable pursuit of Gotze in favor of a serious consideration for Marco Verratti. After all, Verrati plays defensive football and offensive football. Not only that, but his tenacious style of play would be welcome on an Arsenal side that is still sometimes criticized for its lack of ‘edge.’
TalkSport did an excellent piece on why Mario Gotze would obviously be a great signing, but why he is far from what is needed. Their point is that Gotze would be competing with Mesut Ozil, as he is a central midfielder and such an addition is not necessary. He is a goal-scoring, attack-minded midfielder. Arsenal have plenty of those already. What Arsenal needs is another enforcer type with offensive upside.
Enter Marco Verratti. Let’s use Squawka‘s player comparison matrix to highlight what makes Verratti so special and so beneficial to Arsenal’s cause when compared to Mario Gotze:
[table id=60 /]
The key thing with this table is that, while Gotze has the edge offensively, both in goals scored and shot accuracy (not shown), Verratti is a controlling midfielder with a superb pass completion and he has the ability to stop the opponents advance and start attacks for his side.
His 72.22% successful take-on rate is really quality and while it may not be Francis Coquelin’s 84%, it is still a formidable number for a guy that can contribute to the attack.
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Where Gotze excels in offensive capabilities and Coquelin excels in defensive, Verratti is a blend of the two, providing quality numbers on both sides of the game.
That is something that Arsenal really need. He can compete for Coquelin’s spot on the side if he could prove that the defensive gap between him and Coquelin is not that gaping.
Of course the big question is whether a 5’5″ midfield ‘enforcer’ type could succeed against the physicality of the Premier League. Jack Wilshere manages it pretty well just because of his tenacity and fearlessness. The counter to that argument may be that Jack clearly cannot be an enforcer because he keeps getting hurt but if you look at his most recent injuries, they all come from being tackled and not from tackling.
By that reasoning, I would wager that Verratti could be an effective holding midfielder in the Premier League. Although whether he could do it as a standalone is another question entirely. Either way, he would provide Arsenal with needed depth in the holding midfield position whereas Gotze would add to the surplus we already have in attack.
Next: Giroud must find consistency