Arsenal: The lack of a pressure-eluding midfielder

More and more, I am of the belief that the most important position in football is the pressure-eluding midfielder. It is still something that Arsenal do not have.

Football is changing. It is a very different game to even a decade ago. Positions are more fluid, tackles are softer, tactics have never been more changeable and influential, players have never had the same profile, recognition, fame, and finance.

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On the pitch, one of the key changes, I believe, is the uptick in teams adopting a high-pressing strategy when they lose possession. The deep-sitting, disciplined counter-attacking teams do still exist, of course they do. But there is a much greater range of managers implementing the high-energy, high-intensity approach that suffocates the opposition into submission.

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As a result, I believe that most important position on a football pitch is the pressure-eluding midfielder, a player who has the composure, awareness, confidence and quality to receive the ball deep into his own territory, under pressure from one or more defenders, and turn into space, calmly passing his way out of trouble, not simply clearing it without accuracy or attacking intention. Some of the most successful teams in the past decade have had one or more of these players. Toni Kroos and Luka Modric at Real Madrid. Sergio Busquets and Xavi at Barcelona. Xabi Alonso or Bastian Schweinsteiger or Kroos again or Thiago Alcantara or Arturo Vidal at Bayern Munich. It is also a role that Arsenal have been painfully absent of for the past 18 months.

The injury to Santi Cazorla was disastrous. Arsene Wenger described it as the worst that he has ever seen, and the Spaniard is now facing a full season on the sidelines after missing a large portion of the last campaign. It could well be a two-year absence. It could end his career. The diminutive, deceptive, conniving midfielder was Arsenal’s answer to eluding pressure. His soft and subtle touch, his sharp movement in his dribbling, able to spin away from a defender, his astute vision, accurate distribution, consistent decision-making. They all comprised a quite remarkable in-possession player.

Without him, Arsenal have struggled greatly when the opposition has had the quality, the energy, and the bravery to press them in the midfield. They have conceded possession easily in dangerous areas, their service into the attacking areas of the pitch has been misguided and wayward, and the lone centre-forward has been isolated, sounded out of the game.

Clearly, that is not the fault of one player. It is not even the fault of two players. But the presence of a deep-lying midfielder who has the calmness and ability to play even deep in their own half soothes all of the other uncertainties. Everyone is aided by their presence. And what has been made plain is that Granit Xhaka is not that player.

Now, this is not a bash-Xhaka piece. There are many issues with his play that he is deserving of criticism, and I have been more than willing to highlight such shortcomings, but this problem is not perhaps his fault, and more the fault of his manager and the assembler of the squad. It is not a surprise that Xhaka cannot fulfil the duties of a pressure-eluding midfielder. He is slow, immobile, unbalanced, and utterly dependent on his left foot. But Wenger has been unwilling to address the position, perhaps trusting the recovery of Cazorla or, foolishly, misjudging the abilities of Xhaka.

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Arsenal need this player. Whether it be the remarkable return of Cazorla, which is an extremely unlikely event. Whether it be the sudden and significant improvement of Xhaka, which may be even more unlikely. Whether it be in the transfer market. However it is done, Wenger needs to find this player. Without it, his team are going nowhere.