Arsenal: Can Lucas Torreira kill two birds with one stone?

Arsenal will sign Lucas Torreira in the coming days. But can the midfielder solve both their problems in shielding the defence and in evading high-pressing opponents? Can he kill two birds with one stone?

Much has been made of Arsenal’s lack of steel and stability in midfield. For over a decade, Arsene Wenger, using a myriad of different players, systems and strategies, could not provide the right balance, often fielding a lightweight unit that was overpowered and overly-attacking.

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Those issues were at their greatest last season. The Gunners conceded 51 goals in the Premier League — for comparison’s sake, the two Manchester clubs conceded 55 combined — and much of their problems came down to an inability to protect and support an already vulnerable and mistake-prone defence.

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This summer, then, one of the key priorities for many fans, myself included, centred on finding a true defensive midfielder, a player who excels in breaking up play, winning tackles, reading the game and making interceptions, tracking runners, covering ground, clogging up passing lanes and implementing the structure of the team. In Lucas Torreira, this new Arsenal, governed by Sven Mislintat, Ivan Gazidis and Raul Sanllehi alongside Head Coach Unai Emery, believe that they have found it.

The impending £26 million arrival certainly has the pedigree and performance-level to suggest that he is capable of fulfiling that role. But there is an element of the midfield play of Arsenal last season that is perhaps being overlooked, that being their inability to evade the high-pressing tactics of the opponents by shifting the ball quickly through the midfield and into advanced areas.

With Santi Cazorla unavailable for the whole year, and now having departed with the expiration of his contract, the likes of Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey and Mohamed Elneny struggled to move the ball quickly through the phases, often forced sideways and backwards and even being dispossessed in dangerous areas of the pitch that, on some occasions, led directly to goals.

The next best player in the squad behind Cazorla at being able to receive the ball in tight areas and then relieve pressure by either dribbling clear or passing forwards was Jack Wilshere, who will also leave this summer when his contract expires at the end of June. While much of the attention is focused on this midfield’s lack of defensive balance, there is a need for a pressure-evading distributor at the base of it.

Could it be, then, that Torreira has the ability to kill two birds with one stone? Can he solve both the problems in shielding the defence, breaking up play and offering structure and stability, and in evading high-pressing opponents?

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It remains to be seen whether Torreira does indeed have that capability. It is a big ask. And even if he can’t and can only help to the defensive side of the game, that will still be a major benefit. But he would be a spectacular signing if he could do both. That is the hope.