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Arsenal: Lucas Torreira muddles line between present and future
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal’s midfield is getting spicier, not just for now, but for the future. Matteo Guendouzi is the extension of what Lucas Torreira brings.
Arsenal’s midfield is set. Now, this is before anyone potential leaves (but don’t say Aaron Ramsey) but assuming that no one does, this midfield is packed and it is powerful, and there is no denying that.
The best part about all of this is we no longer need to separate the here and now from the future, because they are largely intertwined. There is no “oh, this guy is going to be great one day.”
It’s more of “this guy is great now, and he’s getting better as we go.”
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Lucas Torreira was a big part of that. He was the completion of our present midfield, but at 22-years-old, his future impact is just as viable in the here and now.
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Matteo Guendouzi will, ideally, do the same thing. I set out initially to talk about how Guendouzi does for the future what Torreira does for the present – he completes the midfield. But then I realized that the line isn’t so clearly defined anymore. It isn’t like when we had old midfielders with young players for the future.
Guendouzi would, ideally, be in a midfield with Torreira and Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the future. The same way that Torreira fits in between Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey now. But then you consider that the age differential here isn’t even that big of a deal. It’s not like we have Arteta and Kallstrom with Ramsey and Wilshere in the ranks, where there is a clear split between now and coming.
These guys are all relatively young, only Ramsey is in his prime years and, if we’re lucky, all of these midfielders will be just as capable to handling the here and now as they will be of handling the future.
That is the goal right? To seamlessly blend between eras? It’s a trick that so few teams are able to accomplish, what with the high managerial turnover and whatnot.
Arsenal has not done that well in the past. It’s been clunky and unorganized. Now, at least in the midfield, we are set for a very long time.
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That is, again, assuming that no one decides to jump ship.