Arsenal: Replacing Santi Cazorla still an issue

Santi Cazorla has now departed Arsenal. But he hasn’t played a match for the Gunners in over two years. And yet, replacing him is still an issue.

There was a brilliant interview with Santi Cazorla in the Guardian this week, conducted by Spanish football reporter, Sid Lowe. You can read the full piece here. It is a must-read, if ever there was one.

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Lowe delves into the injury troubles of Cazorla, his repeated surgeries, the nightmare period that the Arsenal midfielder has had to endure to try and ready himself for football once more, and the mental and physical impact that such an extended absence has had on the brilliant, diminutive creator.

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As I read the piece, I couldn’t help but reflect on the troubles that the Arsenal midfield have had in Cazorla’s absence. As soon as the Spaniard was forcibly dropped from the starting line-up because of the early onset of his ankle torture, it was clear that the midfield would not be able to provide the game-controlling, pressure-evading distribution from deep positions. Cazorla was the master of such a role. His replacements, less so.

Because of his rare spatial awareness and vision, Cazorla was acutely aware of what he needed to do with the ball before he ever got it. His speed of thought was such that pressing him was a futile endeavour because he never took long enough on the ball for the opposition to ever get close to him. And then, when they were able to get close to him, he had the slippery agility and dribbling ability to slalom his way around tired challenges and spin into space.

Two years later, still, there is not a player in the squad that has the same qualities that Cazorla had, qualities that quickly becoming the most important in a midfielder’s arsenal with the increasing implementation of a high-pressing scheme.

The likes of Granit Xhaka, Francis Coquelin, Mohamed Elneny, even Aaron Ramsey, never had the combination of dribbling ability and distribution to play the deep-lying role as adeptly as Cazorla did. And now, two years later, the club is still waiting for the team to truly address this issue — two summer signings, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi, have the potential to fulfil Cazorla’s role, but the jury is very much still out on both at this early stage.

As teams increasingly look to cause problems with pressure high up the pitch, there has been a growing need for players like Cazorla who have the combination of spatial intelligence, vision, technical skill and passing range to evade such pressure, even deep in their own territory.

Two years on, it is a great issue that Arsenal do not have such a player to field at the heart of the midfield. Cazorla is still yet to have a replacement, and that is very troubling indeed.