Arsenal: Nicholas Tagliafico a panic move for a panicky present

Arsenal’s defense is a pile of rubble right now, and Nicolas Tagliafico is a response to that, and little else. He’s only needed as far as disasters go.

It would have taken a lot for me to consider the need for another leftback as of a couple months ago. Arsenal‘s dynamic duo of Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasinac was enough to keep me satiated, at least for another year.

The blend of experience and promise, brutishness and fine-tuning, reliability and excitement – it was all we could ask for. Surely one or the other would be able to stay healthy  to allow us to be confident in the depth at the position. Surely they both wouldn’t get hurt. And if they did, Ainsley Maitland-Niles would always be there to play a role he had learned to be quite proficient at.

And then Granit Xhaka played leftback and all of a sudden, everything that we knew was thrown out the window. Clearly what we had wasn’t enough, and we needed more. Even I, the eternal Xhaka apologist, was sensible enough to admit that Xhaka shouldn’t be there (even if he did an adequate job at it).

Enter Nicolas Tagliafico. The ultimate panic buy.

The Argentine leftback is currently suiting up at Ajax in the Eredivisie and, at 26 years old, there is plenty of value to be found in his presence. Monreal isn’t getting any younger, after all.

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Tagliafico has all the things that Emery might want in a leftback – he’s smart in the attack, reliable in the defense, and, most importantly, he’s a left back and, as of right now, he’s healthy.

The link arose immediately following the leftback meltdown of Monreal and Kolasinac and likely has Emery wondering just how secure his team can be to avoid this ever happening again. Especially considering that Maitland-Niles, in the end, isn’t a fullback and will want to move into a central midfield role as soon as possible.

It’s a panicky situation that would prompt such a sudden link as this, but long-term it makes more sense than the lightness I have cast on it. As mentioned, Maitland-Niles doesn’t want to stay as the emergency fullback forever, and as mentioned, Monreal has places to go.

Eventually, we are going to need a new leftback, and by eventually, I mean as soon as this coming summer.

In the end, it’s not a bad buy. Confidence in our depth is something that we should always have.