Arsenal: Lucas Torreira risk doesn’t have much reward

Arsenal are in a place where they need to be leveraging their risks with their reward. Lucas Torreira is one risk without much reward.

Arsenal have plenty of decisions to make going into the match today. It isn’t just any match, it’s a match with Liverpool looming at the weekend, a match made even more imposing by the unavoidable fact that the Reds will more than likely still be undefeated, giving the Gunners a bit of an added impetus to be in their best possible form.

Which will include having their best players available. Which includes Lucas Torreira, who has become an indispensable piece of the success of this team. Preserving these all-important players, with so many already out with injuries, should be priority No. 1, right?

Or at least, it would be, if Brighton weren’t in the way. In Brighton, we have a mid-to-bottom-half of the table team capable of some surprises. But those surprises shouldn’t be enough to get past Arsenal minus one key player.

I bring this up because of one obvious reason – the highly-talked about situation with Lucas Torreira being one yellow card away from being suspended for the Liverpool match.

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Given he nature of the way he plays, it’s natural to be concerned with the Uruguayan’s potential to get that nasty, nasty fifth yellow at the most inopportune time and see him left out against Liverpool, a match with the same implications on paper, but much deeper implications underneath.

Thus the question raises why exactly Torreira would even be risked against Brighton must be asked. because honestly, don’t we have the resources to trust in Guendouzi and Xhaka to hold down the midfield fort, maybe with a bit of Ramsey, and Torreira really should not be needed. That’s the point of all this midfield depth. There is plenty of talent.

Unai Emery seems to be of a different mind. Not only has Emery not shied away from playing Torreira, but he’s even doubled-up on that premise by saying that he won’t expect Torreira to tone down his play either. His words:

“I don’t know whether Torreira would even be able to play cautiously but I don’t want him to think about the possibility of a suspension for one yellow card.”

Bold. Unnecessarily so. I don’t think you can ask him to play cautiously either, but that is why you really shouldn’t be asking him to play at all. It’s a risk without much reward.