Arsenal: Criticism of Lucas Torreira bordering on embarrassing

Arsenal have a gem in Lucas Torreira, but time and again, “experts” are calling him out as not the right guy. Where is this even coming from?

Arsenal had spent the better part of a decade without a defensive midfielder. After the departure of Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva, Arsene Wenger seemed to think that the defensive midfielder was obsolete, and he instead invested in copious amounts of undersized creative midfielders.

Now that Unai Emery has come to town, he has padded the midfield with Matteo Guendouzi, who isn’t a defensive midfielder, and Lucas Torreira, the Uruguayan gem who launched himself into the limelight in the World Cup by fearlessly defending his ground and leveling everyone, Ronaldo included.

But according to more than one “expert,” Torreira is not the player that the Gunners needed. First it was Paul Merson, ever the one to speak out against his former club, calling Torreira “not that good,” but merely a desperation move, more or less.

Now Gilberto Silva is saying the same, indicating that he isn’t the player that his former club needed either.

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And I’m just sitting her scratching my head like, “why we gotta be like this?” Silva is saying that Torreira isn’t like Kante or Fernandinho, and this he is the player that we think he is. Which, to me, is an even worse argument than Merson, because you’re judging a player whose been here for six months again two guys that have been at their respective clubs for years.

He doesn’t even acknowledge this, either. He just says that the first year has been tough, that he doesn’t see Kante or Fernandinho in Torreira, and that Arsenal “haven’t found their midfielder yet.”

Even aside from the irrefutable fact that Torreira has not been here long enough to compare him yet, and the fact that he just turned 23 yesterday, while the other two are in their prime or past it, Torreira has been nearly unanimously hailed this year for the work that he has done in putting a little fear back into the midfield.

No, he isn’t perfect yet, he gets pulled out of position from time to time and he can’t handle the ball as well as we might like – again, yet – but for the love of everything he’s been here six months and he’s been terrific!

I don’t get this mentality of needing to criticize just for the sake of it. If anyone should be exempt from this ridiculous habit, it should be Torreira.