Arsenal: Matthijs de Ligt the perfect defensive anchor

Arsenal are again being linked to Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt. The 19-year-old would be the perfect defensive anchor for Unai Emery to build his team on.

Virgil van Dijk completely and utterly revolutionised the Liverpool team. While £75 million seemed steep for a player who had never played for an elite European team, especially a central defender, breaking the record fee for the position, a year later, that seems like an absolute steal.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Huddersfield, abuse and a difficult question

Van Dijk himself is not necessarily worth the money. He is a very capable centre-back, one of the best in the world on current form, but defending is about the collective unit. To splash such egregious sums on one individual is a little extravagant, to say the least. But the impact that van Dijk has on the team as a whole is priceless.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

The effect of a great centre-back at the heart of the defence on the players around him is almost immeasurable. Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson, Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner. All of these players play at a greater level simply because of the calming presence of van Dijk. Signing van Dijk is more than just adding a world-class centre-half to the team; signing van Dijk marginally improves every single player in the team, and that has a major combined impact.

Arsenal do not have that player. In fact, they haven’t had that player since Sol Campbell. Per Mertesacker, Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny have all been capable defenders in their own right, but none are in the elite tier of a van Dijk or a fit Vincent Kompany. And this season, the weaknesses at the centre-back position have come to roost.

Arsenal may have a great number of central defenders in the squad, especially when you consider Calum Chambers will return to the fold in the summer, but they lack the top-tier, foundational, cornerstone centre-back that every great team requires. Think Rio Ferdinand at Manchester United, John Terry at Chelsea, Sol Campbell and Tony Adams at the Gunners. That calibre of centre-half is not even close to being present.

If Arsenal could sign just one player this summer, then I would want them to pursue a world-class centre-half that they could build the team on. A defensive anchor to hold fast the backline and support the rest of the team. It is a ‘Jenga position’. If you remove that player and replace him with a lesser alternative, the whole team collapses.

And if I had to put a name to the position, it would be Ajax’s Matthijs de Ligt. For those that don’t know, de Ligt is a 19-year-old captain of Ajax, following in the footsteps of Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen. He was named the 2018 Golden Boy, which is the most promising under-21 player in Europe, the first centre-back to ever win the award, and is a mainstay at the heart of an excellent Ajax team that ran Real Madrid close last week.

Arsenal need a van Dijk. They need an anchor, a cornerstone, a Jenga piece to build upon. And de Ligt, at just 19, could be the perfect candidate.