Arsenal: Kieran Tierney is Unai Emery’s skeleton key

Arsenal are inching towards signing Kieran Tierney, and there’s no denying that he would unlock all the things that Unai Emery wants from his club.

Arsenal are reportedly moving closer to a £20m move for Celtic leftback Kieran Tierney, who has been linked to the Gunners for going on a year now. Of course, he’s one of a handful of players who have been “on the brink” of a deal, with nothing actually going through yet.

Still, like most of the links, Tierney makes a lot of sense. In fact, he probably makes the most sense of anyone we’ve been linked to, as he looks like he may be the skeleton key to helping Unai Emery unlock his best possible starting XI.

As we learned this past season, Unai Emery only uses the back three out of desperation. Because he didn’t have the necessary resources to roll out a squad in his preferred 4-3-3, even though, despite not having the proper personnel, the 4-3-3 looked incredibly promising.

But in order for the 4-3-3 to work, there are a couple things that Unai Emery needs. For starters, he needs a good rightback. Ainsley Maitland-Niles has learned to defend quite well and until Hector Bellerin returns, we can trust him.

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We need to centerbacks. Okay, not as easy to check off, but with Sokratis, Rob Holding and Dinos, not to mention Calum Chambers and other youth options, plus more signings likely incoming, I still think that we can count on having two capable centerbacks.

But leftback? Leftback is a mess. Sead Kolasinac is not good enough to play a traditional fullback role. He can’t defend well enough. And Nacho Monreal hasn’t been a viable fullback since 2017, and even that was a stretch.

You can’t have a back four without two fullbacks that can attack and defend reliably enough to justify that usage.

If we throw Tierney into the mix, that means we can utilize the midfield three, which was a major success last year – or even a 4-4-2 to allow for both strikers to start, which would provide similar strength in the midfield and more attacking punch.

All we need right now is a capable leftback, and Kieran Tierney is nothing if not that. I’d rather not be stranded with an enigmatic back three if Unai Emery doesn’t like it, and if it clearly shows to be porous, so Tierney is a fantastic place to start building a foundation.