Arsenal: ‘Dynamism’ is Matteo Guendouzi’s final evolution

Matteo Guendouzi is Arsenal’s best midfielder but Didier Deschamps has laid the groundwork for the final evolution of the French midfielder.

In the span of just over a year, Matteo Guendouzi has gone from an unknown teenager with fluffy hair from Ligue 2 to the best midfielder Arsenal have to offer. It’s been one hell of a rapid ascent that has culminated in his first call-up to the French national team (insert Alexandre Lacazette joke here).

However, while Deschamps has heaped praise on the young midfielder, he has called for one more thing in his development—dynamism.

For as much as I have been lambasting Deschamps for his continued refusal to call up Lacazette, I have to commend his astuteness here, because in the young career of Guendouzi, and with how quickly he is learning and growing, laying down a benchmark, an attainable finish line, is key in assessing what’s next.

Dynamism. That’s all he’s lacking. That ability to take control of a midfield, of a match, and make it his own. It’s perhaps the one thing we have yet to really see from Guendouzi.

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We saw it briefly against Tottenham. That looped pass to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that tied the match was dynamic, but prolonged dynamism is something else. It’s that pass magnified across 90 minutes.

The good news is he’s close. As he always is. He continues to improve in nearly every facet of the game, his maturity is growing, and it’s only a matter of time before this arsenal of skills becomes muscle memory and from there, it’s a short walk to dynamism. Really it just comes down to time. He’s going to get there. I think we can all agree on that. It’s just a matter of putting it together and getting him to truly understand who he is as a player.

Which is good, because he was just speaking about himself as a player last week and it’s clear that he’s incredibly self-aware for a 20-year-old.

There’s no point hiding from the hype at this point. When you start saying that the next step is “dynamism” for a 20-year-old midfielder, you know that you’re talking about someone special, and that’s exactly what he is.

There’s nowhere to go but up for Guendouzi. He’s going to be starting every match for the foreseeable future and he’s one of those rare players that seems to improve every time he touches the pitch.