Arsenal: The Lucas Torreira audition

Lucas Torreira started as Arsenal’s deepest-lying central midfielder in Tuesday’s 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest. Was it an audition for future matches as he looks to potentially inherit the role from Granit Xhaka?

In Arsenal’s 5-0 victory over Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night, Lucas Torreira started in a defensive midfield role that he is presumably becoming rather unfamiliar with. While the ankle-snapping Uruguayan arrived in north London as a self-described backline protector, he has rarely been used in the role, especially this season.

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When he started in the North London Derby, it was in a high-energy, box-to-box role. The same was true against Eintracht Frankfurt last week. And when the Gunners needed a goal in the second half against Villa, Unai Emery turned to the ‘defensive midfielder’ to help inject some impetus and intensity into the midfield.

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And make no mistake, these are the characteristics that Emery wants Torreira to provide. ‘His qualities are that he can give us good pressing, Emery said. ‘He can win the ball high up the pitch to give us the possession to score.’ For the Arsenal head coach, the ball-winning abilities of the pit bull-like midfielder are better employed higher up the pitch, not just in front of the defence. But is that best use of a player who has been used as a screening anchor for one of the best international defences in world football?

The man who is playing in place of Torreira, Granit Xhaka, is a completely different player. If Torreira is a scrappy terrier who harries around, his energy uncontainable, leaping from park to river to tree to ball, then Xhaka is a cat, meandering from his self-proclaimed spot on the couch to his also self-proclaimed spot on the bed that he is not supposed to sleep on. His game revolves around his distribution. He is a metronomic dictator. He does not fly around the pitch, his legs turning over at a lightning rate.

Xhaka’s flaws have been well discussed. His defensive tardiness, his immobility, even his depreciating passing impact, which is perhaps the most concerning of them all. But in his use of Matteo Guendouzi too, a player for more comparable to Xhaka than Torreira, it is clear that Emery wants a distributor at the base of his midfield, not a scrappy ankle snapper.

It was, then, slightly surprising to see Torreira start in this anchoring role against Forest. The Carabao Cup is a lesser competition, no doubt, and Emery used the tie as an opportunity to experiment with his team, most notably with several seasonal debuts for returnees from injury and young prospects. Perhaps he was also experimenting with Torreira as his new deepest-lying midfielder.

If Emery was looking for Torreira to prove that he could pass like Xhaka, he will be disappointed. His distribution was wayward, inaccurate and sometimes overly forced. But his energy, tackling, timely interceptions and mobility helped provide balance and structure to a central midfield that has lacked both this season. Yes, all conclusions drawn must be tempered by the quality of the opposition faced, but in the only match that Torreira started as a defensive midfielder, Arsenal contained the counter-attack excellently. That is no coincidence.

Emery is certainly under pressure to drop Xhaka. The pressure — and the evidence — is mounting. And if his use of Torreira on Tuesday is anything to go by, he is at the very least considering alternative options.