Arsenal: Matteo Guendouzi needs a midfield mate

Matteo Guendouzi put in an all-action shift in Arsenal’s win over Leeds United in the third round of the FA Cup. However, the youngster is still a frustrating storm of positives and negatives.

It is really hard not to like Matteo Guendouzi. He is young, talented, exciting, charismatic and never hides on a football pitch. However, the young Frenchman is also a diabolically frustrating player. At only 20 years of age, it is reasonable to expect Guendouzi to be an imperfect footballer, but his shortcomings can be so detrimental to Arsenal’s fragile midfield balance.

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Against Leeds, Guendouzi showed exactly why he is simultaneously a cult hero and lightning rod. Guendouzi led Arsenal with 68 touches, 87% pass accuracy and five tackles won. Sprinkle on top of that three aerial duels and three completed dribbles, and you get the portrait of a dominant midfield display. Yet, in the first half, Guendouzi was one of Arsenal’s worst performers.

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Lax in possession and easily swarmed by Leeds intense and organised press, Guendouzi showed exactly why Lucas Torreira has walked right back into the Gunners’ starting XI. His positional sense on the pitch can be so ill-disciplined that it throws the entire system into chaos, allowing a well-drilled team like Leeds acres of space to play into and exploit.

It should be said however that Guendouzi also made some huge defensive interventions in his own box and also put Leeds on the backfoot with a few slaloming runs from deep. In the second half of the match, Guendouzi dropped a bit deeper anchoring the midfield better and becoming more available for build options from the defence. With better instruction, Guendouzi seemed a much more reliable and calming presence in the middle of the park.

With the departure of Unai Emery, Guendouzi is actually one of the only younger players in the squad whose position may actually be threatened. The former Arsenal boss was a huge admirer of the young Frenchman, and for good reason. That isn’t to say Mikel Arteta won’t be keen to develop Guendouzi, but there is no doubt that Emery’s fascination with the wild-haired midfielder isn’t completely shared by his successor.

There is no doubt that Guendouzi has a bright future and bags of talent. However, for his sake as well as Arsenal’s, he will have to hit the next phase of his development. It is time for Guendouzi to define himself as a player. At present, he is not quite the deep-lying defensive midfielder that he perhaps should be, one who anchors the midfield with his passing range and dribbling ability, using surges of pace and drops of the shoulder to wriggle out of tight spots or draw fouls in his own half or on the halfway line, and then feed the ball into more advanced positions. This role requires a player who has a keen mind for the game, the ability to read situations and sniff out danger to keep the team on the front foot.

This style of play is different from Torreira, who is more of a classic destroyer who reads the game to break up play with high-quality tackling and interceptions but then uses a more limited passing range to advance the ball quicker, by taking less time on the ball. Guendouzi, on the other hand, likes to receive the ball from a centre-back, turn and look at his options, beat a man if possible and then use the space opened up to attack or draw the foul. Because he is a more creative player whose first instinct is to instigate rather than react, Guendouzi naturally likes to dwell on the ball more than Torreira does. This is why Guendouzi is such a nerve-wracking player when deployed as a holding midfielder. He sometimes invites pressure and lives on that knife’s edge of being dispossessed and breaking through the lines.

All this calls into question whether or not Guendouzi is, in fact, a box-to-box midfielder who should be deployed in a more offensive role with a greater license to attack. Perhaps, then, a positional shift would get the best out of him. But while that would solve the initial Guendouzi issue, the deeper-rooted problem is that there is currently no player at the club who adequately balances his set of skills.

Granit Xhaka and Torreira comprise the most effective midfield pivot because they compensate for each other’s shortcomings. Xhaka brings the physicality and passing that Torreira lacks, while the Uruguayan is perfectly suited to policing the midfield in a way Xhaka could never dream of, covering ground and stamping out fires with extreme efficiency. Guendouzi needs someone who allows him to play his game.

The sooner Guendouzi can find a midfield partner with whom he can grow, the sooner he will begin to realise his vast potential. The talent is there, but the opportunity is not. That is where Arsenal and Arteta must act.