Arsenal: Top 3 players who can benefit from position change

1. Gabriel Martinelli

When Gabriel Martinelli arrived at Arsenal, he was billed as an attacker who can play across the front line, including on the left-wing, right-wing, through the middle or even in behind a centre-forward in the number 10 position. That billing was not wrong.

Martinelli has the capability to play in all those positions. In part, that is because he is such a brilliant player. Lionel Messi can also play in all of those positions, but it doesn’t mean that he should. And for Martinelli, there is one role that stands out above the rest: centre-forward.

When I first saw him, I thought Martinelli would be a winger: a direct, quick, skilful, goalscoring winger. But his movement off the ball, his finishing skill, his positional knack and superb anticipation, his relentless pressing and improving first touch have changed my mind. Martinell is a striker, and he would flourish in that position.

Whether he can unseat Alexandre Lacazette remains to be seen, and Arsenal would likely have to invest in a left-winger to free up Martinelli to move centrally given their reliance on him as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s understudy. But Martinelli looks at his sharpest when he plays as a striker, in the middle, on the shoulder of the defence. That is where he should be playing.