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Bayer Leverkusen star Malick Tillman picked Arsenal as the club he would really love to play for one day, in an interview with Bleacher Report.
Tillman is a solid midfielder who is currently in his first year in Germany, and he has performed well for the club so far this season.
He has scored six goals and has one assist in 27 games so far, and that number will likely go up as he is able to gel with his teammates even more.
When asked about which team he'd like to play for, he said: “If there is one club I would love to play for, it is Arsenal. They have a great coach, a great system, I think I would fit in. They score a lot of set-piece goals, but in the Champions League they’re different.”
Do Arsenal even need Malick Tillman?
Arsenal's midfield is definitely one of the best ones in England, but it does not come without its own set of problems.
Even though Declan Rice has been churning in monstrous performances week after week, there are other players in this position who have not performed nearly as admirably in some games.
In some matches, Arsenal's midfield looks like it could be one of the best in Europe. In others, it lacks ideas and creativity at times, and it has everything to do with form and fitness of two great players, Eberechi Eze and Martin Odegaard.
Martin Zubimendi, too, to an extent, has had a few problems, but his positives have far outweighed the negatives so far this season, and has been able to help the team a lot in ball progression.
Odegaard and Eze are tasked with creativity - particularly the former - and in some games, they have been able to do what they are supposed to.
But the consistency is missing, and it has been missing for the last year or so, which has led many fans to believe there is a need of a midfielder in that creative position.
Be that as it may, Tillman may still not be the signing to go for, should Arsenal go for one in the first place.
As much as Tillman would love to play for Arsenal, he would not really help Arsenal in the ways they need to be helped at the moment.
While he remains in the 92nd percentile for key passes per 90, he is still ways away from Martin Odegaard, who, in one of his most inconsistent seasons as an Arsenal player, is still in the 98th percentile.
Tillman's defensive work rate and duel-winning is much better than both Eze and Odegaard, but Arsenal don't need that at the moment. They already have a duel-winning powerhouse in Rice. What they need is creativity.
That is something that, although Tillman is good at, is not a huge upgrade on the players Arsenal already have, which is why a move like this, at least for now, would not make sense.