IN the space of just one week the rhetoric around Arsenal’s summer business changed. Until then, the Gunners had slept through the transfer window. Not for the first time in recent years, it seemed that they were being left behind by their rivals, with even Tottenham breaking their transfer record. Then Nicolas Pepe changed everything.
Well, Pepe and Dani Ceballos. The capture of the pair, one for a club record £72 million fee from Lille and the other on a season-long loan from Real Madrid, gave Arsenal fans the sort of kick they’d longed for all summer, raising hopes of a top four finish this season. Now, on top of this, they are being linked with a move for Philippe Coutinho.
On the face of things, this would be another statement of intent from the North London club, even if the reported proposal is only for a loan deal. But the addition of Coutinho would raise more questions than it would answer. Primarily, it would prompt many to ask where he fits into Unai Emery’s side.
Ceballos and Pepe are the signing #Arsenal have been waiting for
✍️ @Stillberto https://t.co/IZigahFiNZ
— Unibet (@unibet) August 1, 2019
It’s difficult to see a natural place for Coutinho at Arsenal. The Brazilian can, if needed, play higher up the pitch as something of a secondary forward or on either side, drifting inside to link up centrally, but he is, by trade, an attacking midfielder who is at his best through the middle. The Gunners are already well-stocked here.
Indeed, they already have Mesut Ozil, the highest paid player at the club, to play here. The German’s future at Arsenal has been questioned of late, but it now seems certain that he will stay at the club for at least another season. And now they also have Ceballos, a central midfielder who is also at his best when he is given the freedom to drive forward.
If Pepe was signed with the intention of playing in a front three with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, how will Emery possibly fit Ceballos, Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Granit Xhaka, Alex Iwobi, Matteo Guendouzi, Mohamed Elneny, Reiss Nelson and possibly Coutinho on top of that into his plans?
Of course, there is a great deal of variety in the style of skill sets of the aforementioned list of players, but whether or not Emery opts for a back three or a flat defensive four it would appear that there are just three midfield positions to vie for. If one of those places is for an anchor and another for a box-to-box operator, that leaves just one attacking position. A midfield three of Ceballos, Coutinho and Ozil just wouldn’t work.
I would prefer Ziyech over Coutinho. He dreams of playing for our club, he idolises Ozil. He’s a lot cheaper than Coutinho.
— Unai Emery (@UnaiEmiratez) August 3, 2019
What’s more, the targeting of Coutinho goes against the grain of Emery’s apparent tactical masterplan. With the signing of both Ceballos and Pepe it seemed that the Spaniard was intent on building a Jurgen Klopp-esque outfit – a fast and furious team designed to get in behind and stretch the pitch as frequently as they can.
Coutinho is brilliant, even if he hasn’t shown it all that often at Barcelona, but he slows down play in the final third. It’s no coincidence that Liverpool have taken their game to another level since the exit of the Brazilian playmaker. If Arsenal want to stylistically replicate their Anfield rivals the signing of Coutinho, a player who would compromise that, makes little sense.
Then there's the prospect of another loan deal and what it would say about the Gunners’ current direction as a club. Arsenal are mortgaging their future in a not-so-calculated gamble to clamber their way back up into the top four places and into Champions League this season.
They have done this with the loan of Ceballos and they would do it with the loan signing of Coutinho too. Even the record deal to sign Pepe was structured in a way that will see the Gunners pay up over a number of years. What happens if they miss out on the top four for a fourth successive season? The hole will only get bigger and it seems likely that Coutinho would only see them dig deeper rather than help them escape.unibet
