When Arsenal signed Lucas Torreira in the summer of 2018 they had to fight off competition from Italian giants Juventus. The 23-year-old had established himself as one of Serie A’s most exciting prospects whilst patrolling the midfield and protecting the Sampdoria defence.
Despite a strong start to his Arsenal career, Torreira’s form has suffered in recent months and as a result, he is often left out of the starting eleven. Fourteen months on from his big-money move, should the Uruguayan be regarded as a flop or is he a victim of mismanagement on Unai Emery’s part?
Adapting to life in the United Kingdom has proven challenging for the 23-year-old with the young-midfielder having gone on record to talk of his struggles around the weather, the language barrier he’s been forced to overcome and generally adjusting to English culture.
As if the move wasn’t challenging enough, he’s also had to contend with being played out of position. Torreira, signed shortly after Emery’s appointment, began his career in North London as the deepest lying midfield player tasked with breaking up play and passing the ball on to his more creative team-mates.
A duck out of water
At one stage, the former Sampdoria man had formed an effective partnership alongside Granit Xhaka in a double-pivot and the pair enjoyed some success in the middle of the park. However, Emery soon abandoned that and began demanding the 5 ft 4in midfielder played higher up the pitch in the hope his tenacity would allow the team to press further up the field.
Torreira on the edge of the opponent’s penalty area looks like a duck out of water; the Uruguayan has spent his entire career to date putting out fires on the edge of his own penalty box and so it’s completely understandable. So why is Emery opting to ignore the player’s strengths and choosing to play him out of position, if at all?
Torreira was never Emery’s first-choice
The Gunners’ head coach has suggested Torreira was not the player he was looking for when he first arrived in North-London and has spoken of his desire to sign Liverpool midfielder Fabinho from Monaco at the time.
Despite him not necessarily being Emery’s first choice that doesn’t excuse the mismanagement of the player. Arsenal are crying out for a competent defensive midfield player. In fact, it could be argued that they have one in their squad, yet the Spaniard prefers to play him out of position and force others to do a role that’s unnatural to them instead.