Three reasons Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori is a huge upgrade for Mikel Arteta both in defence and attack
TO SOME, the decision from Arsenal to sign the Italian international defender Riccardo Calafiori for £42million has come as something of a surprise.
This is a player after all who only moved back to Italy last summer having been forced to switch to Switzerland to join Basel in order to kickstart his career.
There are also some who will point to the performances of Calafiori in the recent Euros as the prime motivating reason for Arsenal finalising the deal.
Both groups, however, are missing the fact that Calafiori has long been highly-rated in the Italian game and, were it not for a near career-ending injury as a young player, he was touted as a future captain at his boyhood club Roma.
Indeed, last season saw Calafiori fully emerge as one of the top young defensive prospects in the game having taken his chance early to establish himself in a Bologna side that ended up qualifying for the Champions League.
It is these performances, as well as those over the summer with Italy, that convinced Arsenal and their notoriously detail-orientated coach Mikel Arteta that Calafiori was the defensive addition that their squad needed.
Calafiori is one of the most versatile defenders in the game at the moment both in terms of his position and the different roles that he can play.
And given that Arteta can already call on the likes of Ben White and Jurrien Timber, who missed the entirety of his first season at the club due to injury, in defence and now with the addition of Calafiori they have another strong option in their back line.
Indeed, there is an extremely strong possibility that Arsenal will look to use Calafiori as a left-back in the first instance.
Let’s consider the key strengths of Calafiori’s game in order to better understand Arsenal’s reasons for completing the deal.
Carrying the ball
Towards the end of last season in Serie A Calafiori gave an interview in which he was asked which defenders in the game he modelled his game on.
There is every chance that the interviewer thought that Calafiori would answer with one of the great Italian defenders of the game.
Perhaps Giorgio Chiellini or Paolo Maldini. Instead, Calafiori namechecked the English international John Stones.
Calafiori went into greater detail mentioning that he appreciated the way that Stones stepped into midfield and recognised that this was a result of coaching instruction.
Those of you that followed the Italian national team in the Euros will have seen Calafiori making this kind of run as he drove forward with the ball late in the game against Croatia and ended up setting up the late equaliser.
What is key for Calafiori, and indeed for Arteta, is that the Italian defender is comfortable stepping into the midfield from either a centre back or left back position.
Earlier in his career Calafiori either played at left-back or as a left-sided central defender in a back three.
It was Thiago Motta, his coach last season at Bologna, who convinced Calafiori that he had the skill set to play in a back four system.
At Arsenal next season we expect to see the Italian used, at least in the first instance, as a left-back although I would expect him to play the position in an inverted style moving more into central areas in the midfield when Arsenal are in possession.
In these situations the Italian defender is comfortable receiving and playing and breaking lines through his passing ability.
For Arteta though it is likely more important that when he moves into midfield Calafiori is extremely strong at the moment of defensive transitions when the opposition try to counter attack quickly.
As a line breaking runner from the defensive line Calafiori will bring a lot to this Arsenal side.
Passing ability
As well as being comfortable in possession when driving out and breaking lines through carries and dribbles, Calafiori is also a modern defender who can pass progressively and move the ball through the lines.
While on the right-hand side Arteta has typically utilised Ben White in this position there is no doubt that Calafiori is a more aggressive passer than the Englishman.
There were times last season that Arsenal had almost become too functional with no real creativity when playing from the first third into the middle third.
Calafiori will bring a more consistent sense of ball progression from the first-line than Arteta had last season from his options across the back four.
Crucially, when moving forward in possession of the ball Calafiori is not a player who will simply play to the next line with a safe passing profile that sees the ball move to the next available player.
He has more range to his game than that with the ability to play longer switches of play or driven passes that break the last line to release players in behind.
It has to be said, of course, that this kind of passing profile will lead to a less impressive pass completion percentage as more of his passes have a higher level of risk attached to them.
This is part of the risk/reward that coaches have to consider when they have a more aggressive and progressive passer as part of their defensive unit.
Having a player with the passing profile of Calafiori in the defensive unit will give Arteta and his coaching staff more options in terms of the way that they build the attack.
Defending 1v1
For all that Calafiori is a player who is very modern in his profile as a defender he is still a defender first and foremost and an Italian defender at that.
He has the physical profile, listed at 6’2”, to defend against Premier League attackers but it is his positioning and reading of the game when he is defending that really stands out.
He is equally comfortable when asked to defend in space as the more reactive defender or when he is asked to defend tight to the opposition attacking players as the more proactive defensive player.
This is why although he is likely to start at left-back he already has the ability and the skill set to play as a central defender for Arteta.
Indeed, his skill set would be a very good match as a partner to William Saliba in the RCB role.
As a defender Calafiori is quick and aggressive when it comes to entering in direct defensive duels with opposition strikers.
His initial positioning is typically very good and this allows him to get an advantage in attacking the zones that passes or crosses are played into.
In this regard the Italian matches the way that the likes of Saliba and Gabriel defend currently for Arsenal with Arteta favouring defensive players who have the ability to defend tight and in space equally well.
There is little doubt that from a defensive point of view the addition of Calafiori will be an upgrade on the options that Arteta had from left-back last season.
He may also represent one of the stronger defensive options for the team at centre back as well.
Conclusion
While some may think that Arsenal have signed Calafiori purely on the basis of his performances at the Euros the truth is that he has been a defender of interest to the wider game for a lot longer than that.