Hmm. Well you could say that any midfielder who is "completely defensive" would be playing in the back four?
Yaya Toure is a fantastic defensive mid, probably one of the best attacking defensive midfielders around

qs! wrote:

Nela wrote:

Good player. But wouldn't he just be another Arteta? They seem like similar types of players.

They are but who wouldn't want 2 Artetas in midfield?

I wouldn't.

The midfield is all about balance. Each player offering something different. Two players of a similar ilk, in any team, unless used as direct subs for each other wouldn't bring that balance and dynamism.

He doesn't mean that they would play the same role, obviously.

The brilliance of Arteta is that he masters the entire midfield. Get two players like that and you would never have to worry about balance again.

Don't think Arteta would be as great in a more box to box role, he's perfect for the position he is at..

Song and Arteta played pretty similar roles anyway. I think Wenger might even see those 2 positions as the same, just that Arteta and Songs natural styles were a bit different. I certainly think Cabaye has his own traits that would make our midfield look pretty outstanding with him in it. He's got more of a defensive side to his game than Sahin too.

y va marquer wrote:

Hmm. Well you could say that any midfielder who is "completely defensive" would be playing in the back four?
Yaya Toure is a fantastic defensive mid, probably one of the best attacking defensive midfielders around

But, seriously, I think he means a player like Gilberto Silva, and I think the player he has in mind is Yann M'Vila. But we'll see what happens.

Hmm M'vila is easily available though, Rennes are not holding out for big money this time around.
There have only being vague suggestions that we are interested, certainly nothing as concrete as the Spurs reported bid.
Unless we've managed to keep this super quiet which would be odd given all the noise around our other deals this summer and given Derossi's willingness to talk to the press and drum up interest.

On top of that M'vila is not the top top class that Wenger speaks of.
Now that I've said this we're probably going to end up signing him at 10.59pm on Friday

I've heard maybe 5 different pundits/ex-footballers says that M'Vila has the potential to be the best defensive midfielder in the world (or right up there), so not sure how you can be so sure he's not top class? I don't know myself, just saying that quite a few have said he's extremely good and going to get even better.

I don't know what's going on behind the scenes with M'Vila. Maybe we've bid, maybe we haven't? Maybe they still want top dollar for him? Maybe we were waiting for someone else to come in and set the price, so we knew what sort of financial level we'd have to compete at? Maybe we're not interested at all?

I just doubt the latter is the case, given that we know for certain that we bid upwards of €20M for him last summer.

Klaus wrote:

He doesn't mean that they would play the same role, obviously.

The brilliance of Arteta is that he masters the entire midfield. Get two players like that and you would never have to worry about balance again.

Indeed, the only reason Arteta plays a more restricted role is because he doesn't have the pace to cover plenty of ground. Cabaye does.

I wish Arteta was a five years younger, when he was statistically the most creative midfielder in the league bar Fabregas.

Ricky1985 wrote:

I've heard maybe 5 different pundits/ex-footballers says that M'Vila has the potential to be the best defensive midfielder in the world (or right up there), so not sure how you can be so sure he's not top class? I don't know myself, just saying that quite a few have said he's extremely good and going to get even better.

I don't know what's going on behind the scenes with M'Vila. Maybe we've bid, maybe we haven't? Maybe they still want top dollar for him? Maybe we were waiting for someone else to come in and set the price, so we knew what sort of financial level we'd have to compete at? Maybe we're not interested at all?

I just doubt the latter is the case, given that we know for certain that we bid upwards of €20M for him last summer.

Reckon it is just the usual wait till the last moment to get him as cheap as we can..

Yaya's the closest the PL has to Vieira yet.

Yaya is not a defensive midfielder by any stretch of the imagination, anyone who says that doesn't watch him play. He's more of a deep lying playmaker and an attacking midfielder when Mancini decides to move him forward.

He's just a central midfielder. I know, pretty fucking amazing...

Mind. Blown.