Ricky1985 wrote:

Definitely.

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He Really is quality. Loved it when he knocked Nainggolan flying! Can't help but see Gary Medel when I watch him flying into tackles with guys twice his size. Definitely more than a touch of Cazorla about him though with his quality on the ball and ability to use both feet.

His technical quality is top class. Love it.

I can't be the only one who sees a lot of Mascherano in him.

I would say Mascherano as well. Although his low centre of gravity reminds me of Caz

Stylistically on the ball he definitely has a touch of Santi about him, although I'd imagine nowhere near as talented.

That comp is very impressive given that it's all from a single game. Worth bearing in mind as well that he's only just turned 22, so only a couple of months older than Iwobi.

He is our maverick Merryball enforcer!

Give it up mate, it's not going to stick.

What are you talking about goon? :noclue

Klaus wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

His technical quality is top class. Love it.

Calm down Ricky.

He's technically able but he's nowhere near that good on the ball. It's not his big strength from what I've seen.

Admittedly only touch videos on YouTube, but I've been very impressed personally. He can play any pass he likes and he has an extremely good first touch and the close control to wriggle out of pressure.

Looks technically excellent to me.

flobaba wrote:

He is our maverick Merryball enforcer!

Guy is gonna be my favorite player before he even signs.

Guess we'll be watching all the Uruguay World Cup games anyway.

goon wrote:

That comp is very impressive given that it's all from a single game. Worth bearing in mind as well that he's only just turned 22, so only a couple of months older than Iwobi.

To be fair, Iwobi would look pretty solid too if you took his best game and made a compilation out of the best bits. The bloke was bossing it against Barca when he was 19. Not a fan of how every transfer target is used as a stick to beat him with.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Admittedly only touch videos on YouTube, but I've been very impressed personally. He can play any pass he likes and he has an extremely good first touch and the close control to wriggle out of pressure.

Looks technically excellent to me.

Don't get me wrong, Torreira's a good player with a lot of potential and he fits my idea of a central mid, but I think people in this thread expect to get the finished article and he's not that. I'll reiterate that I haven't seen much of him so I can't offer much insight, but he's not rated among the best midfielders in Serie A currently and might still be two full seasons away from that level even if he keeps developing. If we had finished in the top four we probably wouldn't have gone for him, so people would do well to keep that in mind and not expect him to come in and turn on the heat in Premier League right away. He's not a technical genius either. The "Santi Kanté" stuff doing the rounds on Twitter is a little embarrassing. He's good on the ball, but you don't need to watch him much to see that he's more of a hardworking transitional player who presses high and low... which is what I personally wanted this summer. Fuck these static Xhaka players with good distribution who can't play when the heat is on.

Having someone like Torreira is going to be very good on the counter, I think. It'll also help to correct one of Wenger's worst weaknesses: our complete inability to apply any form of pressure early on when the direction of play changes.

Klaus wrote:

goon wrote:

That comp is very impressive given that it's all from a single game. Worth bearing in mind as well that he's only just turned 22, so only a couple of months older than Iwobi.

To be fair, Iwobi would look pretty solid too if you took his best game and made a compilation out of the best bits. The bloke was bossing it against Barca when he was 19. Not a fan of how every transfer target is used as a stick to beat him with.

I'm not using it as a stick to beat him with Klaus, I have big hopes for Iwobi. Point I was driving at is that Iwobi is still someone I think of as a kid with plenty of time to improve and establish himself and Torreira should fall into the same bracket despite the fact that he's already established somewhat and expected to go straight into the starting line up.

Gotcha. I think that's a sensible point too.

Klaus wrote:

...

Agree with the notion that we shouldn't place too many hopes on him at once (although I get the feeling with him that he'll perform straight away) but I'm not sure about him not being among the highest rated midfielders in Serie A. He's no Pjanic yet but how many midfielders do you see a clear cut above him?

Torreira's stats point to him being arguably the best DM in Italy. He has made the most tackles and interceptions in the league since joining Sampdoria a couple of years ago. Serie A's Kante.

jones wrote:

Klaus wrote:

...

Agree with the notion that we shouldn't place too many hopes on him at once (although I get the feeling with him that he'll perform straight away) but I'm not sure about him not being among the highest rated midfielders in Serie A. He's no Pjanic yet but how many midfielders do you see a clear cut above him?

Milinkovic-Savic, Pjanic, Nainggolan, Jorginho, Allan, Khedira, et al. I could probably think of 10-12 names off the top of my head. I think Torreira is in the Zieliński bracket, both talent and ability wise (which makes him a proper steal for €30 million in my opinion). You get the raw ability along with some occasionally dodgy positioning and over-commitment. Who knows, he could be right on the brink of another development burst, but I think it's more likely to come gradually over the next 18 months. Very happy about the transfer though.

Jed wrote:

Torreira's stats point to him being arguably the best DM in Italy.

Well he's not. He's not a DM for starters.

He's not a DM? What is he then?

Fair enough of an assessment Klaus. You must have not watched Khedira in the last year or so though, he's scoring at a good rate but his overall game has deteriorated very badly.

Fair enough jonesy. Maybe it's just because I've always had a soft spot for Khedira, but i know he's popular with the Juve fans. I didn't watch them closely enough last season to comment too much though.

Jed wrote:

He's not a DM? What is he then?

Central midfielder. Maybe it's just splitting hairs over the definition, but a DM indicates to me that he'll sit at the base of the midfield, and he's more like Kanté, you know the live wire who moves all over the pitch. I think he's the kind of player you pair with someone else. Emery played the incredibly underrated Motta next to Verratti at PSG. Conte used an equally underrated Matic next to Kanté at Chelsea (the sale of him was a big reason they missed out on Champions League imo).

Part of me suspects that this is an indication Ramsey is going. I think Xhaka, Elneny and Maitland-Niles all could take up the role next to Torreira. Ramsey probably not so much. Maybe we'll just push him forward... but that would mean pushing Özil out of that space, and he's a much better player in that role. It's not a perfect compromise.