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.
Lucas Torreira (David Ornstein+Guardian update on page 5)
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.
Looks born to play Merryball
Klaus wrote: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.
Yeah, that could be a possibility. Dammit Klaus, you ruined my Wednesday.
I really think Emery might see Ramsey as someone to go in front of those guys.
Jeremy Wilson, who's normally fairly reliable on Arsenal news, claimed just a few days ago that strengthening midfield was a priority but the strategy would be framed by Aaron contract talks (that are supposedly positive). Not sure what that means exactly or how it links with this.
My personal take was that if we were to sell Ramsey we'd be going for a high profile replacement. So I'm going to be positive and assume that signing Torreira is actually a sign that the Ramsey talks are going well enough that we pushed ahead with a lower profile signing. You're welcome Mirth.
I like that his first instinct is always to pass the ball forward whenever he can. Honestly I would very much prefer a tall commanding CM that we lack so badly over the past decade but beggars can't be choosers. Have a feeling Emery will use him like how he used Ever Banega to perfection.
Once the deal is completed he will be the 3rd Uruguayan to join us after Sebastian Viera and Fabian Carini
Ricky1985 wrote:Definitely.
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Laca/Auba are going to love him. Clearly he has it in his mind/gameplan to get the ball forward as quickly as possible, no fappign about.
maybe the plan is to play 3 CMs, and he will play this guy and ramsey as the two "outside" CMs in a 4-3-3
that leaves ozil on the wing. or sold. which is fine by me.
Torreira doesn't have top class technical ability. He keeps things simple and fast moving though. Good tackler, good at keeping his body between the opponent and the ball. I would love to see us buy another CM, a bit of a silkier passer maybe, and sell Xhaka.
Yeah, that's my impression too. It doesn't seem like he has the range to play as a pivot. He seems more like the type of player we would've wanted Coquelin to be. It seems like you would have to pair him with some other midfielder adept at breaking the lines, whether that's Xhaka or someone else like Ceballos. I suspect we're done with midfield signings, though, unless Ramsey leaves.
If we can re-sell Xhaka, there will be the money for another midfielder. There's a lot of talent out there this summer.
Torreira is a little bit like Ever Banega on fast forward
Those compilations are underwhelming, but hopefully he's a Kante-like player who can run and press the entire match, and still pass the ball nicely.
tbh i'm not even too fussed with how competent he is on the ball, even though he looks serviceable enough. certainly wouldn't classify him as a high level string puller or technician
anticipation, positioning, and tackling are the main things i'm excited about. we've lacked this since forever
Don't laugh but I feel Elneny could surprise us if tasked with the tempo dictator role. Underrated range of passing on Mo.
I would because he barely even passes sideways let alone forward
I would sell him and bring in a big powerful bloke. We're still missing that option in central midfield.
If we don't buy another CM (apart from Torreira) I'd try out both Xhaka and Elneny in different games alongside the Uruguayan and Rambo.
Xhaka has come a long way this season imo. Hoping he can continue to improve under the new manager. Think the midfield as it is + Lucas is lacking in technical ability/keep possession though, would suffer in big games.
Mirth wrote:Klaus wrote: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.
Yeah, that could be a possibility. Dammit Klaus, you ruined my Wednesday.
I'd think that Rambo is more the typical Emery #10 type at the top of a midfield 3 in a 4231 than Ozil.