Yeah, Partey's foot speed feels like a revelation when he's fit and he needs to move, but you don't see much of it. He usually does the opposite of drive forward on the ball, on nearly all occasions he lingers and draws the press instead.
@KingslandBarge You are dead right about that "malleability", I think our midfield triangle was too fixed, and although Zinchenko helped, none of those three players were really capable of shifting roles or styles. Ødegaard does what he does too well, Xhaka was already moved forward because of the risks of playing him deeper, and Partey was absolutely maximised in that 6 role, when available.
Rice is a wild card by comparison. Arteta might have trouble figuring out how best to use him particularly if, say, an experiment with Havertz in Xhaka's old position is floundering … or … we might immediately gain more than one effective option.
