Journalist says he’s hearing something ‘strange’ about Riccardo Calafiori at Arsenal

Add as preferred source on Google

Riccardo Calafiori has joined Arsenal, and from the outside looking in, it could be argued that this is a strange signing.

Indeed, Arsenal already had the best defensive record in the Premier League last season, and with Jurrien Timber coming back from injury, the Gunners should have enough defensive cover to see them through.

However, Arsenal have decided to bring Calafiori in, and it is going to be interesting to see where the Italian fits into this team.

Speaking on The Athletic FC Podcast, James Horncastle has been discussing Calafiori’s role at Arsenal, and he says that he’s heard that the former Bologna man is being earmarked to play at left-back.

Horncastle notes that this is a rather strange move as his agent had been pushing for Calafiori to play more as a centre-back in recent times.

• READ MORE: Barcelona manager Hansi Flick may have just delivered some positive transfer news for Arsenal

Riccardo Calafiori’s Arsenal role

Horncastle shared what he knows about the defender.

“He moved to Basel as a full-back, but towards the second-half of the season he began playing as a centre-back. That gave his agent some food for thought,” Horncastle said.

“There was a feeling that if Calafiori continued to play as a centre-back he had a far higher ceiling. Bologna were persuaded to sign him and play him as a centre-back. He was the tactical revalation of last season in Serie A due to this John Stones type willingness to go into midfield and build up for the team. He got five assists from centre-back.

“I think Arsenal are looking at this player as a hybrid player, someone who is at the avant garde of centre-back play. The strange thing is that I think he will go back to playing as a full-back, I think that has been the briefing. I say that is strange because of the work his agent had done to persuade teams to look at him as a centre-back.

Calafiori role will make sense

While Calafiori going back to full-back may seem strange on paper, this role will make a lot of sense in practice.

It has been said that Calafiori is similar to John Stones in a lot of ways, and he’s likely to play a similar role to Stones when he plays at right-back for City.

Indeed, Calafiori will invert to play a midfield role most of the time, giving Arsenal that extra level of control in the middle of the park.

While Calafiori may be down as a left-back on the teamsheet, he will likely spend most of his time on the pitch playing a more central role.