Arsenal Q&A: Where Calafiori and Zinchenko fit in Gunners' defence
- Published
We put your Arsenal questions to our chief football news reporter Simon Stone, who has watched the Gunners during their tour of the United States.
Will asked: How do you see our back line shaping up this season after the addition of Riccardo Calafiori? Who starts and how many at the back?
Simon replied: What a good question. Mikel Arteta certainly hasn't told me.
The central defensive combination of Gabriel and William Saliba was excellent last season. I know it sounds easy to shift that to a three-man defence but it is not completely straightforward. Jurrien Timber was earmarked for the inverted right-back role last season but got injured, so Ben White came in and he did a fabulous job.
I suspect Arteta does see left-back as the area where improvement can be made, either because of injury or inconsistency, and Calafiori did play there previously for Bologna.
Arteta will have a plan, that's for sure.
Rob asked: Some of the Arsenal fanbase are suggesting Oleksandr Zinchenko is no longer fitting the team properly. Have Arsenal outgrown him now? Can he tweak his skill set or find a new positional role in the team? Or do we sell if a good offer presents itself? We do appear to have a lot of options now on that left side.
Simon replied: I really like Zinchenko. I think he is a great personality to have around the team and has bags of ability. But sometimes I think he switches off in games and that leads to mistakes. That can be in possession or a defensive lapse or positional.
The demands at the top of the league are enormous. There was a reason why Zinchenko couldn't nail down a regular place at Manchester City. Given Arsenal paid £30m, I would be fascinated to see what the response would be is someone offered them that now.
What do you think Arsenal should do with their Ukraine full-back?