Arsenal acquired the services of Sven Mislintat from Borussia Dortmund last year. Sven Mislintat is one of the well known player recruitment expert in world football. He has created the free-flow of young prospects at Dortmund in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele and Shinji Kagawa and is also known to have had played a bold part in bringing Robert Lewandowski and Henrikh Mkhitrayan to Dortmund.
Sven Mislintat was highly credited in bringing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as well as Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Arsenal by reconnecting his Dortmund links. To joy of Arsenal fans, many started mesmerizing about the star signings he would make for Arsenal in the future as well as the beasts he would identify at young age.
But where is this taking us?
Arsenal are now linked to another of Dortmund’s superstar in Sokratis Papastathopoulos, another of Sven Mislintat’s find.
Some suggest that these are smart buys, as it brings experience as well as leadership at Arsenal followed by on going chemistry between them – though others argue that he is just getting the players he already made.
Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan and Sokratis played together at Dortmund till 2015/16 until Mkhitaryan left for glory at Manchester United. All of them were Dortmund’s most reliable players not only under Jurgen Klopp but also under Thomas Tuchel.
So, How could it enhance Arsenal under Unai Emery’s leadership?
At Dortmund, Jurgen Klopp as well as Thomas Tuchel played with philosophy commonly called as ‘Gegenpressing‘, which relies on counter-pressing without the ball in an attempt to win back possession. Though Klopp used to play from the back and much more directly, Tuchel used the same with creative attacking with the ball. Unai Emery is expected to follow the same style of play with Arsenal (of course,with maintaining Arsenal’s clean playing background with neat passes). Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Sokratis Papastathopoulos have thrived with Dortmund playing under Klopp and Tuchel. It will provide Arsenal with set of players friendly to probable style of play to be introduced by Unai Emery.
If Sokratis signs for Arsenal, the trio of former Dortmund players will become an integral part of Arsenal’s 2018/19 campaign.
