The arrival of Riccardo Calafiori is celebrated news among the Gunners faithful as Arsenal brings in the European Championship star boy to the carpet. He is the marquee arrival at the Emirates Stadium, as the £42 million defender is backed to play a huge role in Arsenal’s season.
He is a boy with technical elegance who likes to be offensive-minded in almost everything he does while being defensively sound. The Italian can play in the left centre-back as well as the left-back role and is advocated to pip Oleksandr Zinchenko in Mikel Arteta’s eleven soon.
Rio Ferdinand raves about Riccardo Calafiori
Arsenal conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League last season [29], and Mikel would be hoping that the arrival of Cala would further bolster the backline. He apparently is looking to build a backline that is almost impossible to pass, and former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand believes that the 22-year-old’s arrival will make the Gunners backline plenty stronger on the left side of the pitch.
The duo of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes is set to start at the heart of the defence going into the new season, and Ferdinand insists that the Italian would best slot in the left-back position for the Gunners.
Ferdinand, taking to his YouTube channel, said: “The two centre-backs stay the same, but I loved what I saw of him (Calafiori) in the left-back area in the short space of time at Euro 2024 for Italy.”
He also insists that having Calafiori in the lineup may help the Gunners solve the right-hand side bias. The trio of Martin Odegaard, Ben White, and Bukayo Saka have been impressive in tight spaces, and Ferdinand believes that Calafiori’s ability on the ball would help Arsenal create similar opportunities from the left flank as well.
Rio continued: “He played under Thiago Motta, who’s a new-age thinking coach. He knows how to play football and how the rotations and systems work. I see him occupying that left-back area and coming into midfield; he’s great at driving with the ball.
“The left side has been a weakness or the weaker part of the team, and he could change that. That’ll be a huge benefit for Arsenal.”
Will Calafiori start vs Wolves tomorrow?
Arsenal are set to face Wolves in the Premier League opener tomorrow, and Oleksandr Zinchenko comes in with a bit of pre-season momentum behind him. The Ukrainian left-back started all five of the Arsenal pre-season games, and it is difficult to see the former Bologna defender displace Calafiori again for Gary O’Neil’s side tomorrow.
The duo of Saliba and Gabriel are absolutely important to the Gunners defence, and hence, the Italian would have to settle for a bench role in the season opener at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow.
Riccardo Calafiori is a massive talent, and he should see his fair share of opportunities coming his way in the season, but for tomorrow, we should possibly get a glimpse of him from the bench as Arteta looks to give the Italian space and time to settle into life at Arsenal.
