It’s that time of year when football fans squabble over what each side’s dream starting XI will look like for the upcoming season. ‘Well, if they just sign him, and they’re able to get money for him’ etc, etc.
But how often do all of the players in the hypothetical starting XIs actually play together? There’s a viral photo of Liverpool’s line-up for the 2019 Champions League final, which includes all of the big hitters from the Jurgen Klopp era, with the likes of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, and Virgil van Dijk.
Many are surprised to learn that the exact 11 only started one match together during the entirety of Klopp’s reign. The point being, it doesn’t matter how your dream starting XI shapes up on paper, the reality is, it very rarely works out like that on the pitch.
Granted, you’d expect they will feature alongside one another plenty, but to get where Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to be, it’s all about strength in depth. Rice was hanging on by a thread towards the end of last season. The midfielder was playing through an injury, which continued to plague his performances at the World Cup.
In fact, of Arsenal’s outfield players last season, nobody played more than Rice. He was the only Arsenal star other than David Raya to play more than 3,000 minutes, and if something serious was to happen to him, it could spell curtains for the north Londoners’ ambitions.
As a challenger for both the Premier League and Champions League, as well as the domestic cup competitions, Arsenal are aiming to play around 60 games a season, if not more. Within that will be matches against teams deploying a low block, teams with intense high-presses, big Champions League away matches.
The fact that the Guimaraes transfer doesn’t make sense on paper is exactly why it makes sense in the long-term. Arteta recognised one of his failures in the early years of his tenure that he didn’t have different horses for different courses.
Now the Spaniard has a hurdler for Cheltenham, a sprinter for Royal Ascot and a chaser for the King George VI. Guimaraes is a thoroughbred in fine form, and his addition will not only lift the floor of Arteta’s squad, but raise the ceiling as well.