Thomas Partey: Midfield Tank Engine

[berric]

If a player gives up CL football, a top 3 team in their league for a team 8th in the league and EL football only on the basis of earning 3 times more its to be questioned.

Willian is perfect example. Was at a better team, swapped it for more £ and look.

The guy wanted to play in the PL and we were up his ear for a couple of years.

He had a tough season, came in late and got double-injured. Probably expected to get back to CL next year and not playing bumtetaball in mid table.

So what now we should've questioned e.g. Yaya Toure's motivations when he came to City? Didn't stop him from bossing the game.

You also can't compare this to Willian since one is entering prime years and one took a retirement paycheck.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Going by @14Henry logic Aguero was a horrible signing for City at the time cos he moved for the money.

 

[14Henry]

Going by @14Henry logic Aguero was a horrible signing for City at the time cos he moved for the money.

Aguero was moving to a team who were investing heavily to challenge for the league.

Arsenal were signing freebies and loans.

Complete different set of ambitions.

Thomas may come good for us in the future but like your good friend Mikel. So far has underwhelmed.

 

[2Smokeyy]

Willian wanted to stay in London and secure the bag - immediate red flags. Same with Cech and Luiz.

We were the fools to offer them all exactly what they wanted.

 

[14Henry]

Willian wanted to stay in London and secure the bag - immediate red flags. Same with Cech and Luiz.

We were the fools to offer them all exactly what they wanted.

That's what happens when you have no clear transfer targets and plans. You go for opportunist signings and take other teams hand me downs.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Aguero was moving to a team who were investing heavily to challenge for the league.

Arsenal were signing freebies and loans.

Complete different set of ambitions.

Thomas may come good for us in the future but like your good friend Mikel. So far has underwhelmed.

The bloke was injured for the first half of the season and has never really looked fully fit since. Give him a little bit of leeway.

 

[OnlyOne]

Nothing to see here, top-class player who's had an underwhelming season but not helped by the manager. Shown signs of his brilliance. Thiago has struggled as well don't forget, so has Werner & Ziyech. It happens.

 

[14Henry]

The bloke was injured for the first half of the season and has never really looked fully fit since. Give him a little bit of leeway.

As I said he hasn't been horrible. Just underwhelming. Could he come good next year? Of course he could. And he would need too. We have to remember he isn't a young player. This was his last big move. He's at his peak.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

As I said he hasn't been horrible. Just underwhelming. Could he come good next year? Of course he could. And he would need too. We have to remember he isn't a young player. This was his last big move. He's at his peak.

I'd say he has 4 more years at the highest level which is good for us. We need a mixture of these sort of players and young players and players that are around 24/25.

 

[Riou]

He has been playing at the highest level with Atletico the last few years, his performance at the start of the season were also very good for us.

People are giving up on him too early, the quality is there and he is clearly not 100%, plus it's been a bad year all round which makes him look worse than he is...he will be a great player for Arsenal, imo.

 

[Hunta]

Atletico winning the league before and after Thomas Partey.

Makes you think.

 

[Monstar-Gunn4r]

Arteta pretty much marooned him in midfield, theres nobody in a position to take a pass from central midfield, so he takes a risk to beat a player so it can open up a space and he gets criticised for that hilarious.

 

[Bloodbather]

Thomas is a class player who has been decimated by injuries and a terrible team structure this season. He'll come good. It's not a coincidence that the likes of Auba, Thomas and Gabriel are all underperforming.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Crazy how we've arguably had the biggest flop transfer 2 seasons in a row.

 

[dashsnow17]

I feel like going into next season it's important to answer the question: what is Thomas Partey?

What is he, what's his role in the team, cos right now it feels like his role is to be everything, and that's not gonna work.

 

[Wounded Healer]

Crazy how we've arguably had the biggest flop transfer 2 seasons in a row.

everyone will flop at this current atmosphere. only some talented youngsters with everything to prove will look good.

 

[Wounded Healer]

I feel like going into next season it's important to answer the question: what is Thomas Partey?

What is he, what's his role in the team, cos right now it feels like his role is to be everything, and that's not gonna work.

i am sure arteta knows...

 

[Riou]

I feel like going into next season it's important to answer the question: what is Thomas Partey?

What is he, what's his role in the team, cos right now it feels like his role is to be everything, and that's not gonna work.

Him and Xhaka worked well together, would be happy to keep that going for another season, tbh.

We can look to replace Granit in 2022, have more pressing needs this summer.

 

[dashsnow17]

Him and Xhaka worked well together, would be happy to keep that going for another season, tbh.

We can look to replace Granit in 2022, have more pressing needs this summer.

If he wants to leave then he has to leave, simple as that. Can't have players here who don't want to be here.

You look at Leicester's midfield of Tielemans and Ndidi, they work so well together, with set roles. We need to define what Partey's role is, before we think about who best partners him.

 

[Macho]

I feel like going into next season it's important to answer the question: what is Thomas Partey?

What is he, what's his role in the team, cos right now it feels like his role is to be everything, and that's not gonna work.

Spoiler: Arsenal's "Cinco"

It was in a series of clandestine meetings in Madrid, held throughout the course of the 2018-19 season, that Thomas Partey spoke with Arsenal representatives about how he envisaged his role in the team.

The head of international scouting at the time, Francis Cagigao, was spearheading Arsenal’s charm offensive. Over lunch, Partey spoke at length about his style of play, his preferred positions. He said his preference is to operate as one of a pair of deep-lying midfielders, but he can also play at the base alone. He talked admiringly of Granit Xhaka, and admitted he could envisage playing in tandem with the Switzerland international.

But there was something else. Partey had a conviction that there he had more to offer, that he could get better. The structural rigour that Diego Simeone imposed on his Atletico team left little room for self-expression.

The overriding impression Arsenal received was that of a player who believed moving to England could unlock new dimensions in his game. The club have landed themselves a player with convincing credentials, a midfielder with Champions League pedigree. But even at a mature 27, Partey is not coming to London to rest on his laurels. He has joined Arsenal because he believes he can improve.

---

Partey was born in Ghana, but his professional development has been dictated by Argentine football lore. It is clear even from the number he wore for his final few seasons in Madrid. The significance of the No 10 shirt in Argentinian football is legendary — it is the number worn by iconic attackers such as Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona and Juan Roman Riquelme. There is, however, another number that holds a similarly sacred status: the No 5.

In Argentina, the “No 5” has become shorthand for describing the team’s most defensive-minded midfielder. Occasionally, Argentinians will describe a typical No 5 as a “pacman” — shuttling side to side, chewing up the turf and eating up loose balls. At World Cups, the number has been sported by Fernando Redondo, Matias Almeyda and Esteban Cambiasso. Javier Mascherano wore No 14, but he remained unquestionably a “cinco”.

At its best, exponents of the role combine defensive acumen with intelligent build-up. “When I think of the ‘cinco’, I like the type of player who assumes responsibility, who always offers for the ball, the one who manages the tempo of a team,” Redondo once explained. “It’s a very important position, you have to have a player who knows how to play, who reads the game, who has the precision to break the opponent’s press.”

Simeone, who won 106 caps for Argentina, was himself a No 5 — he once described his style of midfield play as akin to a man “holding a knife between his teeth”. It is the No 5 shirt that Simeone bestowed on Partey at Atletico — the same number he would have inherited at Arsenal, were it not for incumbent Sokratis failing to secure a deadline day move.

Partey wearing the No 5, representative of a position Simeone described as akin to a man “holding a knife between his teeth” (Photo: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
It is arguably more than just a number — it’s indicative of how Simeone sought to mould Partey. In the early loans at Mallorca and Almeria in which he first caught Arsenal’s eye, the Ghanaian played a variety of roles — box-to-box midfielder, right winger, even No 10. It was when he returned to Atletico that Simeone began to shape him into the holding midfield player he required.

Steadily, Partey absorbed Simeone’s tactical blueprint. In Madrid, they have observed that positional sense can be taught if a player has a willingness and aptitude to learn. “Partey is someone who brings you massive defensive stability,” says one Premier League scout. “Not particularly because he’s big, not because he’s strong, not because he’s especially quick — he can do that stuff, but it’s because of how he understands space.” It took Partey time to win Simeone’s trust, but when Atletico club captain Gabi departed in the summer of 2018, the Ghanaian began to settle into his central midfield role.

The scouting reports that came back to Arsenal described a player who was dominant in duels and efficient in possession. Despite standing over 6ft tall, it wasn’t his aerial ability that stood out — it was his ability to go into contact with another player, shoulder to shoulder, and emerge with possession. He is lean, but surprisingly powerful too.

Technically, he is as clean as you would expect for a player honed in the Spanish academy system. He has not been, under Simeone, a penetrative passer — under instruction, he has looked to play short and medium-range passes to circulate possession to more creative players.

A consummate team player, Partey arrives with a game underpinned by strict tactical discipline. Arteta has spent the best part of a year attempting to school this Arsenal squad in the importance of structure, spacing and phases of play. Partey arrives having already undergone a taxing football education. It is a language in which he is already fluent.

As the transfer window entered its final weekend, Arsenal were focused on finding a “cinco” of their own — or, in European numbering convention, a “No 6”. With Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi both departing on loan, Arteta’s only senior options in the role were Xhaka, Dani Ceballos and Mohamed Elneny. Arsenal were interested in Chelsea’s Jorginho, but the Italian international was not for sale.

Partey was a more expensive option — and perhaps a little older than Arsenal would consider ideal. The scouting department had also filed glowing reports of Lille’s 21-year-old Boubakary Soumare, with the substantial caveat offered that he remained raw. Ultimately, a decision was made by the Arsenal executive committee, including manager Arteta, that the club were happy to acquire a player already in the peak of his career, with a wealth of experience at the highest level, as opposed to gambling more on a younger, cheaper and less well-rounded option.

Able to play as the sole defensive midfielder or with a partner, Partey unlocks more midfield shapes for manager Mikel Arteta to use in future. He ticks all the boxes of Arteta’s specifications for a screening No 6. Partey is now the primary option for that position — more mobile than Ceballos and Xhaka, and more physically and technically gifted than either Elneny or Joe Willock.

Despite Arteta’s current preference for a 3-4-3, The Athletic understands Arsenal’s technical staff still envision the team ultimately developing into a 4-3-3 system, akin to the one adopted by Liverpool and Manchester City. Arsenal don’t have the quality No 8s that those two teams boast — a move for Lyon’s Houssem Aouar ultimately proved fruitless — but having Partey in place is at least a start. He can provide the security and strength through the spine that could enable Arteta to move away from the back three.

Perhaps he can offer more than that. There is a sense that Simeone kept Partey on a very tight leash. When he breaks forward, he offers considerable threat. He possesses a ferocious long-range shot off his right boot. At international level, he has occasionally operated as a second striker, and has an impressive record of 10 goals from 27 Ghana caps.

Arsenal are unlikely to push Partey into the final third — they have bought him as a defensive midfielder. However, with a little more freedom, he could help Arsenal build the play more effectively. His passing has the potential to be more expansive. His dribbling is an effective weapon in transition — only four central midfielders in La Liga had a higher dribble success rate last season (Arthur, Iddrisu Baba, Hector Herrera and Geoffrey Kondogbia). His ability to break through the lines could help Arsenal spring into attack.

Arteta is building a team, piece by piece. Signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to a new contract felt like an important component piece, and the acquisition of coveted centre-half Gabriel also looks like smart business. A spine is emerging. In Partey, he has his chosen holding midfield player — and Arsenal have their “cinco”.

In short, he's supposed to be our number 5/one half of a double pivot. Injuries and tactical experiments meant he's done everything at times this season like you alluded to.

Some of our rare, but better games this season had Xhaka and Partey at the base - I still can't understand why we didn't play against Villareal with Saka, Cedric or even a 50% Tierney at LB and just stick Xhaka in the middle.