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Arthur Melo at Juventus thread:
With Juventus set to sign highly rated Arthur, let’s take a look at what he’ll bring to Turin and how he can improve the currently underperforming Juventus midfield.
Arthur is a quality central midfielder, blessed with great technical ability and vision on the pitch. These skills are a huge asset to a side that intends on playing possession based football, as Juventus play under Sarri.
Arthur has primarily played as a number 8 for Barcelona since being signed. Operating from the left side of the midfield as the heat map below demonstrates. However, this highlights Arthur’s versatility as he is more comfortable playing on the right side of midfield normally.
In the 2019/20 season, Arthur has struggled with several injuries, however, has made 27 appearances for Barcelona, starting 17 of those. In those appearances, Arthur has shown that he is an elite distributor of the football, averaging 53.3 passes per game with 91.2% success.
Additionally Arthur played 2.3 long balls per game and averaged 0.6 key passes per game. Arthur managed 4 assists in total this season so far. Decent numbers considering Arthur was limited from a creative standpoint under Valverde.
In further positive news for Juventus, Arthur improved his performance since Setien took over Barcelona, playing in a similar system to which he will play in at Juventus, with both his xG and xA increasing since Setien took over Barcelona.
Arthur is extremely successful with dribbling in the final third with an 83.1% success rate when dribbling. Meaning that Arthur can create angles for himself to either attempt a shot or find a teammate in the final third. He managed to score 4 goals and assist a further 4.
Arthur’s main weakness has proven to be his ability to win aerial duals and potentially his physicality, however, playing in a Sarri system that relies on short-passing and positional play it is unlikely to be a significant issue.
Overall, Arthur’s main strengths are his passing and dribbling abilities. Meaning that he could be utilised successfully as the right side midfielder for Juventus, being used to progress the ball and create in the final third.
However, there’s another interesting way Arthur can be utilised by Juventus. While at Gremio, Arthur was often deployed as a defensive midfielder. The heat map below shows how Arthur covered a significant part of the midfield.
In this time, Arthur proved to be extremely capable in the position. In his final season for Gremio, Arthur averaged 74.1 passes per game with a success rate of 93.1%. Furthermore, he played 4.1 long balls per game and 0.8 key passes.
Arthur further showed he was adept at playing as a 6 by proving to be extremely capable at playing the ball out of pressure through movement either by dribbling past his opponent or creating a passing angle.
This opens up the potential for Arthur to be deployed as the number 6 in the Sarri system. A role which Jorginho made prominent under Sarri while at Napoli. Arthur has demonstrated the capabilities to play in the role from an on the ball perspective, how about off the ball?
In that same season, Arthur managed 2.4 interceptions per game, along with making 0.6 tackles per game while committing 0.4 fouls. In comparison, Jorginho in the 17/18 season for Napoli averaged 1.5 interceptions per game and 1.9 tackles.
From a defensive standpoint, Arthur is capable. However, there is a flaw in his tackling ability. Arthur primarily relies on his great positional awareness when defending, if he was to play as a 6 at Juventus he would need to slightly improve that aspect of his game.
Overall, Arthur can be utilised in various ways by Juventus, either playing as a central midfielder aiming to progress the ball and create opportunities or as a defensive midfielder who recycles the ball and facilitates the offensive play of the side a la Jorginho.
In conclusion, Arthur is a great signing for Juventus. He is a highly skilled midfielder capable of playing in various positions and suits the Sarri system perfectly. Considering the finances involved, this is a very shrewd signing by Juventus and will improve the midfield.
