Arsenal have attacked the transfer market in an aggressive manner this window with the confirmation of Kai Havertz’s arrival from Chelsea in a £65million deal. This was followed by an agreement with West Ham United over the record signing of Declan Rice for £105million, football.london understands.
However further recruitment is expected in the defence with an agreement reached to sign Jurrien Timber. That said, it appears there could be interest in a right-back with links to RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Henrichs circulating amongst other options.
Henrichs impressed with football.london assessing his metrics against the likes of Ben White, Ivan Fresneda and Joao Cancelo but how about some expert insight? We spoke again to Bundesliga specialist Andrew Thompson to get the lowdown on the German international.
“Ironically, rumoured interest in Benjamin Henrichs would likely offer further insight into how Mikel Arteta could potentially utilise Jurrien Timber,” Thompson explained. “The German international full-back, while versatile, is predominately a right-sided player; featuring at right-back, right wing-back, and right midfield respectively.
“He has certainly featured on the left in similar roles. But his bread and butter has typically been on the right.”
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Looking at the statistics, it showed the contrast that Henrichs would provide to the existing options at the club. Thompson though reveals stylistically what Bukayo Saka might expect partnering his potentially new teammate.
“Henrichs boasts fairly credible metrics in progressive carries and progressive passes received, showing himself to be very capable at bombing forward to get into the final third and inside the 18-yard box to have a pop at goal (reference FBRef here as well). He is not much of a ball carrier though, so any direct flow of play on the ball likely would not feature him heavily.
“He’s also adept in a pressing system and can get stuck in quite well both when going to ground as well as being quite capable of cutting off passing lanes. A huge drawback would be his ability in the air, which lags considerably behind others in his bracket.”
Despite what Henrichs impresses in, with the acquisition of Timber, there remains a question of where he fits in despite his obvious natural ability to play on the right flank. With that in mind, Thompson is unsurprisingly cautious of a potential move.
“As a depth signing that has a considerable amount of top flight experience as well as in the Champions League, he would tick a lot of boxes but I would certainly be shocked to see him start regularly at Arsenal should Arteta and Edu see fit to bring him in given other options at the Emirates Stadium."
