In the era of YouTube compilations and in-depth scouting technology at the finger tips of many fans, it's rare that a player will arrive at a club without anyone really knowing what they are. Nearly two months on from his signing for Arsenal though, Fabio Vieira still remains something of an enigma.
Perhaps the one thing we know about the Portugal under-21 international is that he is incredibly versatile. During his time at Porto he played left wing, right wing, number 10, number eight, number six, false nine and even left back on one brief occasion. In many ways this has created more questions than it's answered and after missing the entirety of Arsenal's pre-season campaign with a foot fracture sustained on international duty, we're still not exactly sure where Vieira will fit into the squad in North London.
"That’s something the player is going to tell us," Mikel Arteta told football.london when asked what position he saw the 22-year-old playing. "We are already trying him in different positions in training. He’s played on the left, right, as a false nine and an attacking midfielder, so it’s good. He doesn’t want to be locked in any one position, because he’s so used to it, and that’s a really positive thing for us." While Arteta was fairly non-committal in that instance, Vieira's first minutes in an Arsenal shirt during the under-21s' 2-1 victory over Swansea may have given us our clearest indication yet of where the Spaniard sees his summer signing.
READ MORE:
Sporting the number seven shirt, Vieira lined up as a right winger under instructions from the first team. " Yeah they wanted him to play on that side of the pitch," under-21s head coach Mehmet Ali revealed to football.london after the game.
This is fascinating for a number of reasons. One is of course is from a squad building perspective. Arsenal continue to be linked with wingers such as Callum Hudson-Odoi and Yeremy Pino amid uncertainty over the future of Nicolas Pepe who is reportedly attracting interest from Nice. The Gunners are hopeful of completing more incoming business this summer and there has been plenty of speculation that this next acquisition could be a 'mystery winger'. However with Vieira chosen to play on the right, this could perhaps be an indication that they already have someone capable of playing the role already.
Another reason is the way in which Vieira interpreted the position. The versatility that is viewed as such a strength by the Arsenal coaching staff was on full display at Meadow Park. At times he was staying wide to link with Cedric Soares who played the full 90 minutes at right back on the night, while on other occasions he was drifting infield to swap in to the 'right eight' role that Emile Smith Rowe was playing. The Portuguese under-21 international's best chance of the night actually came in the left hand side of the penalty area as he failed to turn a fizzing cross from the impressive Lino Sousa towards goal. This approach differs from the way in which Bukayo Saka has generally played the position when starting for Arsenal on the right wing in recent seasons and on the night was viewed as an incredibly useful tool to break down a resolute Swansea backline.
"I thought he had some really good moments," Ali said. "It wasn’t easy to break down Swansea when they had 11 men. They played a back five and when we attack with that five it’s not always easy to break them down and I think we had a really good blend of going in behind on occasions but also coming into little pockets as well and coming infield to receive the ball to feet. I thought he mixed it up really well and that’s what we wanted from him, to cause problems himself, to create chances and obviously he could have scored as well."
Arteta, who was watching on for the second time in as many weeks at Meadow Park would surely have echoed these sentiments. The Spaniard has shown how highly he values versatility with the purchases of players like Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus and Takehiro Tomiyasu in recent transfer windows and Vieira is the kind of player who offers him the tactical flexibility to crack the various obstacles that his team will encounter.
What perhaps would have pleased Arteta most though is the intensity the 22-year-old showed in order to win the ball back on those rare occasions that he actually lost it. A pre-match deluge ensured that this was not exactly going to be the kind of warm welcome to English football that the Arsenal coaching staff would have been hoping for when they decided to drop Vieira down to the under-21s. Plenty of players have faltered in those kind of conditions but Vieira came through it well and drew praise for his attitude in the game.
"Their application was excellent," Ali said of the three senior Arsenal players involved at Meadow Park. "You look at these players they’re used to playing at the Emirates with 60,000 people, when Fabio was at Porto he had 50,000 people so to come and play at Boreham would with a lot smaller crowd and apply themselves like they did, is the reason why they’re playing where they’re playing today."
After Wednesday night's game it does finally appear that we are getting closer to solving the mystery of how Fabio Vieira will be used in an Arsenal shirt. However, the player's versatility - which is most certainly viewed as a strength by those at the club - means that the case is far from closed.
