Why Lorenzo Pellegrini is one of the most wanted midfielders in Europe and what makes him so good.[THREAD]:

Overview:
Lorenzo Pellegrini is a 23 year old versatile midfielder who has made a name for himself in Italy for Roma. Pellegrini was initially sold to Sassuolo for £1.3 million, he then shone at Sassuolo in the 2016/17 season where he equated 13 G+A in 28 games.

Overview Continued:
Roma then activated a buy back clause in his contract and he went back to Roma for a fee of £9m. Since then Pellegrini has become a vital player for Fonseca and Roma, and has proved to be one of Europe’s top creators with 14 G+A in just 24 games.

Price Tag:
Firstly it’s been widely reported that Lorenzo Pellegrini has a £27 million release clause in his current contract, depending on the structure of the transfer (instalments) this therefore, wouldn’t take up a sizeable proportion of the summer transfer budget.

Role for Roma:
At the beginning of the 2019/20 season Pellegrini was being deployed as #6 type player partnering Cristante in a pivot midfield, Cristante was more of the ball progressor whereas Pellegrini was more defensive. However, due to a Cengiz Ünder injury Zaniolo was

moved to the right hand side and Pellegrini was moved at an Attacking Midfielder role where he’s played since. His main threat in the team was Pastore as they were interchanged quite frequently, but as the season progressed and Pellegrini showed his value, Pastore lost his spot.

Role for Roma Continued:
Pellegrini is always playing between the lines of the opponents defence and midfield whilst picking up the ball and progressing it through the last line of defence.

Creativity:
Firstly, from a statistical point of view Pellegrini has been one of the top creators this year, as shown in his minutes per key pass ratio. Furthermore, Pelligrini averages 0.48 assists per 90 and has created 11 big chances alone in the Serie A this season.

Creativity:
Pellegrini seems to thrive in the somewhat chaotic transition period between attack and defence as his ability to take a single touch and play a teammate on goal is exceptional.

This ability is shown below, as Veretout wins the ball and plays it to Pellegrini, Lorenzo opens his body with one touch, glances to his left and sees the gap between the Sassuolo LB and CB and Kluivert’s run. Pellegrini then picks out a well weighted pass, and Roma score.

This is a common theme with Pellegrini’s playmaking, as he consistently spots when the opposition defensive line is disorganised and exploits it. Which is again shown below as Pellegrini picks up a ball in his stride from Diawara, takes one touch and spots Dzeko’s run.

Positioning:
Pellegrini’s heatmap for the season is also very interesting, when comparing his heatmap to Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne you can see their positioning is quite alike. Both players like to drift out to the right hand side and deliver “central crosses”

towards dangerous area between the defence and goalkeeper, which tends to be very hard to defend if you aren’t playing a very deep line. These similarities can be seen when comparing Manchester City’s first goal vs Watford and Roma’s goal vs Istanbul Basaksehir.

Versatility:
At youth level Pellegrini played as centre back, but his vision, technical skill, tenacity and energetic nature meant he was meant to play in midfield. He can be deployed as a Mezzala playing further back or a roaming Trequartista. His past also gave him great ball

winning abilities and has played there at the beginning of this season and the end of last season and showed his defensive abilities as he averaged 1.6 tackles per 90 and 3.9 ground duels won per 90 whilst being deployed in many different roles.

Where would he fit in at Arsenal?:
Currently Arteta prefers playing the traditional 4231 with Mesut Özil as a #10 and a pivot midfield behind him, usually involving Granit Xhaka. Pellegrini would most likely be deployed as his preferred Trequartista role behind the striker.

However, Pellegrini could also easily be deployed next to Granit Xhaka and play much deeper role to progress the ball, however this depends on the full back arrangement, whether the right or left fullback is inverted. Ultimately, it depends how Arteta develops his tactics.

Conclusion:
Overall, as a player Lorenzo Pellegrini is everything that the modern game asks for, in terms of versatility, footballing iq and technical skill. Additionally, he is only 23 years old and is already incredibly mature on the field for his age, and for the price of

£27m he would be a fantastic signing.