Speaking to the Totally Football Show Podcast Rafa Honigstein reminded everyone that Arsenal had a bid rejected for Emil Forsberg this summer. After RB Leipzig rejected Arsenal’s €30m bid out of hand, the Swedish attacking midfielder’s agent spoke openly about the player’s desire to move to the Premier League “[Leipzig] didn’t buy [Forsberg] for €15m, but for €3m and he signed a new contract and paid them back 10 times. They will have to live with the fact that they are destroying his dreams.”
Forsberg created 19 assists for RB Leipzig in 2016/17 and Arsenal were very interested in him as the club desperately tried to sell Alexis this summer. After Honigstein’s comments on the TFSP there have been a number of articles claiming that Arsenal are going to go back in for Forsberg this summer. To be very clear, Honigstein did say “a club like that” could go for Forsberg this summer and there are rumors that Liverpool also want Forsberg.
Forsberg is right footed but is largely deployed on the left according to Transfermarkt.com. That’s a bit deceptive because Leipzig play a 4222 and Forsberg is given a lot of freedom in their system but he is listed on the team sheets as starting on the left in almost every match.
Forsberg got 13 of his 19 assists from open play last season and like all creative midfielders, he also provides a lot of throughballs for his teammates to run onto. Leipzig also play a fun, up-tempo style and Forsberg is a great counter attacking threat, providing passes for the speedy Timo Werner to run onto.
Forsberg is not only able to break lines with throughballs, but is also decent dribbler. Dribbling high up the pitch, he completed 71/122 dribbles in 2016/17 and only lost possession 102 times. That was in 30 matches. Alexis Sanchez lost possession 112 times for Arsenal this season in just 19 matches and was 40/60 dribbling.
Another area where Forsberg is statistically very interesting is tackles. Alexis was dribbled past 25 times out of 45 tackles this season with Arsenal. Forsberg was dribbled past 14 of 42 tackles last season – and even better completed 52/88 tackles the season before. Forsberg also had 45 interceptions and 14 blocked passes last season.
Despite the exciting stats and comments from rafa there have been no other clear links to Forsberg from Arsenal and as always I wait for an article (not a link to another source) printed in the Guardian before getting too excited.
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