Sven Mislintat wants Arsenal to sign a defensive midfielder as one of four positions he’s looking to strengthen this summer according to reports, but who should he buy?
We recently covered reports of the four areas Arsenal’s new head of recruitment wants to strengthen over the summer, which you can check out here.
One of these areas was in midfield. Arsene Wenger sold Francis Coquelin in January, further depleting an already sparse array of options. Although Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny are showing signs of improvement, Arsenal still need to invest in the summer.
So who could the club look to target?
1Danilo Pereira
- Age: 26
- Current club: FC Porto
- Contract until: 2022
- Market value: £21.6m
We already know from the Portuguese media’s regular reports that Arsenal have spent a lot of time watching Porto play lately. For the most part, they seem to agree that Danilo is one of the key targets of their scouting trips.
The Portugal international is having a fantastic season with Porto, so you can see why he’s drawing interest from top clubs.
Danilo’s main strength is his aerial ability. He stands at around 6’2″, and uses every inch to his advantage. As a result, he’s won 70.1% of his aerial duels this season.
He’s also very comfortable on the ball, completing 86.3% of his passes for Porto. Those are two attributes the Gunners could use in a defensive midfielder.
The only drawback at the moment is that he’s struggling with a couple of injuries. In January he suffered a calf strain, then in February he had a setback keeping him out until April. Unfortunately he then ruptured his Achilles tendon.
If he can get fit and stay fit, Arsenal’s scouts have seen enough of him by now to know whether he’s worth a bid this summer.