Middlesbrough’s central defender, Ben Gibson has been linked with a move to Arsenal so we take a look to see what he could bring to the squad.

Ben Gibson has started his career at Middlesbrough from the youth ranks, and after three seasons spent on loan, he became a part of the senior squad at Riverside Stadium.

The 24-year-old has made a total of 153 appearances for the club. Last season alone he played 41 games and managed to score one goal and assist another.

Strengths

For a defender, he is very good with the ball and on average maintains an 84% successful pass rate and makes 30.58 forward passes per-game. Gibson is also very successful in beating his opponents with the ball and in 94.44% of occasions he manages to get past.

His physical strength is also remarkable as he can fight with bigger opponents and come out victorious.

The number of average clearances per-game (6.2) shows his decisive approach as he doesn’t take chances when it comes to to losing the ball. He is also good at reading the game and makes an average of 1.5 interceptions each match.

Next, Gibson’s weaknesses

Weaknesses

For a defender just over 6″ in height, he tends to lose too many aerial duels and on average wins just 51.72% per-game.

He also makes very few tackles, less than 1 per-game but on a more positive note, he makes even fewer fouls – just 0.5 per-game – as he doesn’t have a tendency to dive into tackles and will try to dispossess his opponents in a more subtle way.

These are the only two parts of his style that need a bit more work. Gibson also lacks the much needed experience that comes with bigger teams to make significant improvement.

Next, If he joins Arsenal…

If he joins Arsenal

Arsene Wenger would get a decent player in Ben Gibson but he would need to make sure the player gets the proper amount of training to improve his game.

The defender would also require a bid of £25-30m for Middlesbrough to even agree to transfer talks.

While comparing him to the likes of Rob Holding and Calum Chambers, Ben Gibson does look more mature when taking his opponents but also lacks a certain edge to his defensive work.

Both Arsenal youngsters make more tackles and win more aerial duels but also make more fouls.

His style demands that another player at the back compensate for his slightly weak approach as Gibson is more of a ball-playing defender who keeps possession and helps build up attacks.