Who is: Marquinhos

Background

Marquinhos joined Arsenal from Sao Paulo on a 5-year contract in July for a fee of £3.15m after he was snatched away from Wolves. He may not have an immediate impact being only 19, however this may not be an issue for Arteta considering his affinity towards playing young players such as Martinelli, Saka and Emile Smith Rowe.

Marquinhos has not had much playing time at Sao Paulo, playing only 41 times and coming off the bench for the majority of those. However, his abilities have not gone unnoticed and he is certainly one to watch for the future.

Marquinhos is a left-footed right winger who is also capable of playing through the middle if needed. He is an adept dribbler with a lot of strength to go with it. He tends to play wide, almost hugging the touchline and able to cut inside around the final third of the pitch.

Analysis

Due to a lack of data and incomplete data, the analysis is not as in depth as it would be.

For Sao Paulo this year, Marquinhos has 3 goals and 1 assist in 584 minutes played this year- This equates to 0.62 Goals+Assists per 90 this year.

He is clearly a player coming into fine form considering he has this record despite only having played 36% of possible match time out of the total time of matches where he has been in the match-day squad.

It's difficult to define his best position due to the lack of experience, however taking a look at where his best performances have been, he has scored whilst playing striker and down the left hand side as well as an assist coming from striker too. He has played the most amount of games down the right side but does not have any goal contributions here.

However, it seems as though Arteta will play him on the right as is evident from pre-season matches so far. Lets take a look at his performances to understand what kind of player he is.

Match Performances

July 24: Arsenal 4 - 0 Chelsea

This passage of play led to a shot fromMarquinhos on the edge of the area that was blocked by a Chelsea defender.

Snapshot 1:

As Maitland-Niles has the ball out wide, Marquinhos has taken up a deeper position and more central with a lot of space he can move into to take a shot.

Snapshot 2:

Marquinhos receives the ball, turns and drives towards the area whilst unfortunately being closed down quickly. He is able to get a shot away but he is too pressured and the shot ends up bing blocked.

This passage of play ends with a slightly misplaced pass, but had the pass come off, Marquinhos would have ben in a very good position to score or provide an assist.

Snapshot 1:

With Nketiah on the turn, the Chelsea players swarm him. Meanwhile, Marquinhos quickly spots the intention and begins driving towards the open space.

Snapshot 2:

Marquinhos cuts inside to find the space behind the Chelsea midfielder marking him.

Snapshot 3:

Unfortunately, this pass was misplaced, but had it come off, Marquinhos has a lot of room he can drive into or produce a shot from, as well as provide a pass to Lakonga in a dangerous position.

Final Thoughts

Marquinhos is very much an unknown; His lack of game-time and experience at this level makes it very difficult to see how good of a player he will be.

What is clear however, is that he understands space in football and when to capitalise on this with quick movement. He is also a very strong player, almost reminiscent of Alexis Sanchez and if that is anything to go by, Arsenal will have made a stunning signing at a bargain price.

Only time will tell how Marquinhos will truly fit into this side and he could be sent on loan in order to gain more experience at a higher level, but this could be dependent on any further departures from Arsenal, such as Nicolas Pepe.

Data, Graphics and Video shots credited to whoscored.com, fbref.com & Arsenal media.