Who is: Oleksandr Zinchenko

Background

Zinchenko is the most recent of Arsenal's signings this summer, another arrival from Premier League champions, Man City. Arsenal paid £31.5m (including add-ons) to acquire the Ukranian, displaying the willingness to spend big on the necessary players and setting the record for the most expensive fullback the club has signed and second most expensive defender behind Ben White for £52.6m, the clubs third most expensive signing.

Having played as a creative midfielder for much of his youth and still playing as one for Ukraine, Zinchenko adds to the list of technically proficient defenders and plays in a similar style to Liverpool's Andy Robertson albeit a more central player. He is known to operate higher up the pitch than someone like Tomiyasu and has an affinity to drift inside and underlap where Kieran Tierney prefers to stay wide.

Competing with Cancelo at Man City, Zinchenko was unhappy with his playing time and wanted a move to secure more minutes. In the League last season, he played under one third of the possible time he could play excluding injuries. With Kieran Tierney's injury issues, not only will. Zinchenko create healthy competition for the left back position but will also be very reliable cover if and when Tierney is out. He could also play at central midfield if needed, adding to Arteta's plan for Arsenal to be more unpredictable.

Analysis

It's important to look at not just how Zinchenko compares to other fullbacks at Arsenal and in the top 5 leagues, but also how he compares to a similar fullback such as Andy Robertson. This will help us determine his best qualities as it gives us two useful benchmarks to measure him against. (The stats below are compared to other fullbacks in Europe's top 5 leagues).

Tierney: Zinchenko: Robertson:

Taking a look at these stats, it appears as though Zinchenko is an all-round upgrade on Kieran Tierney, however two things must be taken into account. Firstly, they have different playing styles and contribute to the team in different ways. Defensively, Tierney is more appropriate; as Zinchenko plays higher and therefore is willing to press the opposition defence more, it is more common for him to make more tackles higher up the pitch and against defenders who are not technically gifted enough to dribble past Zinchenk, i.e., Tierney has more opportunities to tackle in defensive areas but less opportunities when taking the full pitch into account. Additionally, Zinchenko played in a very dominant Man City team who were capable of keeping teams under pressure and winning the ball back early, before the ball got into a position where it would be more threatening to their teams defence. This is backed up by the fact that Zinchenko has more pressures than Tierney per 90.

When looking at attacking stats, it is clear that Zinchenko is much better than Tierney and you can definitely see the quality of a central midfielder in the stats, with a very high passing accuracy of 88.5% and an xA of nearly 0.2.

It is worth noting that Zinchenko's stats could be exaggerating his qualities- He has an xA per 90 of 0.19 whilst he provided an average of 0.35 assists per 90. This could be due to the fact that he may have been brought on whilst Man City were already winning and managed to get an assist against a deflated team, but also because of the high quality of players he was playing with.

Robertson, however, shows a similar trend and is therefore a better benchmark of a player to get a good understanding of Zinchenko. Both players create a lot of chances and shot-creating actions showing their willingness to get into attacking areas and pass the ball rather than cross. Zinchenko's stats illustrate his midfielder qualities, his pass completion and attempted passes put him in the top 2% of fullback in Europe's top 5 leagues and his progressive passes and carries put him in the top 1%, all of which are greater than for Andy Robertson. When compared to Tierney, Zinchenko provides a different service and is more capable of keeping the team ticking and filling into a midfield role.

All of this can be seen just by looking at how he played against Chelsea in the pre-season match.

Match Performances

By taking a look at Zinchenko in action, what has been discussed previously can be more easily demonstrated and verified.

July 24: Arsenal 4 - 0 Chelsea

Snapshot 1:

In this image, Arsenal are looking to build an attack down the left. With Ben White being a centre back as well as a somewhat capable right back, with Zinchenko playing, Arsenal convert into a back three of Gabriel, Saliba and White whilst on the ball. Their qualities allow Zinchenko to push higher up the pitch, in line or higher than Partey, whilst providing the width needed.

Snapshot 2:

Here, Zinchenko is receiving the ball in a central area with Martinelli out wide (top of the image) and thereby playing in the half-spaces, making it difficult for a marker to stay on him. Rather than a wide player or fullback tracking Zinchenko, Chelsea instead have to commit a midfielder to take him on, giving Arsenal essentially an extra midfielder.

In this passage of play, Zinchenko (on the ball) is looking to push into a more advanced position so that the Chelsea left back also has to dal with Zinchenko, giving Martinelli more room if he drops back.

Snapshot 1:

In this shot, Zinchenko has pushed high up into the half space in the final third with Martinelli providing width.

Snapshot 2:

Here, Zinchenko has been dispossessed and reacts immediately by applying pressure. Off the left side, Martinelli has cut off the passing option, creating difficulty in escaping the pressure for the Chelsea defence.

Snapshot 3:

The Chelsea defender has turned to try to find a passing option in his own area. Zinchenko continues to apply the pressure causing the Chelsea defender to panic.

Snapshot 4:

The Chelsea defender panicked and decided to pass the ball back to the goalkeeper. The work-rate of Zinchenko is shown as he continues to press the goalkeeper and Chelsea run out of options. The goalkeeper then has to clear the ball away where the ball is subsequently won back by Arsenal.

Final Thoughts

Zinchenko represents a move to the mentality he wants to instil in Arsenal, high work-rate and unpredictability. By having both Tierney and Zinchenko, Arsenal can keep the opposition unsure of the tactical style they need to employ to combat Arteta's tactics. Zinchenko fills a role that Arsenal did not need but one that will inevitably add an element to Arsenal's game that they were missing last season. He is a very capable creative player as well as a good defensive option given the quality of defence he will be supported by, allowing him the freedom to play his natural game. He is a player that shows the similarity in style and tactics between Arteta and his previous mentor, Guardiola and if that's any indication of the quality of manager and scouting, Arsenal should be in fantastic stead for this coming season.