LUCAS Torreira’s move from Sampdoria to Arsenal is a huge one for Unai Emery. With the help of the player’s former coach in Italy, Adam Bate finds out why the Uruguay midfielder is precisely the type of player that the Gunners have been missing.
Arsene Wenger was discussing South American strikers when he identified the problem. In Europe, street football is no more. “You have to be shrewd, you have to show that you are good, you have to fight. When it is all a bit more formulated then it is developing your individual skill [but] your fighting attitude less. We have lost a little bit of that in football.”
In Uruguay, the word that is often used to describe this savvy is ‘garra’ - a term meaning something between grit and guts but perhaps with a hint of cynicism thrown in. It is a characteristic that has been missing from Arsenal’s midfield for too long. The 22-year-old Lucas Torreira may be young but he has the traits that can make the difference.
Marcello Donatelli was Pescara’s assistant manager during the club’s promotion season in 2015/16 and got to see Torreira’s qualities up close. One of the first words that he reaches for is ‘garra’ but he insists there is much more to Torreira than that. “His technique, his determination and his tactical intelligence always impressed me,” Donatelli told Sky Sports.
“He has always been strong in understanding those defensive tactical aspects and he is very mature tactically in terms of how he reads the game. He can cope with the gaps that emerge in midfield with great intelligence and he covers very well. He is the one who corrects the spaces and cuts out the passes between the lines in the defensive phase.
“After Sergio Busquets, he is tactically the strongest midfielder in Europe.”
Torreira’s tale is one of hard work and commitment. He left his home in Fray Bentos at the age of 16 to pursue his ambitions in Montevideo, moving in with his sister Estefani and getting the bus to training each day. When his club Wanderers sent a group of youngsters on trial to Pescara in Italy in 2013, Torreira’s name was initially not even on the list.
He had to fight for his chance. In the words of his father Ricardo, he got “the knife between his teeth” and was the only player to have his trial extended beyond Christmas. Those first few months were not easy for the teenager. He had not even played senior football in Uruguay and the money was not good. He even had to barter to get free haircuts.
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