Baptista brings power, versatility, and goals
65 comments September 1st, 2006
Arsene Wenger usually gets his man. He may have had to wait for a whole year, but Julio Baptista is finally is. It was July 2005 when Wenger made one his bravest managerial decisions to date: to sell Patrick Vieira to Juventus. But how best to replace him? Michael Carrick, Javier Mascherano, and Mahmadou Diarra had all previously been taken into consideration, but there was one man who Wenger saw as impressive beyond all others: Baptista.
The Brazilian was a very different kind of player to Patrick Vieira, or at least the Vieira of his peak in the 90s. Whilst the Frenchman could be described as a defensive midfielder, a ball-winner who could both win and keep possession, “The Beast” is a very different proposition. More likely to be found bursting into the penalty area or taking a crack from outside of it, he grabbed a remarkable 38 goals in 63 appearances for Sevilla: a record which puts him in the Frank Lampard/Steven Gerrard bracket, if not above. Spanish journalist Inigo Gurruchaga describes his style:
“He is an immensely powerful player, he has great physical presence and is a very versatile midfielder. He moves the ball well and is very dangerous when he attacks from midfield and gets into the area, like Steven Gerrard does at Liverpool. He can play in Gilberto’s position or in a more expansive role like Fabregas. And he is very direct. He doesn’t have the touch of Fabregas but he will give Arsenal something different, someone who will get to the edge of the box and have a shot instead of looking for the quick one-two with a team-mate. Tomas Rosicky showed in the World Cup that he can shoot from distance but Baptista will shoot even harder than the others. He has a strong shot and has aerial power too.”
Wenger wanted to ally this predatory instinct with his other Samba star, Gilberto Silva, in a diamond midfield. However, it was not to be. Baptista was determined to remain in Spain, and chose to sign for Real Madrid instead. In England, Wenger opted to stick with teenage sensation Cesc Fabregas in a re-shaped midfield. In spite of Fabregas’ undoubted quality, Arsenal missed the phsyical presence Baptista would have provided. Now, hopefully, that balance has been redressed. Gurruchaga continues:
“Wenger’s Arsenal always had awesome power with Vieira and Petit in midfield and Baptista, although not the same style of player as those two, will give them that power again. He is a man who can help them away from home when the game is a bit more muscular, as it was at Bolton and Blackburn last season. Baptista is not like Vieira as a player, he attacks more, but his power is the same.”
In both of the quotes in this article, I’ve highlighted what I believe to be the key points. Baptista will provide us with physical presence, and a goal threat. What’s more, he is able to play both upfront and in midfield, giving us tactical options which I have highlighted here.
The first is a basic 4-4-2. In spite of Wenger initially envisaging Baptista in this system, I cannot personally see either Gilberto or Fabregas being dropped, so in this system I’d expect Baptista to partner Henry. When Cesc is injured, he will step into the central mdifield, but I cannot see a partnership of Baptista and Fabregas having enough defensive stability. Perhaps I will be proved wrong. One thing worth noting is that now we have the option of resting Cesc without significantly weaking the side.
The alternative, and the formation that I believe we’ll continue to use in Europe, is the 4-5-1. A central three of Baptista, Fabregas, and Gilberto has goals, craft, and graft. I personally would advocate unleashing this system on the Premiership too. The flaw in our use of it in the past has been the lack of a central midfielder to join up with Henry. With Hleb, Baptista, and Rosicky supporting the lone front man we would have no shortage of attacking threat.
Either way, the signing is a great one for us – like the Gallas deal, we’ve come out well. Losing Reyes is a blow, but Baptista probably guarantees more goals than the Spaniard ever did. Don’t foget, we still have Rosicky, Ljungberg, Walcott and Clichy all available to play on the left.
Although only for an initial year’s loan, both Reyes and Baptista could become permanent moves. Reyes would cost Madrid €22m, with Arsenal having agreed a €20m fee for Baptista – €4m less than Real paid for him last summer. Amidst rumours that the Brazilian was somewhat reticent to come to England, I hope we can convince him to stay in the long-term. A large amount of responsibility for this rests with us fans – if 60,000 of us put the “You’ll never play for Arsenal” chants behind us and get behind “The Beast”, I think he’ll find it hard to walk away.
Later today or early tomorrow I’ll be doing a full write-up on the Gallas/Cole saga. Also, keep an eye open for this Denilson character…
Lastly, 
