What will Martín Zubimendi bring to the Arsenal midfield?

Martin Zubimendi was close to signing for Liverpool last summer, only to decide at the last moment to remain at Real Sociedad.

Since then, LaLiga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona have both tried their hands at nabbing the Spain international, but it’s English giants Arsenal who managed to poach the 26-year-old away from the Reale Arena following a deal worth around £55 million. 

Here’s an in-depth look at what Zubimendi brings to the Arsenal setup, and what roles he can be expected to play under Mikel Arteta.

Zubimendi: The player

Zubimendi is a right-footed midfielder who has played in a pivot role (both single and double) for the majority of his senior career, barring a brief spell as a No. 8 in his breakthrough season. With the ball, he can control the tempo and rhythm of the build-up play and is comfortable under pressure.

His subtle movements see him drift away from opponents, giving him more time as he receives the ball. As with the best pivots, he often appears to have more time than anyone else on the pitch.

The precision in Zubimendi’s short passing is quite immaculate. He typically finds teammates with passes at an optimal angle, with ideal weight, and on the correct foot. This helps his teammates to better maintain possession, while also showcasing his passing range and progressive play.

Zubimendi is aggressive, assertive, and fully committed to leaving his space and/or man to compete for possession. He times his jumps well from the back line to apply pressure in midfield, supporting counter-pressing. Moreover, his intelligence and reading of the game can be summed up by how well he covers passing lanes to limit forward-passing opportunities, as opposed to simply blindly running at the ball.

Playing as a single pivot

For the majority of his career, Zubimendi has operated as a single pivot. Between the 2020/21 and 2023/24 seasons, he was often used either in a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2 diamond, deployed at the base of midfield with at least two No. 8s ahead of him.

With these No. 8s often positioned high, Zubimendi had to play clever passes or use quick play to work the ball away from pressure. However, he has also shown an ability to skip the No. 8s altogether and find the attackers directly.

Zubimendi’s verticality allows for combinations higher up the pitch and more penetrative attacks via connections to the central forwards or the inverting wingers. Naturally, he enjoyed more central passing options in the 4-4-2 diamond; the presence of an additional central forward and a No. 10 allowed him to progress the ball centrally, breaking lines.

Arsenal are also on the verge of completing a move for Sporting hitman Viktor Gyökeres. Should he arrive, there will be games where Mikel Arteta will use the Swede up front with Kai Havertz sitting on his shoulder as the second striker. This is where Zubimendi’s verticality will help Arsenal unlock low blocks, which was their Achilles’ heel last season.

However, aside from his playmaking abilities, there is a real physical side to Zubimendi’s game as well, which often goes unnoticed. Sitting at the base of the Real Sociedad midfield, his role placed greater emphasis on duelling and defending, especially with both fullbacks in advanced positions. His defensive output increased dramatically whenever there was minimal wide cover during defensive transitions, or when the team were defending for prolonged periods.

Between the 2020/21 and 2023/24 seasons, Zubimendi ranked in the Txuri-Urdin‘s top three for defensive duels. In the 2022/23 season — when the 4-4-2 diamond was used — he ranked first for defensive duels.

Where does Zubimendi fit into this Arsenal team?

Arsenal pulled off a shrewd deal at the start of 2023 by acquiring the services of Jorginho from Chelsea for just £12 million. The Italy international is a modern-day regista, albeit one with limitations. 

With Jorginho in the team, there was more calmness to Arsenal’s play: the team controlled possession better with him sitting at the heart of it. However, there were times when the nimble midfielder was easily outrun and outmuscled, resulting in Arsenal often losing control in those matches.

Now, with both Jorginho and Thomas Partey set to leave, Arsenal have found a new orchestrator at the heart of their midfield in Zubimendi — someone who possesses both Jorginho’s finesse and Partey’s physicality.

Zubimendi is like Jorginho in many ways, but in many others he is also better — so much so that he has the potential to develop into an Ilkay Gündogan-esque midfielder if Arteta chooses to build on his strengths.

For now, though, the Spaniard is a specialist No. 6, and one of the very best in the game.

A more advanced iteration of Jorginho, Zubimendi’s operation speed, agility, and mobility are superior. He can wriggle in and out of pressure, turn on a dime, and speed up the game by progressing play both with his runs and passes.

While some may make the mistake of considering him merely a Jorginho-like player, Zubimendi is a better athlete with more tools to evade pressure. Playing with a low centre of gravity, his tactical intelligence in manipulating body angles, quick feet in tight spaces, and ability to accelerate swiftly away from his marker make him one of the most press-resistant No. 6s in the game today — if not the most.

One could also argue that Zubimendi is more technically secure than Jorginho, which is down to the fact that he knows he has more solutions when in possession. He understands that, if opposition players engage him, he has a range of tools in his armoury to create separation in ways Jorginho could not. Yes, he is a “pass and move” type of midfielder, but he is also much more than that.

Zubimendi is someone who regularly drops deep and holds possession just to add calmness to the game. Jorginho used to do this too, but he couldn’t do it effectively with someone up his backside. Zubimendi can, but this is also where the Gündogan theory comes in; Zubimendi’s role should not be limited to that of a No. 6.

While the Spaniard has the ideal temperament and technical traits for the No. 6 role, his ability to speed up the game when dribbling through the lines is rather underrated. This makes him capable of combining and interchanging in between plays with the left-sided No. 8, which is Declan Rice’s usual spot, and the Englishman is someone who came in as a No. 6 and evolved into a box-to-box operator. 

Zubimendi is not the most dominant physical specimen, but he is mobile and has the engine and intent to attack the box — something Gündogan was renowned for during his heyday.

Gündogan under Pep Guardiola was conditioned to operate in a dynamic, double pivot role, whereas Zubimendi is closer to a No. 6 — one of the cleanest technicians in the game with the right mental profile to dictate build-up play and find solutions to evade pressure.

This is why there is little doubt that Arteta is signing Zubimendi as his first-choice No. 6, especially with Jorginho and Partey leaving and Mikel Merino being a recent addition, with Rice already at the club.

However, in time, Zubimendi could evolve into a No. 8. The only real concern is his physicality, in which regard he’s closer to Jorginho than to Rice — tenacious and intelligent, adept at snuffing out danger.

But where he separates himself from the Italian is his mobility. He can cover ground with superior intensity and speed.

Conclusion

Sometimes the best way to assess defensive midfielders is not just on the basis of physicality, but rather their overall ability to consistently disrupt the opposition’s attacking play. 

In that regard, Martín Zubimendi ranked among the highest for tackles and interceptions combined among midfielders in LaLiga last season. 

There is no doubt that the former Real Sociedad man is one of the very best No. 6s in the game at the moment. Bringing him into the fold makes total sense for Arsenal; his profile and character fit Mikel Arteta’s style perfectly.

For £55 million, this is an excellent piece of business by the Gunners.