Gabriel Paulista and Arsenal seems to be growing closer by the day. Things have moved very quickly of late. In typical Arsenal transfer tradition, the apparent progression of the deal is rather unexpected and quite surprising, but promising nonetheless. Some reports suggest Arsène Wenger is prepared to pay €20 million – roughly £15.3 million – for the Villarreal centre-back.
Read Arsenal strive to provide worthwhile information and respected opinion and we have done so once again. Llew Davies has asked three Spanish football experts, Chris Moar, David Cartlidge and Jamie Kemp, three questions each regarding the Brazilian centre-back. For future reference, we have been reliably educated by Tim Stillman that when referring to Gabriel Paulista by a single name, it should be Gabriel and not Paulista…
Chris Moar, Arsenal and La Liga fan, featured in beIN Sports and The Daily Mail
Chris, welcome to Read Arsenal! As an Arsenal fan and La Liga expert, what’s your general feeling about Arsenal pursuing Gabriel Paulista?
I think Gabriel Paulista would most definitely be a good capture for the club. But patience will need to be had with him; he’s still young and shows signs of ripeness from time to time. He will come good as he adds more games to his name, but I wouldn’t expect fireworks from the get-go. Wenger could polish him into a fine centre-back.
Where do you see him fitting in at Arsenal – with Calum Chambers more in the Per Mertesacker centre-back mould, is Gabriel the Koscielny-like defender Arsène Wenger has been waiting for?
Gabriel has been likened to Koscielny, and it’s not hard to see why. They both share this unorthodox style of intercepting passes and clearing crosses. They both step a few yards ahead of the defensive line to clear danger before it reaches their initial area. Like Koscielny, though, Gabriel will need time to adapt. He doesn’t possess Koscielny’s technical ability in the passing department, despite all the comparisons.
Where do your worries lie regarding Gabriel and Arsenal, if you have any?
My main worry is his distribution, but conclusive judgement cannot be drawn upon this just yet. At Villarreal, he is required to launch the ball forward whenever it is at his feet as Marcelino [Villarreal’s manager] focuses on fast, attacking transitions. Mussachio is usually entrusted with the short passing side of things. Gabriel is often seen to lose possession & enable opposition counter-attacks. At a club like Arsenal, where the defensive line is relatively high, he could seriously cause some self inflicted damage. The only reason things could change in the passing department is a change of style; perhaps it is in his locker to play it short but that is suppressed at Villarreal. It’s one of those things where you have to see how he performs in a different system. My other issue is he can be rather rash at times. His style is aggressive when stepping forward and thus he gives away fouls quite often.
Overall, his positives outweigh the negatives by a considerable margin. He reads the game excellently and positions himself very well. €20m may be steep in the short term, but long term he could be the heir to Koscielny – and a natural one at that too.
David Cartlidge, a Spanish football writer, featured on FourFourTwo, Sport and more
What type of centre-back is Gabriel and what are his outstanding attributes?
Gabriel is a well rounded defender in terms of his skill set. He is mobile, comfortable on the ball and can be known to be quite elegant. However, he also has a rough exterior, and is able to dominate in the air, and on the floor, by anticipating attacking moves and using his physical ability in a 50/50. He has played in a back three before, as well as full-back, and it wouldn’t surprise me if would be used a holder in midfield at some point given his reading of the game and nature on the ball. A comparison always helps people, and in Gabriel I see someone similar to Pepe and Lucío. Mean, tough – but able to use the ball at their feet.
Arsenal fans have enjoyed Alexis Sánchez’s instant adaptation to English football – could Gabriel slot in as seamlessly as Sánchez?
I think Alexis’ adaptation has been special due to his mentality. I wrote in the past how he’d become a fan favourite instantly, but I think Gabriel will likely take a little more time. He has only played 50 games or so for Villarreal, and while he adapted quickly to La Liga, the transition to Premier League will be slightly more testing. January is always a mixed time to pick up players too, given the lack of pre-season with the club. Nemanja Vidić for example, after a tough welcome period, turned to eventually be one of the best centre-backs in the modern Premier League history. Gabriel must be afforded time to settle, but I think from a system point of view he could fit right in quite naturally.
Finally, where do you envisage Gabriel Paulista in the future? Is the world class centre-back status unattainable for him?
World class is a stretch. I think he’ll reach a very good level, in which he becomes a solid, consistent presence who offers much to the system. However, world class seems unlikely. This is by no means a criticism, some centre-backs do become very good, just not world class. The level of someone such as Ezequiel Garay seems about right.
Jamie Kemp, senior editor for Inside La Liga and ScoutedFootball contributor
After a season of adaptation, the 24-year-old has seemingly kicked on this season. Just how impressed have you been by him?
If you’d have told Villarreal fans that they would concede less goals than Atlético Madrid by the halfway point of the season, without Mateo Musacchio for over three months, they quite simply wouldn’t have believed you. As it went, Villarreal didn’t even skip a beat when he went down with injury. Gabriel stepped in at centre-back as if it wasn’t even a talking point. His performances, alongside Víctor Ruíz, have made them as efficient as any defensive pairing in the league so far, while Gabriel must be commended for his ability to take on an unexpected workload at a moment’s notice. Whether it be out in Kazakhstan on Europa League duty, or away at the Vicente Calderón – he has been as reliable as Marcelino could have ever hoped.
Gabriel’s buy-out clause is reportedly €20 million, just over £15 million, and Arsenal may pay it – with both short-term and long-term in mind, is that good value for money?
He’s not long since turned 24-years-old and with still quite a good amount of growing to do, I think Arsenal would do alright here. I’m not sure what Arsène Wenger’s immediate plans are for Gabriel, so it would obviously be a different answer if he’s being primed to dislodge either Koscielny or Mertesacker straight away. But I’d also say that considering the room left for growth with him, there’s a lot of scope for this to be proven a good deal. Even on the most basic level: he has less than 50 league starts to his name which means he’s still plenty of natural ‘on-the-job’ experience to come. Then you’ve also got the work on the training ground that Arsenal can do with him during that time, the new personal challenges, a different style of football – all of these things can only add to his arsenal, if managed well, and thus, his price tag.
If you could compare Gabriel to any other defender in world football, who would it be and why?
That’s a tough one to answer given his physical profile. His frame isn’t that of your typical centre back – he’s more rangy, leaner and not as filled out as he may be in two or three years time. In that physical sense alone, he reminds me of Marquinhos at PSG. But in terms of his playing style and mentality, I’d lean closer to Pepe at Real Madrid. Like Pepe, lapses in concentration can often feel never too far away, but for the most part, their determined character and general hunger often trumps that. Clearing danger, stepping out of the backline, winning aerial duels and all of those components can sometimes feel a bit ‘by any means’ with both, although that isn’t exclusively detrimental.
Will they ever play out of defence like Gerard Piqué under Pep Guardiola? I doubt it. Can they be tremendously effective players? Of course. And although Pepe plays for Portugal, he was born in Brazil (like Gabriel) and lived there until the age of 18. He’s a representative of that determined South American blood and I’m sure Arsenal fans won’t be too disappointed to recruit any more of that given the spirit Alexis Sánchez has shown this season.
To end, I posed the same question to all three to culminate our question and answer session – in one word, would Gabriel Paulista constitute a good signing for Arsenal Football Club? Both Chris and Jamie answered with “yes,” while David replied “absolutely!” Fantastic endorsements if ever there were any.
