Why Quilindschy Hartman is the Perfect defender for Arsenal

If newspaper reports and Google tabloids are to be believed, Mikel Arteta is on the hunt for a new defensive reinforcement. In reading into reports, it has to be a left-back. Reports have put us back in the Dutch market for a left-back that plays for Feyenoord, Mr Hartman. He's an emerging Dutch professional footballer whose progress has been derailed, unfortunately, by a knee injury, but he does play as a left-back, now I can't pretend to know this individual religiously but I have done my research and homework and while I only have a base level of knowledge on this sort of player, I have watched Feyenoord but, you know, it's one of them where he doesn't kind of grab my eye if I'm honest with you. But the more I look into him, the more I can see why Arsenal Scouts or Arsenal Football Club or why Mikel Arteta has to have been drawn to the 22-year-old Dutchman who has four caps and has a Dutch League title to his name with Feyenoord. Him and his reps were actually, allegedly, at the Emirates Stadium in April to watch Arsenal vs Chelsea in which we ran Riot and won 5-0. Now previously he's been linked with a bunch of clubs, last January he was linked with Chelsea, so could that have been on Chelsea's behalf or could that have been on Arsenal's behalf or could he just wanted to watch a good game of football in which we demolished them 5-0 once again? I'm not too sure, people. Nonetheless, people, I can't begrudge Scouts if they are convinced that the Dutchman is a player who could make the jump to English football and potentially a move could be on the cards in the summer or I think when he recovers from his injury potentially in January for Arsenal or anybody else, depending on what happens in the meantime, people. He ended the 2023-24 season with six assists across 37 games, I believe, people, and he also grabbed a goal on his international debut against France last October. From what I can see of him, I mean, I am a Sunday League full-back, so naturally I'm going to have a bias towards them, but he seems a full-back, very comfortable going forward, very comfortable providing width, very comfortable inverting in all phases of play in terms of the structure that his previous coach, Arne Slott, looked to deploy, people. I do think there's a bunch of things he could polish up defensively, but at 22, very few players are the finished article. I do like his short-range passing, which if you remember Declan Rice's interview a few weeks ago, Mikel Arteta doesn't like when we go long. He's fairly decent in the air and I am impressed by his composure and concentration levels, people. At a point during last season, that's just recently gone, he won 53% of his defensive draws, 45% of his aerial draws and 30.8% of loose ball draws. His interception rate, people, is among three per 90 minutes, so that shows you he's someone that's always thinking and a thinker's man's footballer. You couple that with some defensive qualities that I'm talking about, with being decent on the ball and what you would expect from a Dutch player, you could see why he's on the radar, people. He's committed a lot of fouls in the attacking zone, so that could maybe show you that he's very good at high pressing, he's very good at making tactical fouls as well, people, which shows he's decent. Now as a full-back, if you can't recover a ball, you're in trouble and it seems like ball recovery is one of his stronger assets, people. He recovers a ball nearly 10 times per 90, people, which is quite good and at least around four of them are in the attacking half. Now naturally, Arsenal, we're on the front foot in a lot of games. We've got every player apart from David Raya in an opponent's half as we look to suffocate them. So again, you could see why Arsenal scouts must have been flagged to this individual. He seems like a great dribbler, a very good carrier of a footballer. He does like to get forward and contribute in attack, people, which I really do like, people. He succeeds at nearly 60% of his attempted dribbles, people, and often gets into crossing positions to create a chance or two. He averages nearly three crosses per 90, which depending on what Mikel Arteta would demand and what you would classify as a cross, you could see once again why it would tie in. He has an accuracy in that regards of 32 to 33%, which shows improvement but shows a good base level. From what I can see, he seems quite intelligent from the data slash games that I've watched and available. He seems quite comfortable slotting into a narrow back three out of possession or providing depth and providing a lot of width. He seems comfortable inverting. So I can see once again why he would be liked, people. He seems quite aggressive in wanting to go forward and he does have a very versatile skill set and I believe his abilities are excellent, people, in the first phases of attacking play or just in terms of build-up play as reflected in his performances from Feyenoord. When you look at his passing stats, they provide promise. When you look at his possession stats, they look decent. When you look at his defensive stats, in terms of interceptions, recoveries, blocks, fouls and whatnot, he does quite well. His tackling stats do need improvement across a number of metrics. And of course, Mikel Arteta and the departed Feyenoord manager, now Liverpool manager, Arnslot are very different. But in the modern day, systems are very fluid and again, you look at Arnslot, you could classify his formation as a 4-2-3-1, defensively a 4-4-1-1 and many different variations of such people. So he does look decent and again, at 22 years of age, there's scope to be honed by Mikel Arteta, to grow, to be groomed, to develop and tie in long-term with what we're doing. One does wonder why we're continuously being linked with left-backs. I personally would like a versatile defender of the Timber and Tomiyasu ilk and what I mean by that is you look at the back four, Timber and Tomiyasu can play centre-back and on the left and the right. I don't care what Mikel Arteta wants because he showed me that he can make things happen, give the man what he wants. But it does beg the question, what happens with our existing options? Now, Timber obviously could play right back and had he been fit last season, that's just gone. You'd imagine he would have played left-back primarily, but he can provide competition slash deputise for obviously Benjamin White, as well as potentially being a centre-half. Tomiyasu the same and they're probably to go with Benjamin White, three of our strongest options. We know Kyrgios are left-sided centre-half with Gabriel and Saliba's partnership ever blossoming and getting better game in, game out. You can't see too many opportunities of him getting an opportunity there. At left-back, after some initial promise, he does look uncomfortable as an inverted full-back of such. And when Kyrgios was playing, you could argue Mikel Arteta kind of tweaked the system back to one of a traditional full-back to kind of hide Kyrgios' weaknesses and enhance his strengths. Naturally, that's what a manager should do. So again, I don't mind another defender. I don't think Timber, Tomiyasu, Benjamin White have anything to worry about. I do think fans are quite harsh on Zinchenko, but this could show you that we're moving away from Zinchenko because game time would be even more limited and he's still persistently linked with Bayern Munich people. So it does raise the question just what Mikel Arteta is planning, but I'm all for it. In relation to Hartman, I think there's a good foundation level for him to really thrive in the Premier League, whether that's at Arsenal or elsewhere. I think he's got 71 caps for a 22-year-old. He's played in the Europa and Champions League and obviously he's been capped by his country. So there's a lot of relative transferable experience that could be honed at Arsenal Football Club. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll move for him in the summer. You never know, but I think his injury derailed him. Again, he was previously linked with Chelsea in January and turned it down. You type his name in online, people, you will see him linked with Arsenal, Newcastle, West Ham, Chelsea, amongst other clubs. And had he not been injured, he probably once again would have been on the move this summer. Unfortunately, it doesn't really make sense for Arsenal now. There's a reality where, of course, we sign him, we go for him and we help him long-term with his rehab. And obviously us looking in Holland to find talents, you know, we've bought Timba, been linked with Hatto, a bunch of players would be good. But you would imagine Arsenal Football Club want to see how he comes back to full fitness after a long-term injury. So that probably means at best January move on the cards. Again, you never know, people. But what I would say is, you know, Mikel Arteta must be planning something because again, Mikel Arteta and Edu, I don't know them personally. They haven't told me exactly what their transfer plans are. Again, what is said in the tabloids and what's actually happening in the offices of football clubs is completely different, people. But there has to be a link where aggressively linked with either left-backs or players that can play left-back people. You know, if we were to go to Holland, I'd prefer us to get Gerald Hatto from Ajax, but it is what it is, people. So I do think he's a good player. Unfortunately, you know, I think we're going to have to monitor his development ahead of his return, which probably means a January move on the cards for him at best. But I do think he's a decent player and I'll continue to, in my own ways, watch his progress myself. Don't forget to let me know your thoughts, people. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. We're almost at 60,000. Let me know your thoughts on this individual and if you actually believe Arsenal need defensive reinforcements. That's it for now, people. I'm off to go and edit another video for you lot. You lot take care, stay blessed, peace.