Speculating that an Arsenal CB can play DM should be a free spot on the Arsenal-tropes bingo card. A tale as old as Vermaelen---at least.
Ben White Jacob Kiwior Jakub had to be patient to make his Spezia debut, but three months after his arrival, he was handed a starting spot at the San Siro in a Serie A game against Inter Milan. The majority of his appearances in his first season at the club came as a defensive midfielder, as he helped his team avoid relegation by six points
Kiwior apparently did it for a year, which gives him a big leg up on White who did it for three or four games and rumored target Bamba who has four games in midfield this year compared to eleven as a central defender.
Kolo was the first one I remember being a topic of that particular conversation. I don’t think Arteta bought him for anything other than an option at the left center half position, but Kiwior has actually played there a lot, fwiw.
I thought Kolo actually was a midfielder when Wenger bought him and it was Le Boss who decided to make him into a CB.
Did Song play games for us at CB? And by that I mean a consistent run of matches not just thrown there in a cup due to injury.
I remember Mats Hummels discussed the problem with the idea when it was suggested he should move to DM - CBs beef up for duels and straight line sprints - so he was simply too big to play in midfield - over 90kg Whereas a tallish 6 like Busquets can do a job at CB despite weighing only 75ish I think the only player I can think of who can play both roles to a high standard is Alaba? A midfielder who played a lot of LCB
Sliding doors moment, had we bought him he would have played for Arsenal then Barcelona then some obscure team in Europe.