Arthur Mel’s season of life. Iniesta’s successor grows into a complete midfielder

He came to Barcelona with the curse of “Iniesta’s successor”. He played only 13 minutes all year at Liverpool. He became most famous for his overpriced transfer to Juventus. But he made the most of his year at Fiorentina, out of the spotlight. Arthur Mel’s European career still has hope!

• Arthur has no future at Juventus or Fiorentina
• His European journey so far hasn’t been very successful
• From a player who could only pass the ball, he is growing into a more complex midfielder

“Arthur will leave Juventus. They are not counting on him,” said the player’s agent a few weeks ago. There is also no continuation in sight at Fiorentina, where Melo was a guest last season. Although the club from Tuscany had an option allowing them to turn the loan into a permanent deal, the €20m pre-negotiated fee will not be flowing to Turin.

Let’s not look for the cause in the player’s performance. The January statement by Federico Pastorello, Arthur Mel’s agent, which read, “Arthur is quite possibly the best player in Serie A today,” may be a little short of the truth, but the 27-year-old Brazilian has convinced under the tutelage of Vincenzo Italiano.

But the Italian manager with the most Italian name is changing his address after three years and two Conference finals. From the new season, he will lead Bologna into their first Champions League campaign since the mid-1960s.

So Arthur will have to make a change. Next. And possibly the last chance to turn his European journey to date into a successful one. He never grew into Andres Iniesta’s successor at Barcelona. What followed was a swap deal between the Catalans and Juventus of Turin. In one direction Miralem Pjanic was heading, in the other Arthur Melo.

However, apart from the midfielders, the clubs also forwarded transfer sums. Sixty million went to Italy. Eighty to Spain. A controversially structured deal that specifically allowed Juventus to put a profit of nearly 42 million euros on the books. This has led many supporters to tick the whole seemingly inflated exchange in the ‘balancing FFP’ box.

The former Brazilian Grêmio midfielder has not found his permanent place at Juventus either. This was followed by a loan spell in the Premier League. Arthur was supposed to be the answer to the health crisis in the Liverpool Reds midfield.

However, he himself missed nearly 150 days in the north of England due to injury. Even after returning from sick leave in February, he didn’t work his way into the squad and returned to the south of Europe without making his debut in the English top flight. He has only 13 minutes in the Champions League on his Liverpool record.

One guest appearance followed another. This time Melo stayed in Serie A. A year-long trip to Florence proved to be the right decision. Nearly 2000 league minutes played, a personal best since Arthur’s arrival at Evopa, and a good impression reflected in the numbers.

He raised his European record of 2.2 scoring opportunities to 3.3. He also recorded a record 1.5 key passes (passes directly followed by a shot). He is passing more into the penalty area and even at Fiorentina, traditionally a less dominant club compared to Barcelona and Juventus, he has given out a comparable amount of through passes and passes into the final third.

Derivatives of the xG metric, such as xGChain and xGBuildUp, show the same trend. Arthur Melo supplements his inherent ability to pass a lot and pass accurately with a value-added attribute as well. His passes have a far more pure idea, leading to a shot or an outright goal. They make the difference.

Coincidentally, his defensive contribution has gone through the roof. Even though it’s his own roof. The circa 1.5 defensive actions with a 33% attacking success rate of his time at Barcelona have become 2.9 defensive actions with a 62% success rate over the years. Nothing to bring to mind Kanté and Makélélé. Or any defensive midfielder for that matter. But a significant shift nonetheless.

Still only 27 years old, Arthur Melo still has time to turn his European football career into a successful one. He will probably never be another Iniesta. But the complex midfielder playing regularly in European Cups may be hiding in there after all.

Sources: fbref, ysscores, BianconeriZone, JamesHorncastle