Lucas Torreira’s agent says that despite doing ‘well’ at Arsenal, his client is unhappy at the role he’s being asked to fulfil in the team.

Having last season displayed qualities as a defensive midfielder that the team had been missing for a long time, Unai Emery appears to see him as more of an attacking midfielder, often praising his ability to get into the box.

Torreira, who has scored 4 goals since his arrival from Sampdoria in the summer of 2018, has been linked with a move back to Italy, and speculation over such a move is bound to increase in the wake of these comments.

Via Sport Witness, Pablo Bentancur said, “Torreira is doing well at Arsenal, although the change of role doesn’t make him happy, but it must be said that this year the whole team is not doing well.

“It was difficult to take Torreira at the time, now I don’t know how things are, but I think Arsenal wants to retain him.

“In the new role he is not at ease, but we respect the coach’s decisions, after that we’ll see what happens.”

He went on to suggest that a move to Napoli is one that would interest the 23 year old, having been close to it before deciding on a move to the Premier League.

“Torreira was upset when he missed the chance to join Napoli,” he said.

“Why? Because he is Uruguayan. To tell you, he wants to end his career at Boca and Napoli is an environment very similar to that of Boca. Naples future destination? In football anything can happen.”

However, with Granit Xhaka almost certainly set to leave in January after his recent troubles, Arsenal may need to consider an addition when the window opens, not sanction another departure.

Last month, Emery suggested he saw Torreira as somebody who could provide more in the opposition half rather than protecting an infamously porous defence with his skills like tackling, intercepting and reading the game.

“He is very intelligent about getting space around the box and taking chances,” said the Spaniard.

“Then also, when we prepare the team to do high pressing, for us he is very important because he is very intelligent tactically, but he can play in the two positions.

“[Either as] one of the two midfielders [or] he can play higher for the pressing and to get into the box.”

This is the kind of story that regularly appears during Interlulls, but it’s not the first report of Torreira being unhappy at his current role in the team, so it’s something we hope the club are mindful of.