Rob Green: 'Kepa Arrizabalaga could play in centre midfield' | OneFootball

Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga is pretty good playing the ball out of the back with his feet, but could he actually line up as a centre midfielder?

According to Rob Green, who was Kepa’s team-mate during Chelsea’s Europa League title-winning campaign last year, the answer is a resounding yes.

“The expectation of playing out from the back and how to do it,” the former England international said.

“He (Kepa) puts the ball down, right foot, left foot, and will ping a perfect pass into the path of the full back whose making a run down the wing.

“You go wow, he could play in centre midfield.

“You go back to when someone like Barthez, with United years ago, well he actually plays out in training, Kepa could do that and hold his own no problem.

“Willy Caballero is also excellent at playing out from the back with his feet.

“That’s what the expectation is now, and that’s what you get brought up on in academy structures and that’s the way its gone forward.

“I remember not having the back-pass rule, that’s a) how old I am and b) how much it’s changed.

“They’ll say: I’ll get one in a thousand wrong or one a season wrong, but the way we’re playing, it’s a fundamental (part) of how we’re going to play and that one a season, yeah, we’ll take that on the chin.”

In his debut season with the Blues, Kepa earned 23 clean sheets in 54 total appearances, surrendering less than a goal-per-game.

Chelsea will face Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday in Austria in their penultimate friendly of the summer.