Tag Archives: Mohamed Elneny

Freshness the key for Arsenal’s new boys

I am going to start by saying something a little bit controversial. A little bit OTT. A little bit extreme.

Francis Coquelin, Joel Campbell, Mohamed Elneny and Alex Iwobi are not good enough to be regular starters for Arsenal.

Now before you spit your coffee out, start writing angry Tweets, or stop reading, please suppress your thoughts that I am stupid and read on. Listen to my rational. Understand the point of the blog.

I am not saying that they are poor players. Nor am I ignoring their contribution to Arsenal over the last 18 months or so. But let us be honest, they are not top players. They are not going to win you the league.

But they have all at some point over the last 18 months become fan favourites. Putting in some exceptional performances. Playing well. Cheered on by the fans with everything they do.

And that is where they have become important to the side. All 4 have bought a freshness to the squad that was lacking after a transfer policy which has seen us sign just 2 outfield senior players in 3 transfer windows.

The squad always needs to remain fresh. When staleness creeps in, it creates apathy in the terraces. Fans get on players backs more. They turn nasty as they become bored of seeing the same old errors.

Yesterday Theo Walcott came on. His first pass was misplaced. And the groans that followed were to be expected. I thought of this blog at that point.

Had it been Alex Iwobi miss placing that pass, it would not have got the reaction from the crowd that Walcott’s error did. As he is fresh. He has the backing of the fans.

Let’s start with Francis Coquelin.

He has become an important player in the side. In 18 months he has gone from Charlton loanee to potential future captain. Amazing progress. They should make a film about him.

But what Coquelin gave us 18 months ago was a freshness. Since 2013 we had been screaming out for a midfield enforcer. We went and signed Mathieu Flamini on a free. He screams a lot, he shouts a lot, he runs around a lot, but frankly, he is a poor player.

And Mikel Arteta. He did a job when he came to the club, but his lack of mobility had become frustrating for many. He has been past his sell by date for 2 years.

And then Coquelin broke through 18 months ago. He has performed well. But the biggest thing in his favour was that he was not Flamini or Arteta.

He could miss place passes like Flamini, or let players run away from him like Arteta. But he was not Flamini or Arteta. He showed what Arsenal had been missing since Flamini left on a free to AC Milan a few years earlier. A defensive midfielder who knew his role.

The rise of Coquelin just further highlights the error in judgement of not having a decent defensive midfielder. And personally, I believe we can improve further on Coquelin.

We then come to Joel Campbell. Get out whilst you can Joel seems to long away now. He is another who in a short period of time has become a fans favourite. Even though his actually contribution has been not much. 4 goals in 28 games this season.

But Joel Campbell has something in his favour. He is neither Theo Walcott or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

We had become bored of Theo Walcott going missing in games. Of Oxlade-Chamberlain running down a blind alley. It had become boring. It had become predictable. Campbell is not as good as either of these two players, and does not contribute too much more, but he is different to them, as fans are not yet bored of him.

Campbell runs down as many blind alleys as Oxlade-Chamberlain. He go’s missing for periods of the game like Walcott. But due to not being either of them, his efforts are applauded. Rather than a groan as the Ox gets tackled after trying to take on a 4th man rather than pass, Campbell is applauded for trying.

And over the years, how bored have we become of the ever so predictable Aaron Ramsey. The back heels. The miss placed passes. Even before Elneny’s recent game time, the likes of Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla were favoured by fans for bringing the freshness to the staleness of Aaron Ramsey.

Elneny is not as good as Ramsey. But he is fresh. As a fan, you accept his miss placed pass. Or the odd poor back heel. As he has not done it 100s of times previously in an Arsenal shirt.

Finally we come to Alex Iwobi. A breath of fresh air. 2 goals in his last 2 games. He is in the same bracket as Joel Campbell. His success if further exageratted due to not being Oxlade-Chamberlain or Theo Walcott.

Think about yesterday. He scored and he assisted. Many would have him as man of the match. Theo Walcott also scored (albeit a lesser important 4th goal rather than Iwobi’s 2nd). A Walcott goal gets less of an excitable reaction than an Iwobi one.

Iwobi is benefiting, like Coquelin, Elneny and Campbell before him due to being fresh.

Keeping the squad fresh is important. not just to stop training going stale, and keep everyone on their toes, but for the fans too.

The excitement that the fans generate when a new player is about to be substituted on is transmitted to the players. Seeing Iwobi or Campbell coming off the bench provides that excitment. Even Danny Welbeck coming in still does.

You compare that to the groans when the likes of Walcott or Giroud comes on. It is groans. Half hearted applauding. And people very quick to get on their back. Giroud had been on the pitch for 30 seconds yesterday when the bloke behind me was already on his back with his usual “You’re fat lazy and useless Giroud. Chase the ball”. Whilst it is unjustifiable abuse yesterday, it comes from weeks, months and years of apathy. Of seeing the same players making the same mistakes, putting in the same sort of tepid performances time and again.

A key part of our unbeaten season in 2004 was a January signing.

Arsenal spent £10.5m (then reported as £17m+) on a 20 year old Spaniard. Jose Antonio-Reyes.

I remember the excitement when he joined. The excitement in the crowd when he was warming up. The cheering blowing the roof of the old North Bank when he would come on.

Reyes was a breath of fresh air in 2004. Helped by his two goals against Chelsea to knock them out of the FA Cup, he became a key part of the unbeaten run, even if he did not actually contribute that much in his 13 league games (7 starts, 2 goals). Reyes was fresh, and enabled us to remain excited about the season, rather than things going stale.

And this is what Coquelin, Elneny, Iwobi & Campbell has provided recently. Bar Coquelin, none of them are better than the players they have replaced, but they are fresher than said players. The crowd give them a bit more time, allowing them to express themselves without that fear.

I remember many years ago when England were rubbish at cricket. In 2005 England had not won an Ashes series for 18 years. And then we went and won against Australia.

One of the key reasons often stated for the success of England that series is the lack of players who had Ashes experience. Only 5 of the 13 men who played had ever previously played against Australia. That meant that only 5 were mentally scarred from previous Ashes defeats. The 8 that had come into the squad were fresh. They were fearless. And England went on to win.

Teams need to be continually freshened up. Arsenal’s lack of transfer activity over the last 3 windows meant that the squad was stale. Everyone was bored of the mistakes from the likes of Giroud, Ramsey, Walcott & Flamini. There has been apathy a plenty.

Whilst I do not think Coquelin, Elneny, Campbell or Iwobi are top draw players, they are fresh players. And that is what is important.

To be successful, you need to keep things fresh.

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC

Arsenal to benefit from injury problems

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A player getting injured is never a positive. No matter how much you might dislike said player, or he be out of form, losing a player for any length of time is bad news.

However, as the saying go’s, every cloud has a silver lining. And with Aaron Ramsey’s injury, there is a silver lining.

Since the turn of the year, Arsenal have struggled in the centre of midfield. Most evident was against Manchester United at Old Trafford, where there just seemed to be a huge hole between defence and attack.

The main cause of this issue is not having a player who operates between attack and defence who can transition the play.

Transition is one of those buzz words that has come into football recently. It basically means taken the ball through zones. From defence into midfield, from midfield into attack. It can happen in two man ways, passing and running.

Yaya Toure, for example, is brilliant at running the ball from midfield into attack. He picks up the ball in the middle of the park and drives forward with it, forcing players back.

Since Santi Cazorla picked up his injury, Arsenal have struggled with this transition. Cazorla in recent years a perfect example of a player who transitions the ball by passing it.

Francis Coquelin and Aaron Ramsey individually are excellent players. They have engines on them, and will be important players in any team. The issue is neither of them is great at either passing the ball, or running with it.

Coquelin is a player who breaks up the play, Ramsey a player who covers a lot of ground and gets in the opponents box. You can probably count on one hand how often either have picked up the ball from the defence, and ‘pinged’ it out to the wide men, or over the top for someone else to run on it. And I would be surprised if either have dribbled it past a man this season.

It is simply not their game.

Alexis Sanchez (running) and Mesut Ozil (passing) are excellent transitioners (at this point I am making up words). But there work is done in the opposition third. They rarely come deep to pick up the ball. And nor should they.

What this results in is Arsenal struggling to get the ball from defence to upfront.

How often have we seen the following scenario?

Cech rolls the ball out to Koscielny. He in turn plays it to Mertesacker. The ball go’s out wide to Bellerin, who plays it straight back to Mertesacker. It then go’s forward to Coquelin. Back to Koscielny. Across to Monreal. Back to Cech. How then hoofs it forward.

8 passes. 100% pass rate. But the ball has never left our half. And ends up on the head of the opposing centre back. And 8 passes is not even that many. Arsenal have previously gone side to side, left to right, numerous times, before pressure becomes too much, and the ball is lost.

It is great for pass completion statistics, but not great for scoring goals.

Cazorla was the player who would take the ball of the back 4, or Coquelin, and drive forward with it. Watch his highlights from Manchester City away last season. It was a perfect example of how to transition the ball from defence into attack. Both by running with it and passing it.

Back a few years ago, our man in the middle to transition the ball was Mikel Arteta. His range of passing was exceptional. And so many attacks by Arsenal were started by him. He then allowed Ramsey to push on higher and score the goals he did. Arteta was the key man in the middle of the park.

Since he lost his legs, Coquelin came in for him, and his passing range is just not the same. Ramsey needed to step up, but that is not his game either. Cazorla or Jack Wilshere next to Coquelin would be much more fruitful.

In the same way, Cazorla or Wilshere would struggle alongside an Arteta or Xabi Alonso. None of them have the stamina and physicality to get around the park. Ramsey is the ideal foil for the later type of players.

Coquelin and Ramsey work’s no better than Arteta and Cazorla would work.

Think of the great Spain side of recent years. They had Busquets who was the legs, Alonso who was the passer. Alonso was the key man who gets the play going.

So Arsenal have been in the position recently where they have got lot’s of legs in the middle of the park, but not much that can do anything with the ball. This results in us going wide very early, where there is less space, and we end up putting aimless balls into the box.

With Ramsey now out injured, it should mean Mohamed Elneny comes into the middle of the park.

In his performances so far for Arsenal, Elneny has been busy. Always moving. Always available. There to pick up the ball of any of the back 4, no matter who has it. What he has then done is pick the right ball, and more importantly, ball forward.

When Elneny is on the pitch, Arsenal’s transition from defence through the midfield into the strikers is so much smoother. With Elneny often following the ball forward ensuring that he is either in a position for a pass in the opposition’s final 3^rd, or able to restart the play if it breaks down, with having to go back to the defence.

When Coquelin and Ramsey plays, this simply does not happen. Ramsey’s starting position is often too high. And Coquelin does not have the ability to stay with the play when it moves into the final 3^rd.

We will miss Ramsey in the next few games. Especially against the likes of Barcelona where you need some more legs. But in Elneny, we have a player who will act as a go between Coquelin in the defence and Ozil in the attacks, and it will make the middle of the park a lot more balanced.

Our play should now be a lot smoother, a lot more attacking.

Up The Arsenal

Keenos

Follow @KeenosAFC

Who in Arsenal’s 2nd XI is pushing for a first team spot?

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To have and to hold.

That was the front page of the Arsenal programme yesterday for the FA Cup match against Burnley.

Despite the talk within the programme, and by Arsene Wenger and players before the game about how important the FA Cup and winning 3 in a row, the game ended up being used to play players who had not played much recently. Either whether they were returning from injuries, or players considered 2nd team.

In the past, Wenger has always said that he puts out a team that he thinks can win the game. Against Sunderland, he put out a stronger team than yesterday, due to the calibre of the opposition. Yesterday, just 4 first teamers made the starting line up, 2 of those coming back from injury.

So how did the second string get on? Did any of them do enough to push themselves into Arsene Wenger’s faults for the next few games?

David Ospina – Looked nervy. Looked unsure of himself. A few good saves, but his distribution came across as someone who was questioning his own decision. He often missed the quick break away, as if he was scared of messing it up. A good keeper. But not Cech good.

Calum Chambers – Take the goal out of it, which was a very good finish, he showed again that he just is not a right back. His lack of pace means he will continually get roasted by average wingers who knock the ball past him and run. He was exposed a few times against Burnley. At just 21, he clearly is a class player, but he needs games. In 2014, you would have had him alongside John Stones as the future of England’s defence. Stones has played, Chambers hasn’t. One is now going to the Euro’s, the other will be sunning himself in Spain. Maybe needs a loan deal next season to play 38 league games at centre back.

Gabriel – A competent performance, and it certainly would put a thought into Wenger’s mind as to whether he should be given a chance alongside Laurent Koscielny at centre back. The worry would be is that in defence, it is about the partnership, not the individual. Are Koscielny & Gabriel too similar? Would it be like when Koscielny & Vermaelen played together? Both aggressive centre backs who like to attack the ball up the pitch. I have a feeling Per Mertesacker will be back in.

Kieran Gibbs – For me, Gibbs was man of the match. He shone in the match. We know he is a quality full back, especially when we are attacking. He was a danger on the left hand side, playing almost more like a winger rather than a full back. Recently, he has been out of form. When he has started, or when he has come off the bench, he looked completely out of touch. Yesterday he looked sharp. Whilst he will not be taking Nacho Monreal’s place anytime soon. It will be good to know that once more we have the two best left backs in the league

Mohamed Elneny – I have seen people go to both ends of the spectrum. Some saying he was awful. And some saying he is the new Patrick Vieira. Let’s be honest. Both are wrong. When we signed him, I saw him described as tidy, efficient, unexceptional. And that is how he performed. He seemed to be everywhere, without being anywhere. And that is the key in the position he plays. Doing a lot of the unnoticed work. Keeping the ball moving. It was very reminiscent to Mikel Arteta before he had his legs stolen. Over 100 touches of the ball (more than any other player), he was busy. We have a good player here. enough to put pressure on Coquelin? Not yet. But certainly in the future he will.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – A good performance by Chamberlain. He has now been involved in our last 13 fixtures – starting 5 of the last 7, maybe he is finally getting a run that will hopefully see him improve. Of course, it was only Burnley, and Arsenal were attacking 90% of the time. But most of what Arsenal did well went through him. He also stuck to the right hand side for the majority of the game, rather than coming inside. And the pass that put Theo Walcott through was exquisite. With Joel Campbell running out of steam, Alexis Sanchez still returning from injury, and Theo Walcott being out of form and shot of confidence, I expect Oxlade-Chamberlain to start the next few games.

Alex Iwobi – I am really not sure what to think of Alex Iwobi. I do not know whether to rate him, or whether to not. He is still just a kid – just 19 – and he clearly has ability, there is just something about him that I do not like. Maybe it is his running style, he is a flurry of arms and legs. Or maybe it is he has a really tentative touch and pass. I do not know. But he performed well. Seem to revel in the free role behind Olivier Giroud allowing him to pop up right, left and centre. Obviously he will not be pushing Mesut Ozil for a starting place any time soon, but let’s loan him out to a Premier League side till the end of the season, see how he gets on (just not to WBA).

Subs;
Tomas Rosicky look tidy, got injured
Mikel Arteta will probably rarely be seen in an Arsenal shirt again

We are through, and that is the important thing. Looking at the teams still in the draw, it is anyone and everyone in football. An away trip to Leeds for the travelling fan will be nice, a home game against Shrewsbury for those who want the glory. Hopefully we avoid the big boys, and they all get each other.

Have a good Sunday

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC