Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

The Right Back Conundrum & Benik Afobe

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The Right Back Conundrum

We currently have a headache at right back. Mathieu Debuchy is currently head a shoulders above anyone else at the club. He is undisputed 1st choice.

The conundrum then comes with who should be his back up going into next season.

Hector Bellerin is just 19, and certainly has the pace and ability to be a long term contender to the 1st choice right back slot. He looked good against Stoke and certainly has a bright future.

Meanwhile, at West Ham, Carl Jenkinson is going from strength to strength. Another brilliant performance against Swansea for West Ham has led some to start talking about him adding to his sole England cap.

We then have Calum Chambers. Started the season so well, but has gone backwards a little bit, and has rightly been taken out of the limelight. Still just 19 himself, he certainly has a future at Arsenal, whether it be at full back or centre back.

Next season, 3 in to 1 does not fit in the race to be Debuchy’s understudy.

The issue he could be slightly resolved if we decide to turn Chambers into a full time centre half. This would reduce the competition at right back to two. But with us clearly needing an experienced centrehalf to back up Koscielny and Mertesacker (or replace one in the 1st team), that would then leave Chambers as 4th choice centre back. He is better than that. Conundrum not really solved.

If this is the option the club takes, it then leaves Jenkinson and Bellerin battling it out. Jenkinson has the experience – he would have played nearly 38 games for West Ham by the end of the season – but Bellerin is perhaps the more naturally gifted.

It is clear that Wenger backed Bellerin over Jenkinson last summer, as it was the Englishman loaned out, but perhaps the form of the on loan Jenkinson will perhaps see Wenger reverse the role in 2015/16.

Jenkinson returns to back up Debuchy, with Bellerin on loan, perhaps?

I think what is the likely scenario is a new centre back is bought. Chambers is installed as 2nd choice right back, 4th choice centre back, Bellerin is loaned out, and Jenkinson sold to the highest bidder.

It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Benik Afobe

So Benik Afobe is the next Arsenal in a long line of Arsenal youngsters to have been hyped up as ‘the next big thing’ who has ultimately failed to make the grade at the.

Now a lot of people seem to be disappointed that the England youth striker was not given a chance at Arsenal. Citing the performance against Manchester United in the League Cup and the fact that Yaya Sanogo is still at the club as the two main reasons.

The fact is, Afobe did not make it at Arsenal because HE is not good enough.

Over five years ago, rumours circulated that then 16 year old striker Afobe, was interesting Barcelona having put in some good performances for both club and country at a youth level. Alongside Chuks Aneke, big things were expected. Sadly, both have shown how hard it is to make the step up for talented youngster, to  breaking through into the first team.

Afobe is 22 in February. This means we should stop talking about his potential, and start talking about his ‘here and now’. And it is the here and now which is not good enough.

You look at the players he is currently competing with for a place in the Arsenal first team squad. Yaya Sanogo, Chuba Akpom & Joel Campbel.

Afobe is older than 2 of the 3, and is infact 3 years older than Chuba Akpom. Yet is behind all 3 in terms of talent and ability. Some might argue he is better than Yaya Sanogo, but you only have to compare youth international records to see that Sanogo is the superior player.

As for Joel Campbell, he is 6 months older than Afobe. He has already played in the Premier League, in the Champions League and in a World Cup. Afobe has not even played for Arsenal yet!

Finally, Chuba Akpom. Like Afobe, he has been rated ‘the next big thing’.

For me, whilst Afobe has not had his chance at Arsenal, he has had his chance at other clubs.

A loan deal to League One Huddersfield at 18 saw him score 5 league goals in 28 games. But rumours of him being arrogant and a ‘big time Charlie’ would have rung alarm bells at London Colney.

Over the next 3 seasons, he had 4 loan spells at 4 different Championship clubs. In 40 league appearances, he scored just 4 goals.

This season, he went on loan to League One MK Don’s, where he has performed well. 10 goals in 20 league games, 19 goals in all competitions. It would usually be enough to get you excited, but it is League One, and he is nearly 22. Had he had that type of scoring record for Huddersfield at 18, you could talk about his potential. Having that record at 22 probably means he has found his level.

You could point to Tottenham and the likes of Andros Townsend, Harry Kane & Ryan Mason, who between them shared 18 less than impressive loan deals, before breaking through to the Spurs 1st team in their early 20’s. It shows some players do develop later. But the question to ask is are any of those 3 good enough for Arsenal?. The answer is no.

Personally, I do not think any of Afobe, Akpom, Sanogo or Campbell are good enough for Arsenal and would not be surprised if none of them are with the club by the time the 2015/16 season kicks off.

Benik Afobe (and Aneke) is not the 1st to be hyped up massively – mainly by our own fans – to that not make it. A lesson learnt? Probably not.

Keenos

 

Has Arsenal’s defensive midfield issue been (partially) solved?

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I remember travelling down to the West Ham away match just after Christmas. The Arsenal team news broke and Arsene Wenger had decided to partner Francis Coquelin and Mathieu Flamini in the middle of the park. Unsurprisingly, he came in for some stick. Arsenal won 2-1.

Injuries to both Flamini and Mikel Arteta saw Coquelin come out of the New Years Day defeat to Southampton as the only player who could hold his head up high. His performances continued to impress in the FA Cup against Hull.

Yesterday, Flamini was fit, but Wenger decided to remain with the 23 year old Frenchman. In doing so, Coquelin put in his best performance in an Arsenal shirt to date, bossing the game against Stoke City.

Defensive midfield is certainly a position we need to strengthen. Flamini is not good enough, and Arteta no longer has the legs to play the role – although he does have the brain.

I think we can all agree, we need a new 1st choice defensive midfielder, a back up defensive midfielder, and then Arteta moving to 3rd choice – ensuring we keep his experience and training ground influence. Arteta is still good enough to play at home against many Premier League sides, as well as be part of a two if we want to go more defensive.

With Coquelin’s impressive performances, have Arsenal stumbled in a semi-solution to our midfield problem?

Now I am not going to be as crazy as to say he should be 1st choice, he should not. But there is a good case to be made that he could fill the ‘2nd choice’ role, providing back up to whoever comes in.

What Coquelin does is put himself about. He is certainly all action, covering a lot of ground, never shirking a challenge. Against Stoke, he competed for every header. Even when he was up against 6ft 4in Stephen N’Zonzi, he went in as if he expected to win the ball.

Defending is clearly not a problem.

In his 4 starts for Arsenal since returning from his loan spell at Charlton, his defensive statistics are outstanding:

Tackles: 3.75pg
Interceptions: 4pg
Clearances: 2.25pg

The interception stat is what interests me most. 16 interceptions, including 7 against Hull in the FA Cup. This highlights a player who can read the game ans has positional awareness. The likes of Gilberto Silva and Claude Makelele always had a high interceptions to tackles ratio. Who needs to tackle if you stop your opponent recieving the ball?

Coquelin can play too.

In the last 4 games, he has averaged 51.25 succesful passes a game, with a pass success rate of 83.1%.

Yes, it might not be up to Mikel Arteta’s high standards, yet, but it does show some potential.

For me, he deserves to currently keep Flamini out of the side. what now needs to be considered is whether he is has shown enough to deserve a new contract (it expires in the summer) – and with it a chance to be back up to whatever defensive midfielder we might sign.

Keenos

 

In Defence of Wojciech Szczesny

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So I think we can all agree that Wojciech Szczesny has been a silly boy after the last few days.

Rumours circulated a couple of days ago from ex-Gunner John Jenson that the goal keeper was facing a huge fine and had been told he would not play again this season after a huge row with Arsene Wenger. This was denied by Arsenal.

Yesterday, it was then reported that Szczesny had been fined by Arsenal for smoking in the shower.

After his poor performance against Southampton, his response to conceding one of the goals, and these reports, he has come in for a lot of criticism in the media and on social media, and much of it is deserved.

I am however going to (attempt) to defend Szczesny a little bit.

Szczesny is having a rough season, that’s for sure. Throughout his career at Arsenal, he has had a few dips of form, where he just seems to lose the plot. It happens to anyone. Joe Hart has had similar issues.

The problem is when a player is out of form, they need to be taken out of the limelight and, until last week, our second choice stopper, David Ospina, was injured. Wojciech Szczesny should have been taken out of the limelight a couple of games ago, but he was unable too.

Last season, Szczesny won the Golden Gloves for most clean sheets – and produced some match winning performances. You do not become a bad player over night. He has the natural ability to be a top keeper. He has proved that.

People claim that Szczesny is immature, but maybe we just need reminding that he is still only 24. In goal keeping terms, that is very young. Some would argue it is too young to be a top keeper, but his performances last season would show otherwise.

Szczesny is only going to get better. I can think of very few keepers in Europe who are under 25 that are better than Szczesny.

One obsviously is Thibaut Courtois. He is on another level. Arguably the 2nd best keeper in the World after Nueur.

Some might argue David de Gea, but I would argue otherwise. He is the same age as Szczesny (24) and is just in a bit of a golden spell, similar to what Szczesny was last season.

I actually think the hype around De Gea is a bit too much. He got a lot of credit for saves in the games against Arsenal and Liverpool, but on analysis, he should have saved them. The majority of shots were straight at him and he did not have to pull off any world class saves. I would say in both games it was more poor finishing than great goal keeping.

As for being a bit odd, a bit of a clown, aren’t all goal keepers are a little bit odd. Remember Jens Lehmann? He was immature when he played for us in his last season. He was 38. Keepers are crazy. Some will say it is the craziness that makes them a top keeper.

As for the smoking, yes, it is stupid. Taking out the legal implications of smoking in the work place, and the health implications, it is not the worst thing an Arsenal footballer has done. At least he did not go down Holloway Road after the game and be on the smash till the early hours, or was doing coke in the toilets, or drunk drove. Our history is littered with players doing something stupid. This is the least of it.

And we have all had a bad moment at work, where it’s all gone wrong, and we’ve disappeared for a cheeky fag just to calm ourselves down. Even if we are not a smoker. We have all done it. I know I have. Just because Szczesny is a footballer, it does not mean he is not a person.

The criticism of Szczesny for his performance against Southampton was justified. However, it has kind of masked other people’s mistakes in the lead up to the goals.

For the first, what was Laurent Koscielny doing? He had amble opportunities to clear the ball, but failed to do so. And Per Mertesacker, he got back on the line, but then did nothing. These two could have both stopped the goal, but did not. They were equally culpable for us going 1-0 down.

For the second, why did Debuchy just not clear the ball? His 1st touch bought him back inside. It was just instinct from Szczesny to get a foot on the ball. Yes, he could have shown better instinct, but Debuchy made the original error.

Had Kosicleny and Debuchy done their jobs and cleared the ball, Szczesny would not have had an opportunity to make his error. Both should take as much blame as Szczesny for the Southampton defeat.

Szczesny has his problems, I am not saying he is perfect, but he is also not imperfect.

I believe the issue with him is who surrounds him at the club.

When he is undisputed number 1, he seems to take his foot off the gas. It happened in 2012/13 when Maunel Almunia was sold, Szczesny having made 38 league appearances in the season before. He was undisputed number 1, with only ‘Flappyanski’ as he Lukasz Fabianski was nicknamed then as competition.

He made a few errors in a row, which resulted in him getting dropped for Fabianski who, whilst senior to Szczesny, was inferior in ability. A string of good performances by Fabianski kept Szczesny out of the team until the former picked up an injury allowing the latter to return to the team.

Last season saw Szczesny have his best in an Arsenal shirt and keep more clean sheets than any other goal keeper. One reason behind this is the pressure put on him by Fabianski, who was performing well in the cups. This pushed Szczesny and kept his focus.

Fabianski left, Ospina came in. It should have kept the status quo, with Szczesny being first choice, and Ospina putting pressure on him, keeping him focused. But with the latter’s injury, Szczesny once more became the undisputed number 1, and his performance level dropped.

Taking Szczesny out of the limelight and giving Ospina a run of games now would have a similar affect as to what happened in 2012/13 and Szczesny will become a better keeper. Szczesny clearly needs pushing. Ospina can now do that.

I also think a lack of senior role model in the club damages Szczesny. Is a a young man, but ever since he joined he broke through into the first team in 2010/11 he has not had a senior goal keeping role model to push him and keep him motivated.

In his 1st season in the 1st team, Manuel Almunia begun the season as number 1, but he was a clown. I knew it, you knew it, and Szczesny would have known it.

The other goal keeper at the time was Lukasz Fabianski. Whilst he was senior to Szczesny in terms of age, Szczesny was senior in terms of ability. I can imagine Szczesny looking down on Fabianski, knowing he was inferior. The fact that in 2011 Szczesny took the Poland number 1 jersey off Fabianski would not have helped.

By the end of 2011, Wojciech Szczesny was 21, and Arsenal’s number 1. Almunia had been released, and no new senior goal keeper was bought in.

The status quo remained the same for a few years. Szczesny number 1, Fabianski number 2, Mannone number 3, until Manonne left and Martinez became 1st choice.

The fact that Szczesny has not had a senior goal keeper on the training ground with him since he was 20 is a problem. He has no one to look up to, no one to learn from, no one to pull him into line.

Obviously a goal keeping coach could have done this, but personally I am not a fan of Gerry Payton.

Payton has been at the club for 11 years. I am reliably informed that as a player, he was average. Flappy under a high ball, and a poor kicker. Is it any surprise we seem to develop keepers with similar traits?

With a career as a lower league journeyman, he does not exactly have the razzmatazz to be a role model in the way Bob Wilson did, or David Seaman could had he gone down the goal keeping route. And this creates a problem for Szczesny.

It must be hard to stay motivated when you are undisputed number 1, have no senior competition and have a coach who you probably know more than, and was better at 20 than he was at any point throughout his career.

At 24, Szczesny has time on his side. Ospina can push him and keep him on his toes, and if we take the risk by employing Jens Lehmann as goal keeping coach, he will then have that senior role model as a coach to guide him.

Szczesny has some issues to iron out, but lets back the lad rather than call for him to leave.

Keenos