This youngster is gaining in experience and I think he has earned
a few chances in the first team during the busy month ahead....
However, it's a real blow for Denis who has had
few chances in the first team recently and may not get too many more.
Not exact matches
His choices have been limited as quite a
few of our top graduates decided not to renew their contracts so they could move away
in search of more
chances to play
first team football, like Dan Crowley, Donyell Malen, Chris Willock and Kaylen Hinds.
There have been a fair
few reports about the Ox being ready to go because of his lack of
first team game time
in recent years and the idea that Arsene Wenger does not have as much faith
in the player's ability as he would like, so how does the Frenchman go about convincing the 23 - year old that staying put and snubbing the
chance to join Chelsea is his best bet?
We have World Cup, Euro championship and Copa America winners
in Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker, Alexis Sanchez and Santi Cazorla and no
fewer than nine of the Arsenal
first team have won league titles, so as usual the media have jumped at the
chance to run us down without getting their facts straight.
This is an incredibly difficult question to answer for a variety of reasons, most importantly because over the years our once vaunted «beautiful» style of play has become a shadow of it's former self, only to be replaced by a less than stellar «plug and play» mentality where players play out of position and adjustments / substitutions are rarely forthcoming before the 75th minute... if you look at our current players, very
few would make sense
in the traditional Wengerian system... at present, we don't have the personnel to move the ball quickly from deep - lying position, efficient one touch midfielders that can make the necessary through balls or the disciplined and pacey forwards to stretch defences into wide positions, without the aid of the backs coming up into the final 3rd, so that we can attack the defensive lanes
in the same clinical fashion we did years ago... on this current squad, we have only 1 central defender on staf, Mustafi, who seems to have any prowess
in the offensive zone or who can even pass two zones through so that we can advance play quickly out of our own end (I have seen some inklings that suggest Holding might have some offensive qualities but too early to tell)... unfortunately Mustafi has a tendency to get himself
in trouble when he gets overly aggressive on the ball... from our backs out wide, we've seen pace from the likes of Bellerin and Gibbs and the spirited albeit offensively stunted play of Monreal, but none of these players possess the skill - set required
in the offensive zone for the new Wenger scheme which requires deft touches, timely runs to the baseline and consistent crossing, especially when Giroud was playing and his ratio of scored goals per clear
chances was relatively low (better last year though)... obviously I like Bellerin's future prospects, as you can't teach pace, but I do worry that he regressed last season, which was obvious to Wenger because there was no way he would have used Ox as the right side wing - back so often knowing that Barcelona could come calling
in the off - season, if he thought otherwise... as for our midfielders, not a single one, minus the more confident Xhaka I watched played for the Swiss national
team a couple years ago, who truly makes sense under the traditional Wenger model... Ramsey holds onto the ball too long, gives the ball away cheaply far too often and abandons his defensive responsibilities on a regular basis (doesn't score enough recently to justify): that being said, I've always thought he does possess a little something special, unfortunately he thinks so too... Xhaka is a little too slow to ever boss the midfield and he tends to telegraph his one true strength, his long ball play: although I must admit he did get a bit better during some points
in the latter part of last season... it always made me wonder why whenever he played with Coq Wenger always seemed to play Francis
in a more advanced role on the pitch... as for Coq, he is way too reckless at the wrong times and has exhibited little offensive prowess yet finds himself
in and around the box far too often... let's face it Wenger was ready to throw him
in the trash heap when injuries forced him to use Francis and then he had the nerve to act like this was all part of a bigger Wenger constructed plan... he like Ramsey, Xhaka and Elneny don't offer the skills necessary to satisfy the quick transitory nature of our old offensive scheme or the stout defensive mindset needed to protect the defensive zone so that our offensive players can remain aggressive
in the final third... on the front end, we have Ozil, a player of immense skill but stunted by his physical demeanor that tends to offend, the fact that he's been played out of position far too many times since arriving and that the players
in front of him, minus Sanchez, make little to no sense considering what he has to offer (especially Giroud); just think about the quick counter-attack offence
in Real or the space and protection he receives
in the German National
team's midfield, where
teams couldn't afford to focus too heavily on one individual... this player was a passing «specialist» long before he arrived
in North London, so only an arrogant or ignorant individual would try to reinvent the wheel and / or not surround such a talent with the necessary components...
in regards to Ox, Walcott and Welbeck, although they all possess serious talents I see them
in large part as headless chickens who are on the injury table too much, lack the necessary
first - touch and / or lack the finishing flair to warrant their inclusion
in a regular starting eleven; I would say that, of the 3, Ox showed the most upside once we went to a back 3, but even he became a bit too consumed by his pending contract talks before the season ended and that concerned me a bit... if I had to choose one of those 3 players to stay on it would be Ox due to his potential as a plausible alternative to Bellerin
in that wing - back position should we continue to use that formation...
in Sanchez, we get one of the most committed skill players we've seen on this squad for some years but that could all change soon, if it hasn't already of course... strangely enough, even he doesn't make sense given the constructs of the original Wenger offensive model because he holds onto the ball too long and he will give the ball up a little too often
in the offensive zone... a fact that is largely forgotten due to his infectious energy and the fact that the numbers he has achieved seem to justify the means... finally, and
in many ways most crucially, Giroud, there is nothing about this
team or the offensive system that Wenger has traditionally employed that would even suggest such a player would make sense as a starter... too slow, too inefficient and way too easily dispossessed... once again, I think he has some special skills and, at times, has showed some world - class qualities but he's lack of mobility is an albatross around the necks of our offence... so when you ask who would be our best starting 11, I don't have a clue because of the 5 or 6 players that truly deserve a place
in this side, 1 just arrived, 3 aren't under contract beyond 2018 and the other was just sold to Juve... man, this is theraputic because following this
team is like an addiction to heroin without the benefits
A
few days ago an article on JustArsenal.com began a debate about whether any of Arsenal's youngsters will get a
chance in the Arsenal
first team next season.
Poor old Kieran Gibbs has had many
chances to become a regular starter
in the Arsenal
first team but every time that Gael Clichy got injured, the young left - back rarely managed a run of more than a
few games before getting injured himself.
Wilshere was given a
few chances to come back into the Arsenal
first team towards the end of the season, but even he realises that there is now a lot of top class competition for places
in the Gunners midfield, and according to a report
in the Star he is seriously considering a big money move to Manchester City.
Nothing like one underachiever blowing smoke up the ass of another... we know that Ozil has some incredible technical gifts, but to be considered the best you have to bring more than just assists to the table... for me, a top player has to possess a more well - rounded game, which doesn't mean they need to be a beast on both ends of the pitch, but they must have the ability to take their game to another level when it matters most... although he amassed some record - like stats early on, it set the bar too high, so when people expected him to duplicate those numbers each year the pressure seemed to get the best of our soft - spoken star... obviously that's not an excuse for what has happened
in the meantime, but it's important to make note of a
few things: (1) his best year was a transition year for many of the traditionally dominant
teams in the EPL, so that clearly made the numbers appear better than they actually were and (2) Wenger's system, or lack thereof, didn't do him any favours; by playing him out of position and by not acquiring world - class striker and / or right - side forward that would best fit an Ozil - centered offensive scheme certainly hurt his
chances to repeat his earlier peformances, (3) the loss of Cazorla, who took a lot of pressure off Ozil
in the midfield and was highly efficient when it came to getting him the ball
in space, negatively impacted his effectiveness and (4) he likewise missed a good chunk of games and frankly never looked himself when he eventually returned to the field... overall the Ozil experiment has had mixed reviews and rightfully so, but I do have some empathy for the man because he has always carried himself the same way, whether for Real or the German National
team, yet he has only suffered any lengthy down periods with Arsenal... to me that goes directly to this club's inability to surround him with the necessary players to succeed, especially for someone who is a pass
first type of player; as such, this simply highlights our club's ineffective and antiquated transfer policies... frankly I'm disappointed
in both Ozil and our management
team for not stepping up when it counted because they had a
chance to do something special, but they didn't have it
in them... there is no one that better exemplifies our recent history than Ozil, brief moments of greatness undercut by long periods of disappointing play, only made worse by his mopey posturing like a younger slightly less awkward Wenger... what a terribly waste
They held Real Madrid to very
few chances in the
first half and looked like a composed, poised
team after the early De Sciglio mistake.
Maksim you are 100 % percent right about Dan Petrescu's faith
in youngsters.
In just a
few months he gave
chances to Ivan Solovyov, Pavel Solomatin and Vladimir Sobolev to play
in the
first team.As for Mogilevets i think he will become and excellent player but not at Zenit.He needs to move elsewhere (and not on loan) to play
first team football like Ionov did a
few years ago.
In my opoinion Zenit needs a striker (if they sell Hulk to AS Monaco) to score goals.Kerzhakov is not at his best, Bukharov has forgotten when was the last time he score and Dordevic is not gonna get a chance.I understand that midfielders of Zenit are all capable of scoring goals like Shirokov, Danny, Witsel, Bystrov and Fayzulin but thats striker's job and Zenit may lose a player on the filed.And something else, i was so impressed with Yuri Lodigin's performance against Krasnodar and maybe Zenit found a great replacement for Malafeev.
The three
teams below Blackpool are five points behind but two of them, Bury, who were league leaders for some time, and Accrington, who missed out on their
chance to go top a
few weeks ago, have a game
in hand which could take them within a win of
first place.
Mauricio Pochettino matched Conte's 3 -4-3 system, and as a result,
few chances came either
team's away
in the
first period
in what was an evenly matched contest.
I bet there'd certainly be a
few more showing up if he suddenly made it clear that players are going to get a
chance to prove they can make it
in the
first team next season.
In the
first few months of the season, Harry Redknapp was ranting and raving about how his
team had every
chance of lifting the trophy provided they brought some consistency to the fore.
He's so talented but if he can start to taking the
few chances that he have he will never get a place
in the
first team.