Today was probably Wilshere's best performance since that cup game against Swansea a few seasons ago. He seemed to have found that burst of pace again and that transforms him as a player, because he is no longer getting pushed off the ball and getting caught with late tackles. He also played a few brilliant passes today and the goal was excellent. But one thing that worries me is that him and Ramsey just do not seem to click and play well together. When one is playing well, the other seems to struggle. Do we have to drop one and if we do, who would you drop?
Wilshere, play Ozil alongside Ramsey. **** me, Ramsey was our best player last season, Wilshere's had ONE good game, how is it even a debate on who to drop? The fact that Wilshere is English seems to cloud everybody's opinion in his favour, 1 good game vs 1 season from Ramsey. Oh and Ramsey off form already has 3 goals for us this season, plus he assisted Wilshere's goal today.
Good to see Wilshere show some good form and Wenger playing him was a good call. But based on overall form/quality, then it should be an Ozil and Ramsey partnership in he middle. Wilshere has to be more consistent over a significant period to get into a central midfield spot. ONly real spot available at the moment is the left flank or DM spot, which is currently Arteta's.
Ramsey was good last season, but that counts for s**t now, in terms of selection. He really needs to watch some videos of his performances last seasons and go back to playing it simple. He might have scored two goals (not counting the goal in the friendly) but his general play has been poor. It's frustrating more than anything, because we know the problem and I am sure he knows it, but for some reason he has gone back to Hollywood mode.
Wilshere has been gradually improving all season and Ramsey's performances have been troubling. Until Rambo regains form I'd start Jack over him.
Wilshere is a top quality player and it's good to see him coming good. It looked for a while that he was going to be another scapegoat in the walcott/ramsey mould, but I think he's proving his critics wrong. He's a more skilful player that Ramsey and I agree that Ramsey just needs to stick to doing the simple things, passing, creating space and coming from MF onto balls played back in the box. Ramsey plays better when we've got a hold up striker like Giroud. If they are both on form, then Wilshere is way ahead of Ramsey for me
I wouldn't be surprised if Wenger ends up playing Wilshere and Ramsey behind Ozil once Walcott comes back. I'm not sure it would work but you never know. It would be pretty weak defensively I suspect. I'd quite like to see Chambers play a couple of games at DM but obviously now he will probably be playing a lot at right back.
Wenger said that he sees Chambers as a DM eventually, trouble is we could do with one now. I like Flamini, but he is past his best and let's be honest, his best was never great. Midfield of Ramsey, Wilshere and Ozil would be too light defensively, as it would require Wilshere or Ramsey to play the holding role and both are better going forward I don't see any way around this issue other than us buying a proper established DM.
I thought you were saying before how good Arteta's defensive stats were in that position? He's back now.
Having Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil is a great problem to have, but only 2 of them should start any one game. Playing Ozil wide or Wilshere at DM is a bad option - play players in their best positions.
I do think we will end up with Wilshere and Ramsey together in the middle. People keep talking about a defensive midfielder but we don't actually have one in our system. Arteta is not a DM.
Not me, you must have confused that with somebody else. I think Arteta can do a job in there, but I still think we need a proper tenacious ball winner and somebody who can break up play and protect the back 4 in there.
Sadly Bear, yesterday showed how much Arsenal need a decent defensive midfielder. The back 4 is exposed far too often without one.
I like Jack and that was an encouraging performance but it's still early days and the last thing he needs is us getting over-excited and expecting such performances every week. That will hopefully come with time but baby steps and all that. I agree with Bonstar in that players need to be utilised in their best position. Unfortunately we're a bit lop-sided and have no natural left-sided player so someone is always going to be unhappy. Personally I'd use Santi there until Theo is back and then roatet him and Sanchez on either flank. In the centre I'd have Arteta and Ramsey with Ãzil in front of them. I appreciate this leaves Jack out but there will be opportunities aplenty for him to stake his claim with our work-load and injury records! Phil McNulty, who I think is a massive bell-end, said one thing I agree with however and that's that Wilshire needs to be aware that players are allowed to challenge him. He seems to take it as a personal afront every time he's tackled or touched which I don't remember him being as bad with pre-injury. Happily I've never been hurt in that way before so don't know how it affects you psychologically but he's certainly not over it yet.
I think Ozil has shown huge improvements in his defensive work since he joined us, and Cazorla has improved recently too. We are starting to be less in a hurry to drop back into our defensive shell in games, and trying the press a bit as well. I was also impressed with Wilshere defensively against Man City. He was drawing a lot of fouls, to a point that City fans were complaining about him diving a lot! But he looked just a yard or two faster and was getting in front of his man more. I wouldn't dismiss a midfield of Ramsey/Wilshere/Ozil. Maybe not yet, but I wouldn't say never. If Sanchez and Walcott were wide, they are pretty quick and solid defensively, I think it might work. The reason why I am surprised that people were so negative about the City game is that we mixed it up with City and at several points in the game, notably towards the end before Debuchy's injury, we were on top. I was pretty happy at 2-1 and only saw one winner, until he went down. That is a huge improvement against City even at home. Wilshere was a big part of that.
I think there were good signs of improvement against City, but we still got done with two pretty soft goals. The first was Flamini not tracking Aguero's run and the second was gifting Demechelis a free header 6 yards out. Both were preventable and I do think we need a proper ball winner in defensive midfield. We have great players in our team, but other than the GK, and the CBs pretty much everybody else is an attack minded player. We could really do with a player who thrives on breaking up opposition play, wants to win the ball back and who will bust a gut to make sure that oppo attacking players don't get to a loose ball first.
He is likely to start today and be one of the more senior players on the pitch. Looking for a big performance from him tonight. He'll need to put in a good shift to help our young defence. Hopefully I can come back after the game and post how well he has done when asked to step up!
