I really don't think he can. If rumours are true and Coquelin is out for three months, Flamini will not cut it.
Piskie I'm sorry, but Flamini isn't good enough. Not even as a squad player. We shouldn't even be having to rely on him at all. Just because he scored a brace against Spurs, it doesn't mean he can do a solid enough job to provide cohesion in midfield. His legs are gone, he isn't physically imposing or dynamic enough anymore and he's a reckless tackler. He may work hard and show passion, but that itself is not enough to fill in Coquelin's boots.
I'm not saying he's as good as Coquelin and I agree that we shouldn't have to be relying on Flamini. We should have bought another DM during the summer, but based on his performances this season, if he can stay fit, then I think he can do a job until Coquelin is back. I'd much rather play Flamini ahead of Arteta at the moment.
We shall have to wait and see, my confidence in him though is not very high. The whole situation is unfortunate, because as we can see with all the teams around us, the league title is there to grab, and if we had just made some outfield signings, we could have been ahead of the pack, but again we have to rue our lack of transfer activity. If we don't win the league this year, it will be down to our injuries, which hasnt been helped by a lack of cover, due to a lack of transfer activity, that's what's so frustrating, we are our own worst enemy, we always have to shoot ourselves in the foot and handicap ourselves.
The obvious gap in our squad at DM was there for everybody to see. There were a good few DM's who moved in the summer too, so it's an area that Wenger should have addressed. Given the situation as it is though, Flamini is the best option for me and like I say I think he can do a job there as long as he stays fit.
We shall have to wait and see, could end up being a disaster. Maybe we should give Ramsey a try there, he likes playing in the middle anyways, and is a box-box.
Ramsey has played that role before, but he's much better going forward. I think it would be a waste playing him there and I'm not sure he'd be disciplined enough to stay back and cover the back 4. Flamini will do that job, even if he doesn't offer as much going forward (other than his now-and-again thunderbolt goals)
What job is Flamini going to do exactly? What's he 'good enough' for? He's a player that has been a bit part player at a club finishing top 4. But now, in the twilight of his career, he's suddenly 'good enough' to keep our creaking team up there at the top challenging for the title??
Defensive midfield job. As I've said, he's not an ideal solution, but it's not a disaster to have him as an option either. I think he's good enough to play DM until Coq is back.
Flamini might be able to come in and do okay, but he's not going to be the midfielder that helps to a league title, that's just a fact, if we're to rely on him and Arteta for the next 3 months, we're going to be in big trouble, just watch the points drop, and watch how weak our midfield looks defensive wise, and how other teams just manage to run through us. With a depleted squad we have already lost 5 points in our last 2, so there's no reason to assume that somehow a magical miracle is going to happen now that we lost one of our most important players. It all depends on people's priorities, I mean if you're aiming for top 4 again, then yeah I guess you can say Flamini might be 'ok' for the job, but aiming for the title? No chance in hell.
If weren't good enough to win the title or even come in the top 2 with Flamini-Arteta before, then why on earth are we somehow going to manage to get ourselves a league title with those 2? So frustrating being an Arsenal fan, why couldn't Wenger just have gone out and sign someone? It doesn't make any sense at all.
If Coquelin is out for three months we are utterly ****ed, Flamini and Arteta are done as top level footballers and we can't rely on either. Flamini is at times a headless chicken and commit needless fouls and gets booked with his first tackle almost, his legs have gone, so he can't really be the player he once was, his game was about energy and he simply can't play the game he wants to play. The other problem is that we have Cazorla in the CM and without Coquelin next to him he gets exposed badly, IMO. Coquelin did so much running for Cazorla and as a two they have been brilliant this year. Wenger time and time again ****s up by not buying the one obvious signing we were calling for and time and time again his mistakes get punished, he went all in with Coquelin and he has lost, hence he will never ever again win the PL, actually thought we had a sniff of the title this year as well, partly due to the other teams not being great, but we were also clicking, but the one big mistake Wenger made in the summer has come back and bite us in the Arse, Wenger will make the same mistake next year and the year after.
I think the only solution would be to try Ramsey there, he has the legs and energy, or try another option like playing Gabriel there....Flamini will obviously get first bite, and hopefully he manages, he didn't look too bad against West Brom, and our next games are against Norwich, Sunderland, and Villa in the league, all quite winnable games on paper so you'd think he would be able to do the job in those games.....But the worrying games you've got to say is Olympiakos away, and Mancity at home after a month. The big litmus test will be tomorrow evening when we play Zagreb, let's see how Flamini fares in this big game.
