What Does Ramsey Do? And Does His British Passport Make Him Immune From Criticism?

Yes he was. Had two great feet,long range shooting, an excellent engine and very good passing. He was just sealing his place in the first team midfield alongside Cesc and Song before that injury.

 

To be fair, I was scraping the barrel with Djourou

I guess it depends on your definition of good. To me, good doesn't necessarily mean you have the quality to play for Arsenal. It's not so much a case of having low standards, it's understanding that players who aren't the best aren't ****.

 

It makes for a nice meme to say that he's ****, but he obviously isn't actually ****. If he was, then I wonder why none of us are professional footballers.

 

It's all about luck at the end of the day. You seem to be under the impression that the word 'professional' means that they're automatically good. I know a few a few street footballer who are superior to a number of pros. They just have fitness over them.

 

My point is also that what you define as 'good' depends on your parameters. My local team is professional, but in footballing terms are pretty poor. In terms of the average person, they are undoubtedly pretty good (some more so than others). However if you have a record like Gervinho's, Chamakh's, Heskey's or even Squillaci's, or you were clamoured after by both Wenger and Ferguson in the case of Ramsey, then you must have a few attributes going for you that mark you out as being better than the average in the sport. Their stats help back them up, whether you like it or not. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean they are Arsenal class.

It's a complex issue, far more so than either of us are getting into (or are even probably capable of).

 

I see what you're getting at. They might have been decent players in the past (Gervinho being an exception), but I am looking at things as they stand currently. They're pretty poor at present. And they're certainly not Arsenal standard.

 

Er no, although these days the emphasis on footskills and control have reached a point of insanity, the decline of Brazil and the relative continued success of England, surely proves that footskills and control alone do not define success or failure of a footballer. RVP is almost a perfect example, Beckham another maybe. Not the best athleticism, not the greatest footskills, yet absolutely the best players in the world, due to exceptional technical skills.

There is a fairly large amount of technical game skill required in football, without it a player will not make it to even the professional ranks. For the few individuals that possess athleticism, footskills and technical ability, Ronaldo? Henry?, then they will reach the top, but there have been many pros that have done well only excelling at 2/3.

I will go so far to say that a player can get by with almost no ability apart from this skill to move to the right place, and select the right pass, but they cannot become a pro without it.

 

Michael Cox's of Zonal Marking makes some very good points, re Ramsey.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/tacticsandanalysis/id/585?cc=5739

 

That's exactly what I was saying last season, that Ramsey was thrown in at the deep end after we lost Fab and Nasri - and he basically held that midfield together. In the end he was fatigued and lost form and the doom mongering ****s assassinated his character for it. The credit he deserved for what he actually did was totally hijacked by those who wanted to make a scapegoat of him because the team struggled.

 

Sorry what? What success? Bar Wilshere, Rooney and few others, English players can't play for ****. Little to no technique. You think the likes of Aghbonlahor, Kevin Davies, Nolan, etc would make it in Italy or Spain? No chance. They'd redirect Aghbonlahor onto sprinting, Nolan onto swimming or something, and Davies onto wrestling.

Actually, I've reread your point. In essence you kinda agree with me. Yeah, you're right. There needs to be a minimum level of footballing brain. But a lot of the English footballers who make it are shocking.

 

England is consistently in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings, we have hovered between 5 and 10 for years. The dutch are below us right now at 8, yet very few English would tell you that the english team is better than them. Brazil are currently 18, are we better than them?

England are generally a lot better than most people realize. We just don't make it to the very top, but our players are far far from rubbish.

 

Your argument is FIFA rankings? Come on, you must be joking.

 

So anyway, Ramsey came on today at Wigan and helped us to shut up shop and get all 3pts.

 

This is hilarious. Are people actually serious on this forum, or are they all messing about?

 

That is indeed a massive feat. A few tackles here, and few hoofs there.

Either way, I'm sure you'll agree with his role being on the bench?

 

I agree that he should be on the bench, I'm also glad that you agree that he helped us to secure the 3pts today

 

Yup, without Ramsey we would have gone down 2-1. Now where's the sarcasm smiley?

 

Not saying that. But when a team is trying to shut up shop wouldn't it make sense to bring on the more defensive minded player?

 

Yes, that makes sense.

 

No no, let's use the Arsegun rankings instead. Please publish them. Let me know how you work them out please.