Arsenal Debate – Who are our leaders on the pitch?

Now this is an interesting question, and will probably spark a bit of debate as I have often heard on JustArsenal that we have usually lacked a player that can grab the others and galvanize them into action, especially when the Gunners heads fall after going behind.

We all know Mikel Arteta is our captain, although practically Per Mertesacker usually wears the armband on the pitch in Mikel’s absence. I do believe that Arteta is going to be a good coach and maybe manager, but I would call him more of a calm instructive man than someone who shouts at his team-mates to get them going. Per Mertesacker doesn’t really have the presence or respect, I am thinking, although he collects the players fines if they are late for training. Neither of them could get anywhere near winning a shouting match with Tony Adams or Patrick Vieira!

Laurent Koscielny has already admitted that he doesn’t talk much on the pitch, and prefers to lead by example. Perhaps the closest to a real captain we have is Petr Cech, but although he can marshall the defence, can he influence the players all over the pitch? Gabriel doesn’t speak enough English but could be the answer as captain one day, and Bellerin is far too young. Not only that but he’s moving too fast for anyone to catch what he’s saying!

Arsene Wenger was asked who Arsenal’s leaders were, and he couldn’t give a straight answer. He wants ALL the players to be leaders! He said: “It is important,”

“You want all 11 players to be leaders and to take initiative, communicate and transmit to other players what they see on the pitch. You want them to motivate the other players and be constructive and positive. That’s what it’s about in the leadership action.”

It was a different response from Le Prof when he was asked who “made the team tick” and he gave a far more detailed reply. “Basically it’s always the players who play in the final third and give the assists.” he said.

“So you look at the players who give our assists and you will see who does it. I think the best assist player at the moment is Ozil, but we have many providers.

“We have Alexis, Ramsey, Cazorla – they are all people who can create chances. You could see Joel Campbell the other night has given a great assist to Alexis. I think all our players have technical ability to do that.”

Yes I agree with him that they can be influential by providing assists, but there are none of them I would consider vocal enough to be called a leader in the real sense….

Come on then. Who do YOU think are our leaders on the pitch? If any?

Tags Arteta Mertersacker Ramsey

16 Comments

  1. OT:

    Surely Jamie Vardy is a Manchester City player in waiting now!

    I am really happy for him! His goal is a GOAL 4 FOOTBALL. His story -a victory for football.

    1. He should NOT go to Man City, they’ll put him on the bench to accommodate the ever injured Aguero. Wenger stated that to keep a player in form you shouldn’t stop them from playing games (unless they need to rest), if he moves to City he can kiss his form goodbye like Torres when he moved to Chelsea.

  2. Coquelin has been our very own Jamie Vardy. Certainly, the way he carries himself up and about on the pitch… I say Francis Coquelin is a worthy candidate for “Leader on the Pitch”.

  3. congratulations jamie vardy

    what a story…he will give hope to all those down the divisions who thought they would never really make it

  4. Coquelin could be a possibility actually, but it’s a bit early to nominate him yet I think. I would say Mertesacker is favourite for the job on hs experience but only because nobody else is there to challenge him.

  5. First of all, a leader must have leadership personality and all round quality before he can become a leader(Captain) to lead. Only a few Gunners if any, fall into some of these categories at Arsenal at the moment. What we have mostly at Arsenal now, are influential Gunners deu of the success they are bringing to Arsenal in Arsenal games as of now. Ozil, Sanchez, Giroud, Walcott, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, ARTETA, Flamini, Rhinosacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Bellerin and Cech are all 14 team leaders on the field of play for Arsenal as of now. So, the Boss is correct. It’s a team leadership squad with no clear-cut single leader like Patrick Viera or Tony Adams kind of leadership for now. Man City 3-1 South’ton(a result). Leicester 1-1 Man Utd( half-time). Arsenal MUST beat Norwich City heavily tomorrow to go joint-top in the table again with Man City.

  6. The only player at Arsenal that has the vocals for motivating and giving Rollockings is Flamini, which just about sums up the situation there.

    It’s seems as if Wenger doesn’t really want that kind of hard man aggressive captain at the club,
    Maybe it causes to much friction amongst the players like in the Adams/ vieira era.
    Which would explain why we haven’t got one now!

    Give the armband to Ozil

    1. I think “give the arm band to Ozil” is a really bad idea. Our captains either a.leave OR
      b. get injured and then leave.

  7. We have no real leader in the team. Whoever wants to be, he must breath and live Arsenal through and through.

    Wilshere is the man, but he needs to fix his problem with his injuries and work to go back in the starting line up first.

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