The Arsenal and England star Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been pretty unlucky on the injury front in the early years of his footballing career, just like many of his Arsenal team mates like Wilshere, Ramsey and all. Even considering that, however, he might have featured more for Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger has often been quite cautious in his use of the Ox and it seems to me that he has been trying to get him to add more to his game. The boss has spoken this week about the young Gunner, as reported by Arsenal.com, saying that he has a lot of great qualities but also suggesting that the player himself can be a little too self critical and should have more belief in his own ability.
Chamberlain certainly has time on his side and the Frenchman is sure that he will have a great career, hopefully with Arsenal, but he also thinks he would do well to take a leaf out of his team mate Alexis Sanchez´ book when it comes to getting more goals.
Wenger said, “For me it is down to the quality of the reception. That means the area you get the ball, and that makes Alexis difficult to mark because he gets into positions where he can score.
“Alex is a good finisher, he gets into good positions and that is what he has to learn from him. You can work on it, knowing where to be at the right moment.
“I see [Alex] train every day, he is dedicated, focused, hungry. His dad said he lacks a bit of self-belief and I can confirm that because he is very critical of himself.
“That’s positive and a sign of top-level sportsmen but you have to find the right balance: not happy with what you do without harming the confidence.
“He is maybe not happy enough with his performance after the games and sees only what he has not done well, not enough of what he has done well.
“He’s 22, he is in the English national team, he plays many games for Arsenal.
“You become a complete player at 23. From 23 to 30 is certainly where you are at your best. He has the future in front and a bright one.”
I sometimes wonder whether Arsenal are using the Ox properly though, and whether Wenger places too many restraints on him which curb his dynamic and attacking instincts. He certainly seems to play with more freedom for England and with four goals from 22 international goals compared with six from his 85 Premier League games you can see the difference in his effectiveness.
So maybe Wenger should learn from how Manchester United are using their new signing Anthony Martial. He is given licence while their tactics of possession and defensive awareness means that Martial is not too worried about losing the ball.
Do you think giving him a little more freedom is just what Arsenal need to get the best out of our promising young star?
We should have sign Martial….
hes world class…at the rate hes going hes going to be the next Henry……
Big gamble at that price: £50+ millon
It’s easy to say he is WC in hindsight
Hindsight is 20/20
Also, United have more money to make expensive gambles
But I agree with you 100% that:
Wenger should have bought a WC striker AND WC DM
Wenger OUT (Klopp or Guardiola IN)
I can just imagine it now…
Wenger gets sacked, Klopp comes in and not given 100’s of millions and within 5 mins the fans will be screaming for Klopp to be sacked and ‘New Manager’ to replace him.
If your a gooner then how about looking at the facts?
Fact is, Wenger likes to spend, Gazidis doesn’t and Silent Stan likes to take money out the club.
Gazidis messes around with the Suraez deal, Wenger saves the transfer window by talking Ozil into joining us.
We nearly missed out on Alexis, Wenger saved the day by convincing him that London was the place to be and not Liverpool… Who had offered more than Arsenal for Alexis.
You do know we missed out on Cazorla for a year because we missed out on him by a couple million!!
While ignorant fans like you keep calling for Wenger Out then the board have their distraction, Silent Stan can keep pulling millions out… or is that Wengers fault as well? I guess he tied the owner of Arsenal FC down, poured petrol around his ankles and forced him to take money out of Arsenal…
At least learn to think for yourself!
We should have signed Messi or Ibra.
Nope
Messi = too expensive salary and fee
Ibrahimovic = too expensive salary but cheap fee
Also How do you know they would come?
Jackson Martinez = Reasonable fee + reasonable salary + he is 30 goal per season scorer + HE WOULD HAVE 100% come. He said openly that he would. He also said that he was an Arsenal fan since childhood
But our glorious leader thought it was unnecessary even when he knew Welbeck would be injured until Christmas, BEFORE the summer window closed
Jackson Martinez: Atiletico Madrid
Games played: 7
Goals: 1
Hardly a 25 million pounds player, especially if you have Giroud and Welbeck in your squad.
Aguero 7 games, 1 goal.
Doesn’t mean he’s in the same league with OG or TW. Such stats are fickle.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Martial is NOWHERE NEAR Henry
YET!
He is young. So was Henry at one time
He was a winger and Wenger smartly changed him too a CF and the rest is glorious history
See. Even though it’s time to get a new manager, I can compliment Wenger for the good things he has done. I’m reasonable person. I don’t budd lick a manager and at the other end don’t 100%.hate. Both Budd and Hafiz are polar extremists
Hafiz plz stop it. Let’s be real here, you and I would have destroyed Wenger with our mouth if he had signed Martial for that amount and the lad failed to score at his current rate. In fact, we’d still have finished him off for buying him even if he scored this much, becuz of his age. No regrets there. I stiLl think the money spent on Martial is too much; he’s good but the market is crazy.
If AOC stays fit this season, everyone will see how much he will improve.
I don’t think you can compare his England record like that. He’s probably started a greater proportion of the international matches he’s appeared in and 2 of those 4 goals were against San Marino, so I don’t think the role he plays there makes a significant difference on his ability to score. It’s not just his goals output that he can improve on, he could also improve his delivery a bit at times. Not knocking him though, always love to see him play; great pace and power, works very hard, easily our most effective dribbler and has the technical ability to improve his output. Reminds me a bit of Ramsey before he started scoring (although he’s dried up recently) and it looks and sounds like he’s very much focused on improving which is a brilliant sign.
Martial has played less than 10 games for Man United, hardly enough games to judge his effectiveness. Second, Martial is a striker who spends much time doing nothing, on the other hand Chamberlain is a winger/midfielder who is expected to fight for the ball, and defend without the ball. Considering the contrasting roles of these players I find it illogical that Arsenal can model Chamberlain in the manner Martial is being used at Man United. Maybe the writer was just trying to find an excuse to write about Martial on an Arsenal site.
so the point you are proving is that wing position is harder than cf position.
i want you to go back to your sleep because you are saying rubbish
The duties of wingers/midfielders are different from duties of strikers as simple as that. Therefore you cannot expect Chamberlain to shadow Martial, who himself is learning his trade in a completely different position. Its afternoon where I am posting from so I guess its you who should go back to bed.
I was thinking similar the moment I read the article, was saying what’s up with this Ox and Martial comparison and who is saying Arsenal are going to turn Ox into a Martial type player. If anyone should be compared to Martial right now it is Theo, not for looking the same type player but because they are there to score goals ..and I fancy Theo to outscore him come end of season.
so the point you are proving is that wing position is harder than cf position. hardest position is cb,dm and cf position.
so please i want you to go back to your sleep to memorize all this, i taught you, on your dream.
Martial = OVERRATED
Joel Campbell should play for Olmpiakos tonight…..
This comparison doesn’t make sense…Martial plays in strikers role – Martial can loose the ball and has cover, Ox plays in a much deeper role – where losing the ball could be critical and costly…
Too many Martial related articles and comments out here now, even on a day our team plays. His a united player and not Arsenal so lets move on!!! I would rather we compare Ox with someone at the club or someone who has played for us and in a similar position.
I would rather Ox gets some lessons from Sanchez, Theo, Welbz and even Carzola who have all played on the wings. I see Pires and TH14 in pictures during training be it with the junior Gunners or the senior team I’m sure even these guys can help Ox get to his best.
I’m glad Arsene didn’t buy this kid no matter how he will turn because things don’t workout the same for players and the amount involved was a huge risk. Had we bought him he would have probably been sent on loan or roating on the bench because knowing Wenger this kid would not have starting ahead of Theo, OG and a fit Welbz. I was crying for a close to 50mil WC finished product to take up the 1st slot and not gambling on a youngstar.
Let him prove himself 1st and cheers to Ox staying injury free, learning from his seniors, trusting his game and getting a good run in the tearm.
No.
Ox wants to play central as a B2B player in the future, he has said that is what he would like to become.
Ox needs to develop, Wenger knows that and isn’t afraid of taking a few years to develop him. Better to take your time and do a proper job rather than rush and mess it up.
Ox is getting better at going past people, he still needs to learn the defensive side and being out on the wing rather than playing as a CM allows for that development. In theory you have both the holding CM and fullback to help cover the mistakes by Ox defensivly…
But hey, lets throw all that out the window along with Wengers decades worth of experience to copy UTD…
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Happy birthday BFG!!!
It’s his birthday??? Aaaawwww!!! Hope he enjoys it on the bench.
Lol.
But I would rather he plays so Kos is rested for United. Chambers and Mert tonight and Gabriel and Kos on Sunday.
Meanwhile its Arsenal U19s 1: Olympiacos U19s 1
I think we all would have loved to see at least one or two outfield players signed, it didnt happen, now lets move past it and stop pining after other teams’s players. AOC is a player i like a lot, pacy, direct and brave. he does seem to lose focus at key moments in games leading to costly errors. When he cuts that out of his game, i’m sure Arsene will feel a lot more comfortable playing him over Ramsey on the right.
Why is this french kid not playing for the french manager, who fans call him the best in the world?
Still 1-1 in the U19s champions league match between Arsenal and Olympiacos. That man Sheaf is a beast of a player for a player who is 17 years old. Also the dreaded right back is doing well going forward.
Chamberlain, the guy who dribbles past the defenders, beats the keeper and kicks the ball to the fans.
1-1 at halftime in the U19s game
Very out of topic but I want to know, who among our players apart from Gabriel speak Portuguese?
2-1 to the young guns Sheaf the scorer from the spot.
now 2-2 in the U19s champions league match.
3-2 to the young guns
Its all over the young guns can now bask at the top of the log with 6 points, while Dynamo and Olympiacos decide who should be second with 3 points each while Baryen anchors the log with no points. Does Baryen have a strong youth policy?
No need of this,most of arsenal players hv jst a minor problems to amend,let wenger concentrate on making that amendments,to make them great players.