Hi Guys, I hope you liked first part of my article “Arsenal Analysis of who will stay or go – Part 1 The Defence” for those who missed it this is the link to the article. This is the second part and I am covering the central midfield options we have at our disposal.
Typically we play a formation where we have 2 Central midfieldiers where 1 acts as a CDM and other acts as a Box to Box player. If we look at the personnel available for these two positions they are as follow:
A) CDM : Coquelin, Arteta, Flamini, Diaby, Bielik (New 17 year old kid), Chambers
1) Coquelin he has been a revelation this year, Stats shows he is the best CDM right now in Premier League and aged just 23 he has a bright future ahead of him – provided he continues to develop and plays as well as he is playing now
2) Arteta: Our club captain, When he was at Everton he used to play the role of attacking midfield. Wenger gave him the more important role of playing as a midfielder sitting in front of our defense. Even though he might not be the best candidate and even if he is on the wrong side age-wise he still has the best stats when it comes to passing.
3) Flamini: Signed as a free transfer, In my opinion he is the worst of the lot. Whenever I see him on pitch it seems as if we are playing with 10 men! The only thing he does is shout and shout!
4) Diaby: Every Arsenal fan knows that when Diaby is fit (and that is a BIG if), he is a beast of a player, but unfortunately he is never fit. I don’t even remember the last game Diaby played for us, so thinking of him as a part of our current squad and future is not very rational.
5) Bielik : New kid signed last transfer window, Honestly I have never seen him play but I remember Wenger saying he is a first team team player so I can assume he has some talent
6) Chambers: Even though most people see him as CB/RB i think CDM is best position for him. If I am right even Wenger mentioned the same once. He played as a CDM yesterday for U-21 game against Germany, Aged just 19, I think he can be moulded into a good defensive midfielder.
Now most people on JustArsenal as well as around the globe say we need a new CDM, Top choices for the job are:
Kondogbia
Bender
Gustavo
Martinez
Morgan Schneiderlin
I would prefer Morgan over all of the above as he has Premier league experience and he is kind of hybrid of Arterta-Coquelin, but here is the tricky situation; for instance if we buy Morgan and sell Arteta, Flamini and Diaby we still have Coquelin, Bielik and Chambers for the position, I can ignore Bielik as he is young and has lots of time. For the same reason I am ready to ignore Chambers but we still have Coquelin for this position. I know many of you will say that we are injury prone team and rotation and stuff but the problem is if we buy Morgan I find it difficult to see Coquelin even on the bench – and here is why:
We are allowed to put 7 substitutes General pattern being 1 Goalkeeper, 3 Defenders, 2 Midfielders + Wingers and 1 Striker so the competition is for 2 places on the bench where we have the likes of Wilshere, Welbeck, Walcott and Chamberlin
It might be a possibilty that we may change the pattern and opt for 3 instead of 2 on the bench but still will Coquelin be happy to play as a second fiddle to Morgan since he has performed excellently since his comeback – and will it not hamper his development ??
I think we have a CDM which we can count on but on other hand an injury to him and we are back to square one (Provided we are selling Arteta or Flamini). At the same time if we buy Morgan then what needs to be done with Coquelin? Mr Wenger needs to think this through and act accordingly, as this is a very tricky situation.
Verdict: In Coquelin we have an excellent CDM but we do not have any backup for him, Chambers and Bielik are too young and so we should definitely sign a CDM but as a backup to Coquelin and not to replace him.
Possible Outgoing: Arteta, Flamini, Diaby
Possible Incoming: Schneiderlin or Kondogbia
B) CM: WE have four options- Wilshere, Ramsey, Zelalem (He is in our squad according to Arsenal.com) and Rosicky. I dont think we need any improvement in this area as Santi can also play at this position very well, The only thing which i can see happening regarding this position is if Rosicky leaves – then we may promote someone from our academy.
Possible Outgoing: Rosicky
Possible Incoming: No one!
Who agrees with me?
Kushal