The Importance of Aaron Ramsey. Galen Sona
Another boring week of international football. Today I want to look at the importance of Aaron Ramsey “Rambo” to Arsenal. Truth be told we were all critical of Wenger’s decision to play Ramsey out wide. I couldn’t understand such a decision. But after watching our last four games without Ramsey, he is a key instrument in the Arsenal machine.
Arsenal are compact with Ramsey.
Ramsey may be playing out-wide, but his athleticism and energy allows him to cover more ground than any other Arsenal player. That means he comes in the middle and adds more bodies in midfield, which means we are capable of controlling the game better. Even though Ramsey plays out-wide he wins so many balls in the middle of the pack and he gives great protection to Bellerin. Arsenal are more Compact with Ramsey on the pitch and that means we are more solid defensively.
Arsenal with Ramsey.——————- Arsenal without Ramsey.
Games 13———————————Games 6
Wins—-9———————————–Wins 2
Draws–1————————————Draws–1
Loses—3————————————Loses—3
Goal—-1.8————Goals for———–Goals 1.3
Goals –0.8————Goals Against——–2
69.2—————–Win percentage———33.3.
Before Ramsey got injured he had the most sprints in the premier league with 560 sprints. the fact that he can cover so much ground and win so many balls help us to be very compact and help us to be tighter defensively. it is clear to see that we concede less goals and score more goals with Rambo on the pitch.
After watching the derby game vs Spurs and hearing Gary Neville talking about the the 6 – 4 formation for Arsenal it was so funny. We had Cazorla and Coquelin absolutely dominated by the Spurs players. Yes Cazorla had a bad game but the biggest problems were Sanchez and Campbell not doing their jobs.
——————-Cech—————
Debuchy—-Boss——–Per————-Nacho
————–Cazorla——Coq———–
——————–Ozil————-
Campbell—- Giroud ——Sanchez
In the first half against Spurs we looked something like this. with 6 players defending and a front 4. I will call it the 4-2-4 formation. That allowed us to be totally dominated at home by our rivals. That was painful to the eyes. Yes Cazorla was totally out of it but we missed Ramsey’s ability to come in and give us the control that allows Cazorla to play. Sanchez and Campbell are 2 very individual players and they have a bad habit of constantly giving the ball and losing the ball in dangerous areas.
Sanchez is a brilliant player but one of the reasons Barcelona let him go was because he can be very individualistic. When a team plays a quick passing game and and have 2 players in Sanchez and Campbell holding on to the ball and constantly giving it away then we have a serious problem.
Look at the Arsenal heat map when Ramsey plays and the formation is completely different to the 4-2-3-1 we claim to play.
——————cech———————–
Bellerin….Boss—–Per————Nacho
——————-Coq———————–
————————-Cazorla————-
———–Ramsey—————————
———————Ozil————
——————————-Sanchez——-
——————Theo———————–
Looking at the heat map of the Arsenal players after the game you realise that Arsenal play something very close to the
4–3—1—2 formation “Diamond”. With Ozil playing as the “Trequartista ” just behind Walcott and Sanchez. But immediately we lose the ball Ramsey and Sanchez are ordered to go out-wide and give protections to the fullbacks. That explains why Ramsay and Sanchez have the most amount of sprints in the Arsenal team
When we played Bayern at home and lost Ramsey to injury, Wenger explained that he had to bring Ozil deeper to help out Cazorla and Coquelin. “When we were playing halfway they opened us up too much. So I decided to drop Ozil a bit deeper and make it tighter around the box and catch them on the break. We had the pace to do it and to find some space as the game went on.”
That can be a big disadvantage to our game especially because Ozil is more effective in that Trequartista position where he has the freedom a little higher up the pitch. Ozil clearly plays better when he has the likes of Ramsey running and creating space.
I just want to say that 2 seasons ago Ramsey was by far our best player and he single-handedly lifted the football club, and helped us win our first trophy in 10 years. I think we have criticised Ramsey enough and the kid deserves respect. He is a fantastic engine and a brilliant footballer. Lets hope and pray he comes back as quickly as possible because we missed him badly.
Our prayers are with the people of France. Have a great weekend to all you Gunners.