It is a commonly known football fact that, although sometimes certain players are not too keen to keep playing for certain clubs or managers (ahem Alexis Sanchez ahem Coutinho) they do not want to be sat on the bench for most of the time. Our own Olivier Giroud made his feelings about being a sub quite clear last season but thankfully for the Gunners he responded in the right way by showing his worth wto the manager when his chances came around.
The problem for players and to a lesser extent the managers is that every club needs a strong squad if they are to cope with the numerous competitions as well as the problems that can occur through injury, fatigue, loss of form or discipline over the course of a season, so some players will inevitable play less than they would like.
We do not yet know for sure whether Arsene Wenger has Giroud in mind as a super sub again this season but I would expect so, especially if Arsenal do hold on to our Chilean star striker, but I wonder if Aaron Ramsey could be set to play the same sort of role.
He certainly did a Giroud when coming on against Leciester on Friday and Ramsey has had his fair share of injuries which have often come about from a busy schedule of games, so perhaps he could be an impact player for Arsenal from midfield just as the big Frenchman is up top.
With the likes of Coquelin, Xhaka, Elneny and hopefully Cazorla competing for those midfield spots you could say that the always attack minded Welshman is a bit of a luxury player whose impact off the bench could be more than from the start, don’t you think?
Bob.
maybe we have two super-subs playing for arsenal although having played for 10yrs we need to look at his achievements before loosely applying the word “super” to his game. if super means scoring winners in two fa cups then ok but far as a league campaign goes we cant continue to be deluded by medeocrity within the team.
Jack Wilshere is back running. No matter what fans say about him but I have always loved his passion for the club. Yes he has been unfortunate with injuries at times but we need to support our players in hard times cause we are family. That’s what fans do. I wish he stays healthy and leads us to our glory days back again #COYG
I appreciate your willingness to be loyal. But have we not as a club paid too high a price for being loyal to players who simply don’t warrant holding down a roster spot as a result of injuries?
Diaby is the most obvious example but there has to be a point where the club is more loyal to its heritage and goals than to an injury prone player and that includes Wilshire.
Every player on the roster takes a huge salary and blocks a spot for a youngster coming through or for a new talented player coming in. I am not advocating dumping a player at the first sign of injury but I am advocating putting our loyalty to our heritage, goals and paying fans ahead of a single injury prone player who draws a full years salary year after year whilst not being available for even a quarter season.
Are we willing not to buy Seri because we are loyal to Jack? Will we be shocked if Jack picks up another broken bone in his foot or other season ending injury? We have stood by Jack longer than anyone can reasonably have expected IMO, now it is time to be loyal to our mission and that should be to get back to the heights we managed to reach 15 years ago.
Absolutely agree with you Janssen, and what you have said here should put end to anyone again saying we should accommodate players at the expense of the club’s interests. If anyone where to go and search and see how much Wilshere is actually getting paid for, many of you will be shocked as I am to see he is earning so much for someone that hardly plays and who is never in the first team. Just for example Wilshere is getting paid the same or above of these players: Mustafi, Koscielny, Cazorla, Welbeck, Monreal, Xhaka, Chamberlain and Elneny to list a few, ie: basically our whole team! This is outrageous to say the least and shows our incompetence at dealing with players wages and also being over accommodating for players that perhaps don’t deserve as much loyalty towards. To also justify this argument I also found that Bellerin is on 100k per week, way above the majority of the players in the team, whilst Chamberlain only gets 65k? It doesn’t make sense and is definitely unsustainable, just look at us struggling now to offload and sign players because we have reached our wage cap.
No, he is not faster and taller than the others. He is a good squad player.
I’m not even sure we can call Giroud that as he starts many games, he could be one, but is he one. Last season Ramsey sat on the bench many times, credit to him he didn’t complain though. Giroud and Ramsey could be a very good weapon in reserve. They have their own style and it wont be what our opponents would be used to up until the substitution. If these are our CM’s for the season, there will be times when we call for Ramsey to play, and it will be because of a lack of a CM threat.
Does Cazorla play well with Xhaka? Neither Coquelin nor Elneny are starters in my opinion.
Ramsey is a starter, he is one of our main strengths and ready for a top season
I don’t think Ramsey is particularly gifted as a player. He suffers what many Wenger favorites suffer from ie he doesn’t have a football brain. Makes many useless sideways and backward passes and tries to dribble like he is Messi and manages to lose the ball a bit too often.
Having said that, his best position is somewhere in the middle rather than out wide where he has been played far too often in the past. In addition, he is better going forward than Coq and probably also better than Elneny going forward. So Ramsey (in absence of Santi ) is IMO the best partner for Xhaka.
So I would start Ramsey next to Xhaka until we have a better option.
I think Ramsey play better coming off the bench, when ever he’s in the starting eleven he rarely scores a goal, he gives the ball away far to often and sometimes in dangerous positions, he makes straight forward passes or the simple passes, I’ve never seen him make a defense splitting pass or a through ball, the only positive about him starting a match is his engine, he will definitely cover a lot of ground but i think we need more of a creative or Attacking CM in that position because of the back three formation.