Hello Gooners all over, i hope we are all enjoying Arsenal’s recent good fortunes because i really feel good right now. For now, the only negative is the injury to Henrikh and i hope he gets well soon.
So on to the article then and the focus is on our talented youngster Alex Iwobi. I remember when this kid used to give us much joy and excitement that we always want him to be on the team sheet in every match day. He was full of promise and i personally see him as highly technical lad that really understands our philosophy, but for some reasons he seems to have regressed a little bit and that-s what prompted me to write this up for discussion, what could have caused his regression?
I know many will quickly say “oh, its Wenger’s influence”.. Maybe, but that will be too cheap. I also believe he suffers from what has now become the trend in our club; Position. I can-t really say this or that is his best position as I am not a manager and he has played everywhere except defence.
So what i wanna do is TRY to figure out his best position based on his strengths and weaknessess.
STRENGTHS;
Passing
Playmaking
Moving out of tight spaces
Fairly pacy
Good strength
Dribbling
Forward play
WEAKNESS
Shooting
Defending
So judging from the above, i think its obvious that Iwobi is a Central midfielder and not a winger or an attacking midfielder. Although, one could be forgiven for thinking he can be an Attacking midfielder but if you play him there you would only be exposing his weakness as he is timid in front of goal. He is not pacy enough to be winger nor commanding enough (at least for now) to be an AMF.
Therefore, to maximise his potential, we try to take him away from his weakness and expose him to his strengths.
He would only need to improve on his defensive qualities to play CM and that is where the manager comes in, he is young and can learn.
I observe many are already writing him off but it is too early for that, he needs proper coaching to master and have a defined position – not being tossed back and forth – as that leads to confusion and lack of real progress and it is also where the problem emanates from. Let him own a position and train him THERE!
I wanna see how he will fair under a new manager, be it on loan or at Arsenal but i’d prefer it to be at Arsenal under a new manager.
What do you think?
Goonerboy