Mohamed Elneny: Meet Arsenal’s new midfield Sheriff?

Mohamed Elneny: New Sheriff in Town by AK

The internet and, in particular, the Arsenal fans, is buzzing with the news of Elneny joining Arsenal amid complicated process.

Mohamed Elneny is the midfielder Arsenal fans have been, for a while, waiting for. So much so, that we all get frustrated when we wake up to Wenger’s complicated updates. That appeared not to be the case on Thursday, with the 23-year old completing a move from Basel to Arsenal. The Egyptian international has 39 caps to his name and began his career with El Mokawloon, before joining Basel in 2013, with the Swiss Champions paying just €800,000 for the midfielder’s services.

Elneny has 91 league appearances and won three consecutive Super Leagues titles with FC Basel. During the first half of this season, Elneny has featured 28 times in all competitions and scoring six goals.

Qualities

An experienced Egypt international, Elneny is an intelligent game reader while at the same time providing tireless energy in the middle of the field. As a midfielder, Elneny knows when to hold back, to intercept, and to attack. He consistently looks backwards from his defensive midfield position; thus, providing cover to the back four. This implies that Eleney suits Wenger’s traditional 4-2-3-1 formation. Playing as a defensive midfielder, he is in a position to receive the ball from the defenders, distribute the ball and providing a platform for Carzola and Co. to play with simple, accurate, and urgent passes.

Elneny has a figure of both size and poise and will serve as Coquelin’s deputy. For over half-decade, Arsenal has been trying, with varying degree of success, hard to copy Barcelona’s tiki taka style. Eleney’s tall, robustly built and commanding size together with long-range passes and confidence with the ball is exactly what Arsene Wenger likes and demands from his present supply men.

His performance in Europa League games has been particularly impressive, starring in famous confrontations with Arsenal’s Premier League rivals: Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham.

Elneny has the lung capacity of a Kenyan long distance athlete, covering more ground, and with less injury timeout. The new sheriff fits the novel, vaguely more practical ethos Wenger continues to attempt to instil in Arsenal.

The no-muscular enforcer will not become an immediate starter since Arsenal’s midfield area is a stable one, even with Coquelin and Wilshere still out with injury. However, this might not be the case during the Sunday’s Super clash with Stoke City, at the Britannia Stadium. We all hope to have him available, “we will see if he can qualify for Sunday,” Wenger said after the 3-3 draw with Klopp’s side on Wednesday night.

A devoted Muslim and married with a young son and a baby the way, Elneny is a disciplined player who draws strength from both family and faith. He frequently carries his prayer mat on away games and strictly observes the Ramadan. Elneny doesn’t attract unwanted publicity asides from the field.

With the bonds between father and son running thick, Elneny is ready to fight and adapt to Premier League’s pressure having promised to “contribute positively with the team.”

Amdany Kipruto

Tags Basle Egypt Elneny

12 Comments

  1. “Elneny has a figure of both size and poise and will serve as Coquelin’s deputy

    Well, we’ll see about that…

  2. hope wenger starts elneny: that’d be a real statement.
    sanchez should also get at least 30min; not the usual 5-10 that a sub does.

  3. I think Eleny would make an excellent partner with Ramsey
    That’s because Ramsey is a bit better defensively than Cazorla even though Cazorla is world class. So Ramsey and Eleney together will make up any loss defensively by teaming up. Coquelin who is our best DM suits anybody as he is an excellent top dm

    But only time will tell. I am encoursged as Eleney has excellent work rate, stamina and passing which are important dm qualities. He is also experienced playing dm and is young enough to improve.

    1. I really hope you’re right, thinking about it it sounds logical ..but two players who are very similar rarely make good double acts. Gerrard and Lampard similar would have been believed, but two of them wanted the same space at the same times. Defenders we know there is usually one reader along with one mopper or one who attacks the ball while one covers route/man. Strikers there will usually be differences, my point is that there is usually noticeable differences with great partnerships. I hope this will be one of the exceptions, if not I’m sure Coq and Cazorla are plenty different.

  4. hope our boys come up with something spectacular today that would lift our spirits and increase our hopes on our fight for the elusive epl title.

    1. For sure dude, we mucked up a little v pool, before the game a draw might not be the worse but the manner we let slip felt like a loss. This game is so huge now because a title chasing team would expect to get at least three or four points from two difficult away fixtures like these, if we win well you’d have to say not too shabby. Some tough away fixtures to still come so this is all the more crucial, start off how we mean to go on ..COYG

  5. Mohamed Elneny: Meet Arsenal’s new midfield Sheriff?

    How the hell is this a question? Merely putting a question mark at the end of a sentence doesn’t make it a question.
    Just saying.

    1. Lol fair point! My fault… it originally said …is he set to be Arsenal’s midfield sheriff?
      Apologies!

  6. C,mon of course it’s a question with the correct inflection, which is difficult with text so I see where you are coming from.
    But as the saying goes; I can explain it to you but cannot undestand it for you.

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