Now that Mohamed Elneny has returned from Africa after helping his Egypt side to the Final, Arsenal have finally got some choices in the midfield position ahead of Wednesday’s vital tie in Munich. Granit Xhaka can also play of course, he is fresh and has extensive Champions League experience, but I’m not sure that Wenger would trust him in a game of this stature yet. Elneny should be very game fit after playing in most of his country’s matches in the last month and Wenger also gave him a 20 minute run out against Hull the other day so I have a feeling he has been prepared to play on Wednesday.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has had a few good games since replacing Ramsey in the centre, but Coquelin has played nearly every game and may be getting a bit exhausted recently. He has certainly come in for some criticism on here lately. One thing is certain is that Elneny is chomping at the bit to get into the starting line-up. “Back here, I feel I am in my home,” He said on Arsenal.com. “We are one family and you work really hard with people who really love you.
“That made me adapt quickly, and helped me to start training immediately as I felt that the team really needs me now. I don’t want a vacation or a time off, I want to work hard and play with the team.
“Everything is going fine here. We all love our coach and we don’t concentrate on anything other than the next game. All our focus is on compete for all of the available titles including the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League so that we can achieve something together.
“That’s why beating Hull was so important, because we have an important Champions League game coming up. It means we will now travel with confidence on our side and that is extremely important before a big game like this.”
So what do you think. Should we put Elneny in to give Coquelin a rest? Or should we put Le Coq and Elneny together to give extra support to the defence rather than the inexperienced Ox?
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I think Elneny should replace Coquelin. I am a big fan of Coquelin, but he’s not been great this season. In fact, I’m sure I saw a stat for the league, where we had a 100% win ratio when he hadn’t played, compared to something like 60% when he had played. Problem is, Wenger doesn’t pick his lineups based on form, or even ability, only favouritism.
Yes, I would start Elneny alongside Ox in the middle of the park. Coq is fine against “smaller” clubs, but I’m afraid he lacks experience and intelligence in big games. He’s very quick in picking up yellow cards, and we just can’t afford to play with a man down when we need to be at our best for the whole 90+ minutes. Similarly, Xhaka lacks discipline in crucial moments, and I feel he’ll be a little rusty after missing several games. So for me, he’d be an emergency substitution should we need to introduce some steel later in the game.
Honestly, I’d rather pick Xhaka. Elneny for me doesn’t do enough. He is an efficient short passer, and average midfielder if we’re talking about his all around game. He doesn’t bring an X-factor to our games though. He has no ability that stands out unlike Xhaka who has long passes, shots outside the box, and DOES have the ability to make goal saving tackles. Of course he has his recklessness, but for me Elneny screams “playing safe”. Do we drop Coquelin? Maybe, he hasn’t been good enough recently, but I wouldn’t replace him with someone who will just add shortpassing to a side, especially when we have Ozil creating nothing, why would we add another midfielder like Elneny who also cannot create chances? (And we know Ozil isn’t getting dropped.) If we put all the pressure on Sanchez like we always do, it won’t work.
xhaka was stupid for what he did to get suspended but im not giving up on him he’s a passer we need to release pressure against bayern…just need to stay on his feet..whatever he does be strong but not reckless…cog and xak for me ox replace iwobi and gibbs to continue at Lb..come on arsenal..we can take them this yr..im also looking for a big game from ozil against his friends..bug players need to show up in big matches….we will know in our nex 3 game how much big players we really have!!!!!
Xhaka and Coquelin should be fine.
Koscielny had 2 red cards his first season with us as well. We should not give up on Xhaka so quickly.
Coquelin has not been great this season though. But I don’t think we will be better with Eleny.
I’m also hoping Ozil will get back to his best and prove the doubters/haters wrong
Elneny is more of a link up player, his good at keeping the ball moving forward, be it sideways and all. But he isn’t a defensive midfielder.
His got a decent long range shot on him,but a certain somebody told him to knock that ? on the head.?
I don’t think that the issue is about who plays where but more to do with the whole team being able to play as one.?
I’ll go for 4-3-3 Arsenal playing formation against whatever playing formation Bayern Munich will play against us. In that wise and if Le Prof agreed to play this playing formation, three out of the four midfielders available now will be selected to play.
My starts:
Ospina
Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Monreal
Chamberlain Ozil Coquelin
Walcott Sanchez Welbeck.
My bench:
Cech Paulista Holding Gibbs Elneny Iwobi Giroud.
My God! What a starts and bench. They’ll take Bayern Munich to the cleaners.
For Arsenal’s sake, Jack Wilshere SHOULD try by all possible means to lead the Cherries to deny the Citizens a chance from going to second in the table tonight. But save if a miracle happens in the game to the favour of the Cherries, it doesn’t look like Jack can lead the Cherries to deny the Citizens the 2nd spot tonight. Because scores at 69 minutes into the match are: Bournemouth 0-2 Man City. Let’s wait to see if that miracle will happen with 5 minutes or so remaining to end of the match.
I’ll go for 4-3-3 Arsenal playing formation against whatever playing formation Bayern Munich will play against us. In that wise and if Le Prof agreed to play this playing formation, two out of the four midfielders available now will be selected to start the match.
My starts:
Ospina
Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Monreal
Chamberlain Ozil Coquelin
Walcott Sanchez Welbeck.
My bench:
Cech Paulista Holding Gibbs Elneny Iwobi Giroud.
My God! What a starts and bench. They’ll take Bayern Munich to the cleaners.
For Arsenal’s sake, Jack Wilshere SHOULD try by all possible means to lead the Cherries to deny the Citizens a chance from going to second in the table tonight. But save if a miracle happens in the game to the favour of the Cherries, it doesn’t look like Jack can lead the Cherries to deny the Citizens the 2nd spot tonight. Because scores at 69 minutes into the match are: Bournemouth 0-2 Man City. Let’s wait to see if that miracle will happen with 5 minutes or so remaining to end of the match.
If Wenger ever reads this suggestions,he will have a field day of laughter. Maybe we have forgotten that we are talking about Arsene Wenger,don’t be. Surprised when u see his line up. Man city teaching us how to take opportunities whenever it comes.
At his best I would pick Elneny over Xhaka any day any time. Elneny brings that extra composure to the team which is extremely vital in big games against top oppositions plus he showed many times he could be great going forward while keeping his line not to mention his goal in the AFCON final and that against Barca in Spain. I know many would disagree over this but I could seriously see the potential in Elneny especially knowing what he could do from his FC Basel days.