Why Arsenal must stick with Gabriel despite language problem

Arsene Wenger mentioned the lack of fluency in English of the Arsenal and Brazil international defender Gabriel again this week, reported by the Evening Standard, after the centre back was widely lambasted in the football press for his part in the two goals of the young Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford.

The boss said, “I would prefer him to have better English. In a fraction of a second sometimes somebody can help you.

“He has Nacho Monreal who plays next to him, he can speak Spanish. I believe as well he’s working very hard on his English and he’s improving quite quickly.

“It’s difficult for me to go into individual assessments of performances. We have to respond as a team and not criticize individually players for their performance.

“It was a difficult game for everybody and we want to respond collectively.”

There is certainly no doubt that Gabriel’s defending was a big help to the lad who scored a brace on his Premier League debut, although we should also give some credit to the young player who snapped up his chances well. However I also think that Wenger should not panic about the Brazilian and rush to bring Per Mertesacker back alongside Laurent Koscielny for the match against Swansea tonight.

To be honest I am thinking more about our next game, which is a massive one against north London and EPL title rivals Tottenham on Saturday. For that I would rather we have the pace and aggression of Gabriel and so I think he needs to play tonight as well.

I also feel that a lot of people have gone a bit overboard in their slating of the defender, with some suggesting that his pairing with Koscielny just does not work, because he and the French international played very well together when Wenger gave them a run after Mertesacker’s red card against Chelsea and he would have kept the pairing for the Leicester and Barcelona matches if Gabriel had not been unlucky enough to pick up a knock.

So should Wenger overlook his mistakes at Man United and keep Gabriel in the starting line-up?

Tags Koscielny Mertesacker Swansea

20 Comments

    1. I’m not bothered about the defence . Our problems are in the midfield and attack.
      We lack creative transitioning of the ball in the midfield and our striker.

      No sitter , No party

      1. What’s up with lecoq??! He seems lost, hope he finds his form soon. I think the problem is with lecoq, he’s not the same. Anyways hoping for a comfortable win tonight to give us a lift….

  1. surprising that alot of peeps want slowsacker replacing gabriel cuz of bad game and after weeks of injury out!

    Was gabriel the only negative from the game?……cuz i saw a bunch of Lazy uninterested boys on display

    with the silhouette of an un-motivative man posing as the manager

    1. I hope Barcelona buy Ramsey… I really want him out of the club. I’m sure once Wenger leaves Ramsey will follow. Imagine a coach like ancheloti using Ramsey for 90 mins every freaking match day. I hate Wenger and how he always sticks with the retard Ramsey

  2. This manager has no clue about what he’s doing. He will continue to play players out of possession, while playing one lone striker that hasn’t score a single goal in 10 games and making all the wrong subs at the wrong times.

    Even if we beat swansea tonight the spuds are waiting for us on saturday. 2 must win games or the season is over!

  3. There was a time when I thought Gabriel was a good defender. I don’t think so anymore. And it’s not just a language barrier or whatever. It’s his play. He’s all over the place. He’s erratic. His positioning is all wrong most of the time. Not only he was pretty much solely responsible for an 18-year kid scoring 2 goals against us, but he almost gave away a penalty before that. He is an okay backup for FA/CoC games, and maybe a few league games against lowly opponents, but he’s totally out of depth when playing the big boys. Even with his lack of speed Mert is a much better CB, and I would play him over Gabriel 9 times out of 10.

  4. Honestly, I dunno if Mert or Gab should play.what I really want is that we should win convincingly.
    Tired of the blaming game, I just need a win, anyway, we will find out soon whether Gab or Mert will start

  5. I would start Campbell tonight, the only risk is that he needs to heat up first but the longer he plays the better he becomes, i wouldn’t be surprised if he scored in the 70th minute, but I don’t know if wenger will give him enough minutes.

  6. An honest question:

    how does a person, a professional footballer who’s daily schedule is quite light compared to a regular working class citizen, not learn the basics of English language in a year’s time span? Especially when you are living and working in a country where everyone speaks it?

    I understand if you are not gifted at languages but still, English is one of the easiest languages to learn..

    1. What bugs me is that although he’s had a whole year to teach himself english, Wenger is still in the phase of letting him off by saying “he’s improving quite well”, when the previous 12 months imply that his progress is slow af.
      Wenger is far too soft on players not doing what’s expected of them, that is a huge problem.

      1. I would love it if Gabriel scores the winner tonight and gets the man of the match award and after the game in a tv interview he waffles away in a broken english cockney accent ???
        just to prove that wenger doesn’t know jack ? about his surroundings at the club!

        Even Cazorla was shocked about Wenger’s comments regarding his injury setback yesterday, so much so that Cazorla took to social media afterwards!

        1. Surprised by the piece of news appeared in press, deadlines are going as planned. I will be ready on 1st April. #workinghard

          — Santi Cazorla (@19SCazorla) March 2, 2016

  7. It’s a bit harsh slating Gabriel,
    Especially when you consider that he was rushed back from a hamstring injury and don’t forget that he only returned back from Brazil afew days before the Utd game.
    (Jet lag)

    As for Gabriel’s lack of English, (even if he can’t hold a full blown conversation) I’m sure that he must have picked up the basics needed ( for a defender) by now!
    Wenger can speak Spanish and so can Petr Cech,
    As well as the obvious Bellerin and monreal, so blaming his English is another lame excuse by Wenger.

  8. He doesn’t need to be able to talk English as according to our opposition there is no talking amongst our team anyhow. Just 11 grown and responsible adults left to do their own thing while Wenger watches on.

    Per : “lllllllloooooooookkkkkkkkk ooouuutttt, kkkkkooooossssss, mmmmmmaaaaaannnnn onnnnn

  9. The united game had Monaco written all over it…it was just one of those days. I’m pretty much sure it was our last disastrous performance of the season. It was a wake up call big time

  10. Well he starts today with Mertesacker. We will see who is better. Who knows what happened to Koscielny.

  11. Notice Wenger doesn’t talk about consistency this season. At no point in the season have we been consistent.

  12. English or no English, Mert is far better. I hate it when fans talk of Pace only everytime, as if pace is d only quality in football. For example, our most intelligent player is Ozil, I doubt if he has pace. Follow by Carzolar. Then Theo with is pace can u see. Pace is fine. But player skill n intelligence is ahead.

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