Why Wilshere and Ramsey will never work together as a central midfield pairing by KJ
After Wilshere’s impressive display against Slovenia, many are questioning once again as to why we can’t play Wilshere and Ramsey together. Wilshere is clearly doing well for England in that deep role and Ramsey is a similar (albeit far better) player to Henderson. However, I will explain why it’s almost impossible for them two to work together as a midfield partnership.
Playing for England against the likes of Estonia and Slovenia is completely different to playing for Arsenal against any Premier League or Champions League opposition. The gap in quality is absolutely huge. There is very little pressure in international football and therefore technique is always the prevailing factor. Jack is one of the most technically gifted footballers in the world and therefore can flourish against weaker teams in a deep position. He hasn’t even been tested against a good team at international level, let alone a good team at Premier League/Champions League level.
Ramsey has also adapted his game to the point where is a very attacking box to box player. But it’s becoming detrimental to his game now and he has lost a lot of what made him special last season. He’s far too ahead of the play and isn’t involved in build-up which is severely affecting his performance overall for both club and country.
Jack and Aaron are very bold characters now who are very attack minded players. One wants to dribble past the entire opposition whilst the other wants to score goals. There is a mental battle for both to develop an actual identity to their game and this means that they’d have no real chance at developing a defensive understanding amongst the two of them. They need a defensive midfielder to “hold the fort” whilst they play their game (even if it’s not how you’d want them to play it). They just don’t seem mentally responsible at the moment and we can’t really tell if they’re the type of players to develop that later on in their career. Football is very unpredictable, this time next season, one of them may not even be an Arsenal player anymore.
Overall, I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of a Wilshere – Ramsey central midfield but in reality, it will be impossible to implement at this moment as the team around them is completely fragile and they just don’t have the correct mentality or skill set to become good in those roles at the highest level.