Will Elneny become the new Coquelin? by Konstantin Mitov
Alright, in the midst of all the Arsenal transfer things we’re talking about, one thing I’d like to take a look at is a player who’s been largely underused at Arsenal – Mohamed Elneny. For a long time we were kind of uncertain where to play him, but in the last 2 games, he filled the DM role and it kinda worked.
It’s too early to judge anything, but I kind of like Mohamed, because of his work rate and energy, and his presence allowed Xhaka to move up the pitch and focus on his passing and it looked so much better. It’s again too early to say but what worries me is having another player who we thought would be a defensive midfielder that suddenly turned as a more of a creative type.
And this reminds me of Coquelin’s impact in a 2:0 away win at City, and I’m not sure if he’ll be given a regular chance in the squad, and if this would ruin the chance for us to finally sign a good DM because Xhaka hasn’t really worked out there.
With the addition of Mkhitaryan and Arsene’s words he could play a bit like Santi, then he’d have to line up next to Wilshere, but most probably I think Iwobi would be the one under the biggest threat from the Armenian. Regardless though, I like Elneny and I think he’s a good player to have around, but I do feel he’s not the answer to get us back to the champions league.
Hopefully it will work out for him and he won’t end up as another Coquelin that will be a few game wonder and then eventually fall out of contention again. Only time will tell, but I feel like we still need a few more reinforcements….
Konstantin