I wrote at the weekend about the large number of central midfielders Arsenal now have – but the notes were buried away in my rant against the awful way Setanta ran their coverage of Arsenal against Newcastle.
In retrospect I wish I’d made the midfielder bit the main article, given that this is the topic on most other web sites and (not for the first time) I hold an utterly different view from most other people. The whole piece on Setanta is still on the sitebut here once again is the list of central midfielders on our books.
Song, Fabregas, Denilson, Diaby, Eboue, Nasri and Bischoff. That’s our central midfield. Of course you can still create an argument for more – but surely such an argument should take account of all the midfielders we already have. And I haven’t even mentioned Ramsey.
Nasri is apparently good in the centre, and so may play there once Rosicky is back. Bischoff was, I am told, a remarkable midfielder before his injury and is only a few weeks away from playing for Arsenal. Diaby is three weeks away also.
So eight central midfielders. Some are injured, but they are unlikely all to be injured together.
I would say to commentators who think we should buy another – fine, but which of these players are you going to ditch as they continue to grow?
first, nasri and cesc in the middle = too offensive, no defensive balance.
2nd, when’s the last time diaby played 3 matches in a row ?
3rd, wenger already said on the official website about bischoff going to play in the reserves first. thus very likely he’ll only play for the first team in november at the earliest.
4th eboue and cesc ? even stoke city won’t be stoked with that partnership.
5th ramsey = too young and inexperienced in the premiership. if you add together ramsey’s age and cesc’s, they are still a year younger than jens bloody lehmann !
the only ones who i think stand a chance to partner cesc is either song / denilson.
Judging from most of Wengers comments, Song is primarily a CB and no way Eboue can be classed as anything more than an emergency CM.
Same for Nasri, who already is showing to be a class winger and should be left there.
Diaby,although shows real promise, seems injury prone and for me Denilson/Ramsey are not yet up to standard for us to be challenging for honours.
I cant comment on Bischoff but I would imagine he would need time to adapt.
Looking forward to Rosicky returning as I think he could provide playmaker cover for Cesc.
So I would have to disagree with you on this. A quality CM is definately needed!!
J
I agree with Rosicknote,many of the players mentioned are not quite,solid in the CM position Eboue is more a RB/RWM and is starting too look good in the RWM role,Song for me is CDM/DF and looks promising but is not ready yet,Nasri i love and can see filling the LWM position and hopefully the void left by the great Robert Pires and scoring easily 10/15 goals from midfield,and Bischoff so i’ve heard is more a Right sided player/Rosicky for me plays better on the left,and that would leave FABREGAS,DIABY,and DENILSON who gets my vote at the moment but we could still do with someone that as alittle bit more Expierence/Strength and skill/Evan the Great Patrick Vieira said we need ONE MORE BIG TIME PLAYER!.ALONSO!
I agree. We have too many CMs. We could play Eboue, Nasri, Rosicky, Walcott and be very happy about it!
I think that a mid-field of RvP, Diaby, Cesc, Denilson, Nasri would have every chance against J. Cole, Deco, Essien, Ballack, Lampard. They are “better” but our practiced teamplay, plus some serious talent, take our “sum of the parts” above theirs, despite them having 4 world class players to our 2.
Doesn’t Rosicky play centrally for his Country, so he could play there too? I think we would benefit from another player in there because of the injury-proneness of some of our options, but I can see why Wenger doesn’t think we are desperate and therefore should not be held over a barrel on the price of whoever he has been tracking.
Agree with all that Untold and Cape Town have said.
Plus, nobody’s even mentioned Jack Wilshere!
Mark my words right here, he will be playing for the first team (No. 19) before the end of the season…