Arsenals first team have made steady progress this season, with the new formation paying dividends, particularly in the final third of the pitch where Arsenal have been able to score freely. As always though a ball winner in the centre of the park is vital and at the moment Song has made the position his own, breaking up play and putting in some mighty challenges.
As I sat watching the AZ Alkmaar game though, Song was on the end of a nasty challenge and with Denilson the only other natural defensive midfielder currently out injured for a couple of months, it dawned on me, who would play there if Song was also on the treatment table? Eboue and Nasri have both had stints but are essentially ball players rather than ball winners and Ramsey, Fabregas, Rosicky and Diaby are also attacking players.
It could be argued that so long as the three midfielders in the middle of the park defend as a unit then a ball winner is not essential, but in the Premiership that is very hard to get away with, and let’s face it Arsenal in recent years have been an example of this. The only real natural, ball winner, apart from Song and Denilson in the Arsenal squad is Francis Coquelin, who lives for those battles.
Coquelin has been awesome since his arrival from Laval; he was a main cog in the youth team’s success last year and is possibly player of the season so far for the reserves. His ability to break up play, and provide a shield for the back four has not only helped the reserves concede only two goals in the league but also enables his more attacking counterparts freedom to break forward. After making his first start in the Carling Cup against West Brom, Coquelin is looking to follow in the footsteps of many of the Arsenal players, by establishing himself in the competition. But with limited defensive options in centre of midfield, should Wenger be giving Coquelin more time in the first team, and use him in a similar way to Wilshere and Ramsey; clocking up minutes here and there. Even against AZ it would have been nice to have the option of an out and out defensive midfielder, just to help shut up shop in the final 10 minutes, putting in vital challenges. It may seem quite defensive, but it’s an alternative, and in Europe it is a very helpful one to have.
If Song was to get injured then at least there is the option of a natural defensive midfielder who has had experience of first team action, rather than a makeshift holding midfielder, and Coquelin certainly looks more than capable.
Article By – Nick Love
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I totally agree, but Wenger is suprising me in his reluctance to call upon Coquelin… Soon though, he will be playing.
Nick, Good article you forgot to mention the loss of Song and Eboue in the African Cup of Nations. Any cover for Song should be introduced now to the squad.
agreed.
i remember seeing him in pre-season when he first arrived and he looked impressive. at that time i thought damn this dude could break into first team for sure. but then he got injured, missed out on a few other pre-season games and after that, we haven’t heard as much about him since. i am sure those who follow the youth and reserve still see a lot of him but what i am saying is, before the injury, he was playing with some of the first team players but after the injury, he was limited to reserve only. about time for him to step up. to be completely honest, i am not even sure if i am more excited about ramsey and wilshere or coquelin. that shows how highly i rate the kid.
Yeh I think he will make it at Arsenal, he is extremely talented, and has the determination to succeed as well.
Just think it will be handy to expose him a bit more to the Arsenal first team, in a similar way to Jack! Paticularly due to are limited defensive options
i agree. i think he could go on to be a very key player for us in the coming years.
i hope he’ll get more game time later in the season, but if not I think a loan spell in the second half of the season is something he really needs.
I disagree a bit about eboue, I think he is a ball-winner, and he didnt really get tried out in DM for a decent period of time last season. Now that his confidence is up, it might be worthwhile trying him there again. However he is going away on the african cup of nations along with song.
Rosicky, nasri (& ramsey) are similar players, being tenacious yet forward-thinking players who are disciplined enough to play a defensive midfield role – but I agree they are not ball-winners, more intercepters like denilson. Nasri would probably still get the nod to play DM with those 2 away and denilson out.
Nonetheless I would hope and expect coquelin will get a few more opportunities in the coming months thanks to a combination of injuries and the AFC.
To be fair, I have not watched the lad; but, i can offer an insight into who will come in, should Song ad Denilson be unavailable: Big Phil Senderos.
A valid point about Senderos there. He was tried there in pre-season, clearly with a view to use him as back up.
Personally I would love to see the likes of Wilshere, Ramsey and Coquelin clock up more first team minutes but I don’t think this will happen unless games are wrapped up early. Ramsey and Wilshere were warming up the whole of the second half vs. Birmingham and it was only after we scored the 3rd that Jack got the last 5 minutes.
Eris: It’s possible as he played there a bit in pre-season (more due to the absence of any one else who could play there), but what about the Verminator in the Song midfield role with Senderos/Silvestre at the back?
Mind you, Wenger was always reluctant to try Kolo out there last year so probably won’t happen.
Davi – I wouldn’t class Eboue as a big ball winner. He isn’t that great when it comes to tackling.
Eris – I doubt it but it wouldn’t surprise me.
It’s completely up to Francis i feel. If he impresses in the CC (where he will definitely get a chance) then AW will have no qualms about calling on him. I love this kid, he’s abslutely fearless and plays with his brain. He can also dribble, spot and execute killer passes, can use both feet, has pace, tenacity and can chip in with the odd goal. He pretty much has it all. I truely believe when he gets the necessary experience and knowledge of the game, he’ll go on to be as big, or even bigger than Paddy 4. That’s how great this kid’s potential is. I hope he keeps developing at the rate he’s going. The sky is the limit for him.
kumquat_s – AW stated in pre-season that Senderos was used in that position because he didn’t have space for him to be deployed at CB.
Good write up ed,
But just one question – would anyone here be happy to see an inexperienced youngster (first team action I’m talking here) be thrown on with 10 minutes to go to ‘shore up the game’? Surely as we all have borne witness to – our best form of defense is attack. I can think of numerous occasions AW has brought on a defensive player to see the game home and dry and it’s bitten us on the arse.
TJ – yes he is! He’s excellent in one-on-ones. Probably the best out of our full-backs. He makes tonnes of tackles from wide midfield as well. Nasri and rosicky are also very good tacklers, but eboue has superior pace and strength.
When I watch him, I dont see That much difference in terms of attributes from someone like lassana diarra, except a bit of focus and discipline.
true we can’t be trusted to see out games defensively- that seems to bge the case for ever even if we bring on a defensive player! that said if he’s as good as people here suggest (they’ve seen him a lot more than me so they’d know better than me) then i think he deserves some games. i wonder how he and song would do playing together out of interest. cesc in front of them obviously. might make an excellent defensive shield…? also it might be easier for him to come into the first team alongside song at first where he can share the defensive responsibility with a real dm rather than being chucked in at the deep end to do the whole job himself. it would surely be easier than starting alongside denilson and fabregas who whilst they contribute defensively are not the hustling, destroyer type midfielders like song is
Without song and denilsson the whole team have to defend and going forward a bit different. I feel diaby can do a good job. ramsey is a hard worker too so fabregas and ramsey in the center and diaby as a holding but the whole team have to work hard in defence. Becouse we have such good players in holding roll our formation depends alot on those players but without them we need to change the formation a little bit. Coquelin is very good but still too unexperiance to rely on. If he plays very well against pool it still doesn’t mean he will do a great job in the leauge. With young players you never know when they have a bad day. As many have said.. he wasn’t superb against albion. I will put diaby as a holding any day ahead of Coq at the moment. You never know if he can handle the pressure against very physical men in 93 min. That seems unlikely. But he have a great future for sure.
i think we’ll see soon enough against liverpool if coquelin ready or not. wenger definitely will not use song for that match, with denilson out injured, coquelin will start for sure.
You guys know anything about this:
The Sun says: Arsenal are leading the chase for 14-year-old Montenegro midfielder Nikola Zvrko. Chelsea and Barcelona are also interested in the youngster.
I saw it here: http://www.sundaymercury.net/midlands-sport/trashtalk/2009/10/22/arsenal-chelsea-and-barcelona-in-race-for-14-year-old-66331-24987295/
But it’s obviously from the Sun…
Cheers
Jom – Diaby is not and never will be a DM. He doesn’t have the necessary ingredients to be a success there. Coquelin, despite being the smaller and much younger guy, has more balls than Diaby. Diaby’s main qualities lie in dribbling and shooting with his stronger foot. He’s a big guy but he’s big for nothing. He can’t head for shit and lacks bravery. He has poor concentration and has a very annoying knack of holding onto the ball a second or two too long. I like the fact that he can pop up with a goal every now and then but he doesn’t give us much else. AW is determined to make a success of him though as he’s a good lad and has unfulfilled potential.
Just because a guy looks like a big scary midfield destroyer, doesn’t mean he is one. A player’s pro’s and con’s have to analysed and identified in order to deploy them in a position where they will be most beneficial to the team, hence, Diaby playing as a DM is a recipe for disaster and Wenger will play someone like Nasri or Ramsey there before Diaby is deployed there.
The reason why Coquelin wasn’t so great against Albion is because he took to the field with an almost entire youth team. Any team that lacks so much experience will have frailties exposed. It’s really hard to impress against seasoned pro’s (especially ones who have PL experience such as Albion’s players) when your team is predominantly young and experienced.
You notice how Ferguson never puts out anything close a really young side? He’ll play his Macheda’s, Welbeck’s, DeLaet’s, Gibson’s, Fabio’s and Rafael’s but they’ll always be surrounded by players such as Rio, Vidic, O’Shea, Owen, Giggs, Scholes, Carrick, VDS, Park, Berbatov at different times. He doesn’t have the balls to play a really young side all together without much experience.
Coquelin’s brilliant but I feel he still lacks some strength. He has everything else, though. Well, maybe some misplaced passes now and then. I can’t wait for him to get into the first team.
This team that Arsene’s building is just brilliant. So many young talented players coming through. Don’t think we’ll need to spend much for the foreseeable future.
TJ – I never said anything abaout Diabys size. I think he can be good in that roll becouse he have very good posisional awereness. If you are in the right place in the right time you don’t need to make hard tackles all the time. With diaby you know what you got. Ramsey should defend the middle with diaby and the rest of the team very good too. I have seen ramsey play alot and he is out of posision many times during a game. that is why he shouldn’t play a holding roll by himself. No one here have ever seen Coq play in the PL. All we have seen is what he is doing in the reserves and the reserve leauge is like leauge 1 football. I would never put a unexperiance holding midfielder in field for 93 min! that is so crazy. ramsey is very good but diaby is better in that holding roll. Coq is far too untested to be given a chance in the first team already. Ramsey is better than coq in the holding position.
I think it is a good time for Wenger to give him the type of starts he afforded Ramssy to give him a feel of what first team is like so in case Song injured or in the last 10 minutes of a game he could put him on.
DM is a very high-pressure position in the Premiership. People who are surprised at Francis’ lack of opportunities in the 1st XI shouldn’t be. It is a position where youthful enthusiasm doesn’t have the same benefits as, say, a striker.
Coquelin has the Liverpool game as an oppotunity to prove himself. I expect AW to then make a decision about bringing him into the first team as a backup to Nasri when Song goes to the AFCON.
I disagree completely Jom. Obviously Coquelin can’t just be thrown in at the deep end (he’s still only 18), that’s why i completely agree with what Stu5 says about letting him play in the same side as Song just to get him accustomed to the PL and to have someone there beside/behind him who can clear up any mistakes he may make on his first few appearances. I would feel much more comfortable with Coquelin there rather than Diaby, Ramsey or Nasri as that’s his natural position and it would save putting a square peg in a round hole and having an AM having to learn to play as a DM at the cost of PL points (something which has cost us a lot over the past few years as this team has grown together).
Performance @ U18s & reserves level are a stepping to 1st team so Coq has to perform @ 1st team level when chances arises.
You’re high on crack if you expect Coquelin to step into Song’s position when he’s barely had any first team experience from the bench let alone getting significant time
Very, very correct Norman.
I am 1 of Coquelin’s biggest fans but I do not think there is much chance of him being called to play in the first team other than the Carling Cup this season or possibly even next season. I think a loan spell in the championship could help his development. Just look at how Alex Song came back from Charlton.
Knowing Arsene, i think We will ahve to do with denilson and diaby as the “defensive” type midfielders for about 1and a half months till song come back. ACN Jan 10-jan 31
Sat 9, jan-Everton
Sat 16, jan- Bolton
Sat 23 of Jan, FA Cup
Wds 27, Aston Villa
Sat 30, Man Utd
If song’s team drops out he can play agains man utd if he chooses. I think Arsenal wont buy any1. Coquelin is good, but too young for that role.
When Song goes it will prob be Ramsey or Nasri in the centre or maybe Denilson if he’s back. Though i think Coq deserves a chance.
The best Coq could do for his chances of any first team appearance’s is perform well in the Carling cup cometition, if he plays of course. But the lad has fantastic quality and bite to his game which sets him apart, and he really has a good engine. He’s definitely one for the future thou.
Senderos could also do job in midfield providing he just keeps it simple, his lack of speed is not so much of problem in DM position
His time will come, he most likely isnt physcailly up to it.To put him in the first team now could do him more harm than good
I think it’s pretty clear that Denilson will take Song’s place once he leaves for the ACN. Nasri might drop a little deeper, especially against bigger teams. Missing Song will be bad, especially as we have both Villa and United in that time. However, I think that Nasri, Denilson and Cesc can deal with those United cocksuckers. I wished we had Chelsea during the ACN, without Drogba and Essien they aren’t half a team.
Wenger confirmed that Nasri will play against Liverpool in the CC. I think that means that Watt will lose his place. The defence will probably be the same while the rest will look like this:
———–Le Coq————-
—–Ramsey–Nasri/Merida——
Wilshere—Vela——Nasri/Merida
For the ACN period Denilson should be fit. den should be fit in 4 weeks. even if Den got injured again, I still dont feel Coq would be used, as much as I would like to see more of the lad. After Den probably Ramsey would get that position, but Wenger could do anything!
When Song is away. Need to give Fran Merida a go or this talented boy will probably walk away free to sevilla at the end of this season.
Coquelin is still very young, he can wait. time is definite on his side…..
Completely Offtopic but please someone confirm to me BALOTELLI is comming in January.
We’d be the mother of all attacking lineups (MOAAL)
I cant see AW relying on Coquelin when SOng goes to Angola in january. It will be denilson, diaby or Paddy if he comes back.
TJ- we will have to wait and see. Nasri have played in that role too and he did a good job but hopefully Denilson will be back and we will not have any problem. But Coquelin is definetly too young for now. If Coq wont be given any chances before Song leave we all knows what that means.
I doubt Coquelin would get the chance if Song got injured. It will be Diaby, Ramsey, even Eboue before him, I believe.
Lets not Coq this up :) Imo he should go on loan nxt year with a championship side or a small french team in lique 1. Denilson/Nasri will cover for the ACN.But we really a top class DM in the January window.As Wenger & Gazidis say we have money so come on chaps!
Arsenal are interested in Nikola Zvrko, according to the Daily Mail.
Barcelona and Chelsea too, but Arsenal leading the chase to sign him.
Also Arsenal are interested in Sergio Canales, who plays for Racing Santander and für the U19 of Spain.
The last one ist Mario Balotelli, Arsenal scouts watched him last weekend.
Remember that Coquelin is less than a year younger than Ramsey, who played quite a bit last season, and 3 years younger than Denilson, who played against PSV in the CL last 16 3 years ago. So is he too young? Maybe too young for a starting berth but not too young to play in the EPL. The problem is that we have quite a bit of midfielders who are more experienced and ahead of him in the pecking order: Fabregas, Nasri, Song, Denilson, Diaby, Rosicky, Ramsey, Eboue, Merida. That’s a long list of players and even with Song and Eboue going to the ACN, it will take a lot for him to get EPL games. If we had injuries to Denilson and Nasri, for example, during the ACN then I think Wenger would have no problem throwing Le Coq in there.
Also, if Sagna gets injured during the ACN then who knows, maybe Francis will get a chance at RB.
I’m not saying he should play there. I’m simply saying that i would feel much more comfortable with him there than anyone else bar Song and Denilson right now (and maybe Senderos). As for Nasri playing DM, no thanks. I still have painful memories of the 4-1 loss to the Chavs last year.
I have been watching Coguelin for numbers of times. I have been very impressed the way he played and he is definitely future Arsenal player. Also he was a bit reminded me of Henry because of the way he dribble, pass and the body movement. Anyone agree?
Completely agree, Coquelin has stood out for me since his arrival and I cannot believe the guy is only 18. Remember he can play at right back as well and we aren’t particularly blessed in that position either.
Arsene needs to give him some minutes in the first team now, cos Song’s away at the African Nations in January and I’m not sure Denilson can step up to that role.
I find Ramsey too slow and not physical enough for the DM role, on a regular basis (during the ACN). Anything short of Denilson, Diaby or, perhaps,the Verminator at DM is a sure recipe for disaster. I maintain that the only other ‘experiment’ Le Boss may be willing to have is with Phil Senderos. Coquelin will get his time soon, starting with full shifts in the CC.
i would have said vermaelen would have sat in there in songs absence but now im not sure wenger will upset the centre back partnership….i would like to see coq given a chance there but i do belive diaby could do a job if he just listened and sat there giving the ball to the players who can play-my fear for him is his casual protection of the ball-he loses the ball alot!…you may laugh but i genuinely think that with his calmness and intelligence gibbs could play in a defensive midfield role-admittedly it could go wrong but the kid has natural ability and reminds me of rio ferdinand on the ball when his coming from the back…also lansbury is looking really good at watford(not for def mid obviously) he is definitely for me 1 of the most promising english youngster at the moment..he plays like hes a experienced player with lots of confidence i just hope he doesnt get cocky cos he looks the type..
i agree with you Eris that ramsey is not physical enough for the dm role, but he is definitely not slow!
a-dog, now, Gibbs is a makeshift DM suggestion I can understand; he is the kind of player who can do a job in that role and even make it his. I mentioned Diaby, only because I couldn’t remember other fit options. He can be Diab(y)olical, like I keep observing, in his defensive clearances and really should not be “allowed” too close to our defence.
Sharpovic, I make my judgement as I see it; maybe he is no slouch but that role requires some non-stop zig-zag running, plus some speedy, covering runs. Maybe, I haven’t watched Ramsey that closely to give an opinion of him as DM.
Mark my words, Nasri and Denilson will play in back of Fabregas once Song leaves for Angola
Having him play in the Carling Cup is great way to see how well he performs when the pressure is in. http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
Nasri,Denilson nad Diaby will do it. Thats Arsene wenger’s way, it saves money, and i think they are more than capable of doing it for a month.
You are right. Thanks for the analysis. Keep posting
definitly one of my fav from the reserve, a futur great DM for sure but may be too young to start in this position with the first team, diaby and denilson are better choice right now