Correct … your eyes have not deceived you. We again read that Arsenal will offload the underperforming Marouane Chamakh in the next transfer window. He is another of Wenger’s disappointing buys. OK in the end he got him on a free but he had tried to pay good money for him before that. He started well in his first few months at Arsenal, led the line, scored goals, headed goals – which was unheard of at The Arsenal. Then he went right off and has stayed right off.
Perhaps it would have helped just a little bit if he had played – instead of being stuck on the bench or brought on for a quick 20 minutes when all else had failed ? But if one recalls …. RVP was injured for much of Chamakh’s early months so he got game time and rose to the occasion very well. Plus he looked like someone out of a Marseille knife gang which made a nice change.
What happened next ? Chamakh was injured for a while. Then RVP became fit to play and there was only room for one – isolated on his own down the middle. So it was …cheers Marouane, see you some time. No game time means no form which means no confidence. And can Wenger be flexible enough to move the formation around to accommodate ? In a word … NO.
This is a recurring theme. Wenger fixes on one formation – no significant tactical changes – and you fit into that somewhere or otherwise …. tough. He has this obsession about … if you are a good technical player (which they mostly are) you can play anywhere. That’s one reason why we have not had a decent defence for some years. Too many defenders (eg. Clichy) have been in because they are skilful footballers NOT because they are special at keeping the ball out of our net.
Take Eboue, we all remember the poor xxx being booed off. I always thought that was at least in part a protest at Wenger’s style of football. But in so far as it was anti Eboue … he never asked to be converted from a full back to a wide midfielder. He was filled with doubt all along. Now he has gone – and hey … he was the best diver we had (!)
Take Bendtner, yes he was a fool to vow he would be the world’s best and etc. But how much form and confidence could he retain … warming the bench before the last 15 minutes on the wing ? He is a central striker, a target man. If you are good, you can play anywhere ? Utter rubbish.
Take Denilson, he ended up one the least popular Arsenal players. He never asked to be converted to defensive midfield … for which he so was obviously unsuited. You don’t captain Brazil under 19s if you are useless but he was a more advanced type midfielder who also used to score goals. We had enough advanced midfielders … so you’d better protect the back four (sometimes.) If you are technically good (which he is) you can play anywhere. What a lot of tripe.
Take Arshavin, a previously brilliant star of Russian football. That was when he had a role which suited him, making goals, scoring goals in tandem with another forward. He was the man. He too started off well at Arsenal, scoring loads, still in great form. Then Chamakh got injured as well as RVP and so, for several weeks, Arshavin had to play as a lone target man up front. Again, there was no attempt by Le Professeur to adapt the system according to who we had available. We have also heard Andrei was depressed after Russia failed to qualify for the World Cup. This may be true, I don’t know. What I do know is he has probably been more depressed by having to play – out of position – wide left. It isn’t Arshavin. He tries to track back but doesn’t know what he is doing defensively and gets few opportunities in central positions … where he made his name. If you are really good, you can play anywhere ? What unadulterated garbage.
