Friday, June 29th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Phil Gregory

Looking at the midfield for next season, two words loom large: Jack Wilshere. The youngster was a huge player during his breakthrough season which culminated in a sublime display in that fantastic 2-1 victory over Barcelona but missed the entirety of last season after picking up what was initially thought to be a minor ankle knock during the Emirates Cup.

I scouted through Arsenal.com to find the latest on Jack but it all seems quite hush-hush, considering he is one of our top players. The three most recent stories are all from the end of last season, one with Wenger saying Arsenal won’t be setting any specific targets for Wilshere (which may explain the lack of communication as to his progress) while the other two related to a minor knee injury and subsequent surgery which weren’t expected to significantly affect his return date “in the summer”.

That last bit of course is key: he’s expected back fit at some point this summer, which could mean there won’t be any announcement as to his return to fitness until he turns out versus Boreham Wood for a half or some similar low-level friendly. Currently, I think no news means nothing at the moment. The last thing Arsenal want is to release a statement saying Wilshere is doing well for him then to have a setback, likewise there is nothing to be gained from telling the world he has had a setback given his stop-start recovery so far.

Given that then, it seems reasonable to expect him to be fit for the start of the season, but I also expect a season of niggly little injuries of the type that affected Eduardo and Ramsey in their comebacks from long-term injuries. Naturally a leg break is different to what happened to Jack, but after such a long time off his muscles won’t quite be used to the strain of competitive football right away, so some minor pulls and strains are to be expected.

If we consider the midfield three to consist of a “Defensive” midfielder (usually Song), a deep-lying midfielder (the “Wilshere role”) and a more advaned midfielder playmaking, we can fairly easily consider our options for  these positions going forwards. Naturally those definitions are pretty loose, given Song racked up something like nine assists last year, but they are only designed to allow us to consider the different players which are options for each others’ roles: you wouldn’t count Frimpong as an option for the playmaker role, but he is cover for the defensive midfielder when fit, for example.

Starting with Song then, the aforementioned Frimpong is one option for cover but is expected to miss a fair portion of the season. He sustained his injury in late December so assuming a nine month absence he will be involved in late September/October time, fingers crossed. More directly, Coquelin will be in the mixer for covering Song and is more than good enough for the job. Once Frimpong is back I think we’ll be absolutely fine in this particular part of the midfield.

Moving slightly further forwards, Arteta will probably be a mainstay in the deeper midfield role for a second successive season after impressing there last year. Here, Wilshere’s return to fitness is key: we saw how quickly our results tailed off once the Spaniard got injured last season and Wilshere would bring both depth and quality. As long as Arteta stays fit, we will be able to get be with a stop-start season from Wilshere on the comeback trail. If Wilshere struggles to get on the pitch this year, we will be light here with the likes of Diaby (himself an injury worry) and Ramsey not as effective as Arteta or Jack in that deeper role.

For me, concern around Jack’s fitness could be a logical reason for our apparent interest in M’Vila. I don’t see why we’d be signing a player for the defensive midfield role given the availability of Song, Coquelin and soon, Frimpong but in the deeper lying role we are reliant on Wilshere’s return to health. This to me seems the most logical reason for us to be interested in the Frenchman.

Moving further forward, options for the playmaker position are numerous but the quality is not quite at the same level as the other two positions. If he can stay fit, Diaby could well perform well in the role but Diaby staying fit is by no means a dead cert. On the other hand Rosicky seems to have put his injury troubles behind him but if we want to challenge for the title I’m not convinced he has quite the level of quality we need in that position. I think he’s a cracking player and a great option to have in the squad, but I’m not sure he’s up to the burden of being a first choice playmaker. Aaron Ramsey has all the potential to succeed in that role, but went off the boil somewhat last season, likely due to it being his first full year of playing consistent games. I expect the Welshman to grow into the role this year and win back over the doubters, but again expecting him to playmake from the off maybe a bridge too far if we are targetting the league.

One option there would be to move Arteta forward into that position – he clearly has the ability on the ball to perform there – and fill the gap with the potential signing of M’Vila supported by a returning to fitness Wilshere.  That would allow a bit of rotation in the squad, with the likes of Ramsey or Rosicky able to come in and playmake if we need Arteta further back for whatever reason (probably injuries!).

From that, I’m a little more convinced about the need to sign M’Vila, or someone entirely different in the playmaking role. It’d certainly be useful in our quest for silverware this year, but I also have a lot of faith in the players we already have in the squad.

Does Lansbury have a role somewhere? For me, the competition in all positions just looks too much for him to feasibly squeeze in somewhere and impress. I’m not convinced he’s at Arsenal first eleven level yet, a Premier League loan spell much like Cleverley at United could be the making of him though.

A wildcard option would be the Ox coming in and bossing the midfield a la Milan at home. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing that again once or twice!

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