Wilshere and the balance between long and short term « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Walter Broeckx

So Arsenal dropped two points at Aston Villa last Saturday. And again the end of the universe is near. No I must admit I couldn’t see the game myself. As most know I am active as a ref myself and because of some bad luck my own game was starting when Arsenal played the second half in Birmingham. So because of the travel arrangements I couldn’t see the game. So I cannot comment on the game itself and will give my thoughts on things without having seen the game. I only saw the highlights on Match of the Day and highlights on my local sports channel.

Looking at the highlights it looked as if Arsenal had the better and the most chances of the two teams. So I can only conclude that we have played better than at Norwich. Where it was really a bad affaire. As it can happen to any team. Ask United who also lost at Norwich. And the same United that almost lost their game at Villa Park a few weeks ago.

One of the main talking points around the internet was the fact that Wilshere was on the bench and didn’t play. I think him being on the bench was something that was hidden in something that Wilshere said before the game at Aston Villa.  Wilshere himself said that he thought he was at 80 to 85% of his physical ability. That was after the Montpellier game.

My first reaction when reading this was: maybe resting him against Villa would not be a bad idea. So it happened. And some weren’t happy about this. And wanted the manager to explain this. I just wondered if people are really that dumb?

In his first season Wilshere played and played and played and played and played. But as he is such a talented player and looked very strong you think he is unbreakable. Now we know better. He is made of flesh and blood and can get an injury as any other player. After being out for such a long period it is almost ridiculous to having to explain why you rest a player from time to time when he has been playing already 2 games in the 7 days before the third game of that week.

Of course we want him to play all the time. But we should know that this is not and never will be possible in football as it is now these days. Even Messi is rested at Barcelona from time to time in their two team league. And Messi has no previous serious injury record. It is impossible for any player to play each game. And certainly when you come back from an injury that was as bad as the one Jack had.

Let us not forget that during last season at many times we heard rumours that he might never return at all. Rumours saying that he would have to stop being a footballer. I must say that when I read those rumours I prayed that they were just false rumours (as most rumours are) but well you never know.  Stress fractures are more dangerous than a contact fracture one of the doctors I know told me about it. More difficult to detect at first, more difficult to heal and bigger chance of coming back. Now I am not a doctor so I can only believe what they told me but if this is the case I think Wenger has every reason to be careful with Jack.

But because he has been out so long you also have to be careful to not provoke other injuries like muscular injuries. Wilshere is a player who likes to battle on the field and getting involved in contact with other players. He’s not scared at all and kicking and getting kicked is part of the job. But when you have been out for so long each kick can cause you a problem.

I think it is remarkable that since coming back he hasn’t got any muscular injuries so far. I expected him to have a calf or thigh or grown injury by now. I probably have jinxed it right now but it would be very natural to have such little injuries that can keep you away from the field for a few weeks. I think it is partly down to Wenger handling him softly and taking him off after one hour of playing that he hasn’t had such injuries until now. But it still could come.

And imagine if it would come after being played full games in a row every 3 days? We would be screaming against Wenger : why didn’t you rest him?  Wenger has said from the start when Wilshere returned that they would be very careful in playing him and that they needed to look further than the next game when it came to playing him. But people forget easily. Now it looks as if he has been around for ages. Believe me it is only a good month that he returned to the squad and was match fit.

We shouldn’t question the selection of non-selection of Wilshere. I think we should accept that we don’t know the complete ins and outs of fitness levels players have. Maybe Wenger got a warning from one of the medical staff that after the Montpellier game (a very intense 90 minutes for Wilshere) he would need more time to recover compared to other team mates who didn’t have the injury problems.  And well apparently even they didn’t as fit as they did against the totts and Montpellier.

Of course a the end of the game against Aston Villa one could say: we would have won this game with Wilshere in the team. That is just an opinion people can have. But it isn’t certain you know. We have lost games with Wilshere in the team and it can happen again. It is no 100% guarantee to have him in the team and to take all 3 points.

And with the next game being maybe more important than the game against Aston Villa it was a good thing to try to make sure that Wilshere would be 100% fit for the game at Everton. And even then we still don’t know how really fit he will be for this game. Like I said there are no certainties in football.

The only certainty we have is that the team looked tired but this week all the teams will have to play 3 games in a week so it might have been a good thing to bring on his fresher legs at Everton.

Let us just be patient with Wilshere. And accept that from time to time he will need a rest and in the next two months this will certainly be needed more than ever. The last thing I want to happen is to lose Wilshere with a new injury. I can’t even understand the debate or that there can be a debate about it.

A fit Wilshere is a benefit for Arsenal. So doing all he can to keep him fit is the best thing for Wilshere and for Arsenal in the long run. Even when it means not playing him every now and then.