Francis Coquelin, one off or genuine midfield option for us this season?: Page 37 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Francis Coquelin, one off or genuine midfield option for us this season?

Tam

I like how Coquelin steps out with the ball if there are no decent passing options and a bit of space in front of him. He moves forward with the ball sharply and with purpose. There's no waste in his game, no sideways passing for the sake of it and no playing meaningless one twos with the nearest player, he either looks to move it to the closest attacking player, or he'll move forward with it himself into space.

Anzac

MistaT wrote:
Yeah, I'm not seeing Coquelin as a far step down, and if he is its only because he's being compared to the likes of Cazorla, Ozil and Ramsey or the top top class from the world's best teams.

Put it another way, out of our entire team who would you rather have the deepest?

Certainly not any of those three though I can appreciate the argument for Wilshere (if he were to curb his dribbling).

IMO you can play any of those 3 as DLP IF you then provide the required level of protection ahead of them,
and Coquelin can do so from CM.

TBH I'd prefer someone like Vidal but I don't see AW actually spending money on a DM/ball winner type, otherwise he'd have already done so these past 7 seasons. I suspect it's internal development options or none at all so far as any DM/ball winner is concerned.

Klaus

MistaT wrote:
Put it another way, out of our entire team who would you rather have the deepest?

Arteta.

Timbob

Abso-diddly-lutely.

Bold Tone

"Villa’s struggles in possession were partly caused by poor performances from their own players, but Francis Coquelin also deserves a huge amount of credit. After half a season of excellent performances, the Frenchman’s competence can no longer come as a huge surprise. Nevertheless, his performance at Wembley was outstanding, particularly the way he won possession so consistently and so smoothly.
Statistically, the key to Coquelin’s performance was the number of ‘recoveries’ he made. His tackling and intercepting also featured (two each), but 11 recoveries was an extremely high figure, something you’ll rarely see in a top-level game."
http://www.arsenal.com/news/features/20150603/coquelin-king-of-the-recovery

Gazza M

Tam wrote:
I like how Coquelin steps out with the ball if there are no decent passing options and a bit of space in front of him. He moves forward with the ball sharply and with purpose. There's no waste in his game, no sideways passing for the sake of it and no playing meaningless one twos with the nearest player, he either looks to move it to the closest attacking player, or he'll move forward with it himself into space.

yes, while he has limits on the ball, he knows those limits and doesn't overextend himself. this season he rarely got caught on the ball, or made bad decisions that got his teammates in trouble.

do we stick or twist with coq? i'm still undecided if he's cocked and locked for that position next season

spacemanspiff

I too am undecided if he's locked, stocked and 2 smoking cocks as our #1 DM next season...

banduan

I'd like to see an Arty - Coq midfield just to see how it works out.

speedy

Arteta hasn't been able to cut it in the big games for a few seasons now. If were serious about going up a gear we have to leave him behind.

Claudius

Arteta is finished. If we don't bring in another midfielder who can do what Coq does (with him or in place of him), we will be in trouble. He'll break down in much the same way that Giroud and Ramsey have broken down in recent seasons. And then we'll have Flamini's "Brownian Motion" one man play to marvel at.

Armor

speedy wrote:
Arteta hasn't been able to cut it in the big games for a few seasons now. If were serious about going up a gear we have to leave him behind.

I think he had some of his finest games for Arsenal in 13/14 but yes he's done now i'm afraid. Hopefully he stays though. He's highly respected here and i doubt he can play week in week out for another team anyway .

ElGeniodeOviedo

Just for reference, Claude Makalele, Javier Mascherano, Nigel de Jong, Michael Essien, Nemanja Matic, and Sami Khedira have featured for title winning sides over the last decade. Even cloggers like Lassana Diarra and Darren Fletcher have been central pieces in "Europe's best sides"in recent times. I don't think Coquelin is noticeably worse technically than any of these players from what I've observed.

You don't have to possess Michael Laudrup-ball playing wizardry to be a good central midfielder. Patrick Viera and Roy Keane were not on Pirlo's level in terms of technique. That's alright because Pirlo had Gattusso.

Even Busquets, as comfortable in the short passing game as he is, is hardly ever making lung bursting runs or raking forward passes. While Arteta does show good defensive awareness as far as positioning goes, he's frankly just too slow and has been for a good while now.

Rex

We certainly shouldn't try to replace Coquelin with a ball player like Gündogan IMO.

flobaba

innervisionscm wrote:
Yeah, that's a hell of a performance. Credit to the guy, he's played pretty well in important games and has probably sewn up the DM spot for next season.

Guess who posted this?

Gunner89

The name over the quote gives a tiny hint?

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