Chili Palmer wrote:
Rex wrote:
We, as a team, miss a functional central midfield. Not the same thing IMO.
Swallow your pride, Rex. You've made 40k posts telling us that Ramsey is better than Cazorla, and what not. At least admit that he's by far our best CM whether he's your typical CM or not.
Since we started playing Santi in CM:
United 1-2 Arsenal
Santi Coq
Ox Özil Alexis
Welbz
Arsenal 3-0 United
Santi Coq
Rambo Özil Alexis
Theo
United 3-2 Arsenal
Coq Ramsey
Welbz Özil Alexis
Theo
United 1-1 Arsenal
Coq Elneny
Theo Özil Rambo
Alexis
Look at our last 4 results against United, with Santi we perform, without him we, simply put, suck.
Coq, Mesut, Alexis played all 4.
Ramsey played 3, in our best game vs them he played RW, in our worst he played CM in a partnership you, Rex, were gloating and murdering Wenger for not trying because it would be soooo good. Yesterday he played LW, where we all knew he would suck, not on him.
Santi however played in our two wins vs them, where he arguably was MOM in both.
Terrific player. Sad to see the ongoing agenda against some of our best players.
Good post, Chili! Saw it this morning, wanted to answer properly, been busy all day. 🙂
Chili, pride has nothing to do with it. I happen to rate Ramsey highly, which is no big surprise to anyone on here. I think he has outstanding attributes which I feel come to the fore when he plays in central midfield, but not at all really when played on the flank. However, I have also said that I think he really needs to improve as a central midfielder to become a complete player! On many occasions, when he has had the opportunity to play in central midfield, I have been critical of his performances. Ramsey still has flaws, and I will be the first to admit that! Having said that, I have also been vocal when saying that I don't believe playing him wide is ever going to be the answer. In short, he is a decent player for us playing from the flank, but I don't think he will ever amount to anything else from that position. I also don't for a second believe that Aaron playing on the flank is magically going to make him a better central midfielder one day. Personally, I rate Ramsey so highly that I totally think it is worth it to stick with him as a central midfielder for a full season, warts and all, because I think it would be well worth it in the end.
Cazorla is a great player, he truly is. He is absolutely amazing on the ball. IMO though, he is at best mediocre when we have to defend. Coquelin makes it work with Cazorla though; that cannot be denied. I still think we as a team are at a disadvantage defensively with Cazorla in central midfield! Cazorla and Coquelin are good together, but I feel two more allround players like Xhaka and Ramsey rather than two specialists like Caz and Coq can be even better. Personally, I don't think Ramsey and Coquelin got a proper shot at gelling, but then again Coquelin's weaknesses don't really combine well with Ramsey's weaknesses; perhaps the two of them would have never made it work. Xhaka's skill set, on the other hand, looks to combine really well with what Ramsey has to offer. I'm very excited to see the two of them given an extended run together.
Ramsey isn't playing in central midfield because of Cazorla. In the short term, that may very well have been the best choice. At the same time, I feel that choice has potentially tricked us out of something even better. That's been the basis all the time of my argument of why I have always wanted to see Ramsey played in the middle.
