Bold Tone wrote:
Jed wrote:
Coquelin has not been on form recently and shouldn't start ahead of Xhaka or Ramsey imo.
Coquelin plays a completely different role to Xhaka and Ramsey.
His main uses, (tackles, interceptions, ball recoveries and relative pace), do not come to the fore against defensive teams that sit back.
These are attributes Xhaka and Ramsey lack and our poor performances this month would have been worse without him.
Ramsey is ace at intercepting the ball. The main thing you miss when Coquelin isn't there is the cautionness. He's given instructions to press high but he quickly moves back to support the defence afterwards.
You could argue this is a bit like wearing both belt and suspenders though, especially when he can't do anything useful with the ball once it has been won in an attacking zone. A better player, such as Ramsey or Cazorla, is more useful in that scenario. Personally I think this is the thing we've missed the most lately. You can get by with an imbalanced midfield for as long as you have the tools to do some damage when you're in possession.
Our flat base midfield by comparison offers very few passing angles, which means there are fewer options and more pressure every time we try to build up an attack. Özil is the third point of the triangle, but he's way up in the attack, and without a player in-between there's no triangle; it's just a straight line. Which means that either he drops too deep (which is insane considering his unique attacking qualities) or you leave all of the responsibility to the fullbacks.
