Feel Sorry for Chamakh – and Arshavin and Eboue and Bendtner (!) and Denilson (!!)

Correct  ... your eyes have not deceived you. 

We again read that Arsenal will offload the underperforming Marouane Chamakh in the next transfer window.  He is another of Wenger’s disappointing buys. OK in the end he got him on a free but he had tried to pay good money for him before that.  He started well in his first few months at Arsenal, led the line, scored goals, headed goals - which was unheard of at The Arsenal.  Then he went right off and has stayed right off.

Perhaps it would have helped just a little bit if he had played – instead of being stuck on the bench or brought on for a quick 20 minutes when all else had failed ?  But if one recalls .... RVP was injured for much of Chamakh’s early months so he got game time and rose to the occasion very well.  Plus he looked like someone out of a Marseille knife gang which made a nice change.  What happened next ?  Chamakh was injured for a while. Then RVP became fit to play and there was only room for one – isolated on his own down the middle. So it was ...cheers  Marouane, see you  some time.  No game time means no form which means no confidence. And can Wenger be flexible enough to move the formation around to accommodate ?   In a word  ... NO.

This a recurring theme. Wenger fixes on one formation – no significant tactical changes – and you fit into that somewhere or otherwise ....  tough. He has this obsession about ... if you are a good technical player (which they mostly are) you can play anywhere. That’s one reason why we have not had a decent defence for some years.  Too many defenders (eg. Clichy)  have been in because they are skilful footballers NOT because they are special at keeping the ball out of our net.

Take Eboue, we all remember the poor xxx being booed off. I always thought that was at least in part a protest at Wenger’s style of football. But in so far as  it was anti Eboue ... he never asked to be converted from a full back to a wide midfielder. He was filled with doubt all along. Now he has gone – and hey ... he was the best diver we had (!)

Take Bendtner,  yes he was a fool to vow he would be the world’s best and etc. But how much form and confidence could he retain ... warming the bench before the last 15 minutes on the wing ?  He is a central striker, a target man.  If you are good, you can play anywhere ?  Utter rubbish.      

Take Denilson, he ended up one the least popular Arsenal players.  He never asked to be converted to defensive midfield ... for which he so was obviously unsuited. You don’t captain Brazil under 19s if you are useless but he was a more advanced sweeper who also to score goals. We had enough advanced midfielders ... so you’d better protect the back four (sometimes.)  If you are technically good (which he is) you can play anywhere. What a lot of tripe.

Take Arshavin, a previously brilliant star of Russian football. That was when he had a role which suited him, making goals, scoring goals in tandem with another forward. He was the man. He too started off well at Arsenal, scoring loads, still in great form.  Then Chamakh got injured as well as RVP and so, for several weeks, Arshavin had to play as a lone target man up front. Again, there was no attempt by Le Professeur to adapt the system according to who we had available.  We have also heard Andre was depressed after Russia failed to qualify for the World Cup. This may be true, I don’t know. What I do know is he has probably been more depressed by having to play - out of position – wide left. It isn’t Arshavin. He tries to track back but doesn’t know what he is doing defensively and gets few opportunities in central positions ... where he made his name.  If you are really good, you can play anywhere ?  What unadulterated garbage. 

Fentiger

Comments

[anonymous]

Spot on on his mindset,where most problems in the real world hit him when he has limited finance but hoping to achieve perfection on a shoe string,stark reality can be cruel a lot of times.

[Darran Lancley]

I agree with your saying to an extent....but you go too far. WAY too far

Chamakh lost the ability to score sitters in the rare starts he did get. He has been given enough chances this year and has contributed little. That miss against Olympiakos cost have been very costly.

I have watched Denilson time and time again. Don't think you can defend him. Our DM do tend to push further forward anyway and he has still done little. He can pass sideways, granted but that isn't enough. Very little 'technical ability' for a Brazilian and I am sure I can count on two hands the amount of assists and goals he has ever had. Defensively he is poor. Yes, maybe he isn't naturally defensive, but all central midfielders should have some sort of defensive awareness. When we lost 3-1 to Utd couple years ago, he was involved in all 3!

Bendtner I agree with you especially his position out wide. He is better than people make out and when he has played CF he has got some important goals. Same time, his complacency has also let me down and he sadly hasn't worked hard enough because of it.

By the Eboue comment I just realised you were a 'Wenger out person'. A small minority booed him 3-4 years ago and that's all you can pinpoint? He has been cult hero last few years and fans have been upset he has left because he was a useful player for us and good for the team.

I would like Arshavin to be centre, but being left wing isn't all bad, he has freedom and he decides to not make the most of it. Its only this year he has chosen to defend, so he shouldn't have much excuse previous seasons.

Anyway stop making blatant anti-Wenger articles.

[D A]

totally agree with the article 100% Arshavin was one of the best players in Europe when he signed, and he played as such when he first signed. Then Wenger has' worked on him' to the point he's a shell of himself playing out of position in an inflexible formation, he can't get his form back because he only gets 10mins off the bench when we're chasing the game. Bendtner, much hated and i never liked him but to be fair when he did play for Arsenal, Wenger had him playing as a right winger, which is bordering on ridiculous. Considering he is exclusively a target man.Same with Chamakh he was terrific when he signed, but instead of finding a way for both him and RVP to play, Chamakh comes off the bench with 10mins to go, and we wonder why he too suddenly looks like a horrendous footballer. Now that wenger sold our best players its a chance for Wenger to try and put Arshavin in the central creativ attacking role he made his name for but instead he's rotting on the bench, and we wonder why their confidence is low. Why are we 15th look no further than Arsene.

[Vlad]

spot on on arshavin