Vermaelen is not a central midfielder. Get over it.
Sometimes, a good idea is a good idea. Converting Emmanuel Petit from central defender to central midfielder? Check. Silvain Wiltord from striker to right winger? Check. Thierry Henry from left winger to striker? Oh, double check.
But lately there have been some muffled calls in some corners to convert Thomas ‘the Verminator’ Vermaelen to a central defensive midfielder. And frankly, it’s a bizzare call that should have been nipped in the bud from the get-go.
The calls have sprung up since his goalscoring spree that has set his Arsenal career off to the best possible start. Four premier league goals and one against Standard Liege has seen him quickly become a fan favourite and someone who could give even Nemanja Vidic nightmares.
But simply put, he’s a goalscoring defender, end of. You really don’t hear calls from Chelsea fans to put John Terry up as a forward. How about Liverpool’s Daniel Agger? The man has just as sharp a shot (and has scored more goals, so far) as Vermaelen does, but there’s not a peep over what his position is other than at the back.
The calls possibly come in a clamour for more ‘big name signings’ at the back, like Brede Hangeland. Ironic, given we ‘made’ that signing in the form of Vermaelen. It’s indicative of the fact that if I asked anyone to name a central midfielder to fill the gap we supposedly have, no-one could. So now a new bandwagon has formed, calling for Vermaelen to play in a position he has never played in his club career.
How ironic that such a move would also totally destroy the excellent understanding that William Gallas and Vermaelen have developed. Gallas in particular is in the same mould as Henry, where he needs to be happy to play well. He’s in a much better state than he was with Toure, and the younger Vermaelen is feeding off an excellent, experienced defender like Gallas.
In my previous article, I briefly mentioned how our current formation leaves us very much exposed at the back. Blackburn’s second goal in the 6-2 mauling at the Emirates had both our full backs too far forward, leaving the central defenders fending off more attackers than they could be reasonably expected to handle.
Yet this is something the team will just have to work out. Perhaps it will involve only one full back going forward at a time instead of the synchronised surge Sagna and Clichy seem to prefer.
Or, more to the point I think, maybe it just requires Arsenal to ‘pick her battles’ accordingly and know when the time is right to go for the jugular. Against Blackburn, the team tried to win the game within the first 10 minutes, and paid for it by getting pegged back twice in the first half.
Against teams like Man United or Chelsea, Arsenal will have to mix the conservative with the attacking, at the right moments.
If Arsenal can learn how to suss out the ‘right moment’ this season, they have every chance of winning something this season.
But that will involve Vermaelen at the back, not in midfield.
In other news, don’t forget to check out the latest ArsenalFCBlog weekly podcast – a great little number from a fellow Australian Brisbane blogger. Until tomorrow, happy reading!
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very well said – can’t believe the idiocy going round on some of the other blogs.
Agree that although Vermaelen could probably do a good job as a DM he shouldn’t. We need his aggression at the back.
He does have the tools to do well there – good ball player, aggressive and competitve. We’ve seen how well he can move up the field. We’ve seen him win the ball all over the pitch. It’s not just his goals that people are looking at – give people are bit more credit. Just ‘cos you don’t agree with them doesn’t mean they can’t see the bigger picture.
I think you may be going a bit OTT stating ‘It’s indicative of the fact that if I asked anyone to name a central midfielder to fill the gap we supposedly have, no-one could’ – I could name a shedload of midfielders I would rather have in the first XI than Denilson, Diaby, Song – not least among them being Ramsey! In lalaland I’d go for Essien but the (possibly) achievable players are Mahamadou Diarra or Van der Vaart at Madrid, Toure at Barca, Fellaini at Everton…well…I could go on and would do if I didn’t need the loo.
Fellaini? Good god Rhyle, that belongs in the loo with you
What is “the get-go”?
why is it that whenever someone comes up with something new we immediately say he’s forming a bandwagon and we should immediately take its wheels off?
asking for vermy to play as CM makes sense or at least would make sense if we had a central def capable of replace him. i dont understand why we should talk about terry or agger or any other non-arsenal players.
Agree totally, i don’t think i’d like to change the personell at all now, maybe the GK but thats all that can be improved in my opinion. The only problem to me is defence and thats going to be sorted only by tweaking the system.
Like your website – its bookarked.
Well said Jammathon. The ironic thing is that if he had been playing further forward I suspect he wouldn’t have scored as many goals. Vermaelen is a central defender who is enjoying a Joleon Lescott patch regarding goals and his leap at the back means he should stay where he belongs.
ALEX SONG is arguably one of the best dm in the league!! whoever disagrees can seriously F%& off!!! the man plays his heart out every game and get no recognition. He is a STAR!!!!!
SA gooner, you have a fan in me.
Loving Song too! Wouldn’t change him for anyone at the moment, he’s got so much more to come.
Rumour has it Almunia is dropped, Will Vito keep the spot?
Anyone else here read ANR MYles Palmer – I detest the guy but i always read it, i don’t know why……
Does he have stamina? That’s one of the most essential qualities of a defensive midfielder. Can he run 13 KM per game like Denilson does?
The solution this problem at arsenal is denilson. His absence is the reason they’re shipping goals. The defence needs adding to as there is no real injury cover for Vermy or gallas.By all means have an attacking system, but at least strengthen the defensive shield.
Shift Vermaelen to midfield and whose place career will he take?…..I guess we have the best creative midfield in the league with Arshavin, Cesc & Rosicky (and we still have nasri to come). Song is doing very well in the defensive midfield even denilson was doing quite good, and I think it is very unfair to compare Song to Essien or Mashereno they are well established players and are at the peak of their careers so right now there is no place for Vermaelen in the midfield and we dont have enough backup in the defance either…..and Arsene is very good at sensing such a potential as we have seen many a times in past so if he thinks the transformation can be effective keeping the whole team in mind he will be the first one to introduce it………”IN ARSENE WE TRUST”
pls overlook the “career” in the first line of my post above typed it by mistake……GO Gunners
Totally agree about TV he should stay where he is, Its a bonus that he and gallas can chip in with goals, but the best thing he does is defend and in particular challenge successfully in the air.
The second blackburn goal is hopefully a lesson that all of song, sagna and clichy can’t go forward at the same time – they need to sort the comms out and make sure that we are properly covered at the back. But thats a relatively minor thing to iron out.
I think at City the emotions got to us and the team just wanted to cane them so badly they lost discipline and got caught on the break. Blackburn was probably over confidence – which was well placed ultimately. Against tougher teams i hope we start to see more caution though as we can’t expect to simply outscore the better teams, we need to get way tighter defensively if we are to win anything.
Totally agree with you Jammathon. Like Ole Gunner said, I don’t think Vermaelen has the stamina to play as a DM. This is the exact reason why Toure didn’t make it as a DM when Vieira, Gilberto etc left and played on as a CB.
What is interesting to note is yes we were shaky against Blackburn, but that is largely down to the slow, shaky start to begin with. Not that surprising considering 10 of the 11 played against Olympiakos and were probably tired from ripping the Greeks apart.
Another thing I noticed was how defensively secure Arsenal were when we went 4-4-2 (Eduardo and RVP as strikers) vs the Greeks. Arshavin in particular took a lot more responsibility in midfield, chasing back. He understood the need to do this more often when Diaby was subbed.
Agree and Disagree. Agree that it’s not the time now. We have no replacemen at CBt. Disagree that if we couldn’t buy a decent DC Vermaelen wouldn’t be better than Alex Song. Song would be decent in the Xabi alonso/Denilson position, a person who can defend and block passing lanes with his size and combines this with his range of long passing. I have watched Song and i doubt that he has the killer instinct, against Olympiakos, people simply walked through him, He’s good as a shield but not good enough to play DCM. Vermaelen is a relentless, destrructive, angry competitor and that’s what’s needed to be a great DCM.
It’s not a criticism of Song to say that there are better players in his position. I don’t mind and he’s had some great games this season. I just know there are better. Fair enough if you think otherwise…it is only an opinion…but to say there are none is ridiculous.
For me – for a DM – he gets caught too high up the pitch to often, leaving us exposed at the back. Same for our full backs. Look at the game at the weekend, the second goal. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last. Petit and Vieira used to take it in turns to burst forward, Gilberto rarely ventured past the centre circle.
As for Fellaini – I like him! Aggressive, scores goals and wins headers. It’s not like we couldn’t use someone like in the Arsenal midfield.
Song is a good CDM but remember this is Wenger doing some tinkering as that is not Alexandre’s original position. He needs time to develop and hone his skills as a CDM. With time his positional sense will increase, he’ll gain in experience and confidence, and his tactical awareness: tracking, cutting of passing lanes, timing of agressive tackeles,etc. will all imporove. He will ascend from good to great but only with time.
Same goes for Denilson but since he doesn’t have the same physical traits as Song his game must develop in other methods. However, his footballing brain is faster and seems a bit more experienced than Songs and his stamina is absolutly incredible. Cannot downplay the importance of good stamina. In terms of tactical awarness, positional sense, and doing his job as “the facilitator”. Keeping the ball moving, shooting when the opportunity arises, and again KEEP THE BALL MOVING.
Now back to the Song issue…once he is gone for the ACN I believe Wenger needs to buy cover for 3 reasons: 1. Denilson is good and will grow to be exceptional but is not ready quite yet to truely anchor the midfield-more experience and some muscle is needed. 2. Diaby isn’t a player who can accomomdate Denilson’s definite need for some kind of midfield assistance. I for one do not rate Diaby and I do not belive he will come of any good. Him being the oldest of the 3 DCM/CM’s (Song, Denilson, Diaby) he simply doesn’t seem to get his role and doesn’t know when to give up the D@MN BALL! 3. Who knows what kind of shape Song will come back in after a grueling ACN campaign. We all saw how useless Eboue, Toure, and Song came back after the last ACN and it didn’t do us any good.
A cover for Song must be bought in january or we will suffer the consequence and for you who say Coquelline could step in or Ramsey I would say I have faith in the youngsters as well but theres a point when faith can be detrimental to title-winning aspirations. And you all know what I’m talking about.
Oh, almost forgot about Vermaelen…ummm no, he should not be put in as a CDM because he was bought as a CB and thats the way uhh huhh uhhh huhhh we like it lol.
Gooner4lyf
Absolutely not!
First off before we can even THINK about turning our best defender into a CDM, we’d need to buy a replacement as Senderos and Silvestre should never see the pitch again.
Second, while I think Verm has some speed, he would not be quick enough to provide cover for the back four. Song has done a decent job at the position (possibly better than Denilson). The goals that we’re conceding aren’t coming from the middle of the park, they’re coming from the out wide positions while our right and particularly left backs (Yes, you Clichy) have been caught too far forward and unable to get back in time to help Willy G. and Verm share the defensive responsibilities.
Maybe in someone’s dreams he’ll play CDM, but in real life he’ll stay a defender as he’s doing a smash up job!
Cheers.
Agree that there would be little benefit in moving TV5 forward, but he would make a good DM, and did actually play there for a year and a half for Ajax, so he could certainly fill in if the situation demanded it, or if Djourou matures into the player he could if he could stay fit…
I agree with the comments about TV must be our CD in this season, indeed AW bought him for replacing Toure, and it’s so good that Verm can score goals, but I think that he will be able to play as DM, he has all the qualities for that position, of course he will need intense training, but I don’t think that we must compare Tommy with Terry, or Agger.