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Nicely put.
A lot of it, I'm sure, is the fact he's been trying too hard. When he came back from the season out, I remember Arsene saying they were having to calm him down, as he was diving into challenges all over the place on the training ground.
The lad is just desperate to play football. Sometimes that means he's overcooking it.
Jack is one of those two deeper midfielders all day long for me - he's undoubtedly a creative, attacking talent when he's on form, but I think he's best able to express that through quickly turning defence into attack, and suddenly accelerating our tempo, and not necessarily through reeling off through-ball after through-ball like an Özil or Fabregas. I'm sure he'll still chip in with a few assists too, but pushing him too far forward is a waste of his talents, IMO.
Not really worried about his current form - Ramsey has fought back from worse, and had shown us less consistency and promise before he got injured, so I see no reason why Jack can't follow his example. His attitude and desire have always been spot on, and that will help him more than anything else. In the meantime, how nice that we don't actually have to fret about it too much, for once! The other guys are doing the business, so we can afford to ease him back in at a sensible pace.
One thing Wilshere does have going for him though, is that for all his faults - Wenger is a master molder of a central midfielder.
Fabregas, Song, Flamini, Arteta etc all went through a quantum leap at some stage of their development where they just became "the shit". Ramsey is going through it now, and I have no doubt Wilshere will go through it too when he re-finds himself.
As to some of the other comments in this thread - I have not heard a single Gooner ever say Wilshere should be sold or loaned out. I don't think anyone doubts his raw ability or his dedication. It's just a matter of his form and fitness not being great at the moment, and most Gooners recognise that.
Wilshere's first season would suggest he doesn't really needed to be moulded. He had everything apart from composure in the final third. And that's something that always comes last in a midfielder's development, as seen with Fabregas and Ramsey. But then again, Wilshere's best position will probably be coming from deep, so judging him on goals is silly.
As you said, it's a matter of form and fitness with Wilshere. But he seems to be getting that back in his last two games.
My problem with the Wilshere Ramsey double pivot is that neither of them is an out-rightly a defensive midfielder. I know they are both shaping up to be pretty complete midfielders, but looking at both past and present great double pivots, ours just looks too offensive and lacks size. I'm not sure if it's a great idea long term, but it seems to be the only way we can fit them all in to any formation? ... Unless we waste Ozil on the wing of course, but I'm sure he'll slot in at AMC when Cazorla/Poldi returns.
Alonso Khedira
Busquetes Xavi
Carrick Fellaini
Schweinsteiger Martinez
Vieira Gilberto
Makalele Essien
Vidal Pirlo
Bender Gundogan
.... Wilshere Ramsey...?
This is Real Madrid's Fellatino Perez slagging off a certain shortarse midfielder after flogging him to pay for Beckham(reminds me a lot of ozil/bale but that's another story)
"We will not miss Makélelé. His technique is average, he lacks the speed and skill to take the ball past opponents, and ninety percent of his distribution either goes backwards or sideways. He wasn't a header of the ball and he rarely passed the ball more than three metres. Younger players will arrive who will cause Makélelé to be forgotten.["
I've heard Gooners querying Wilshere in much the same way. 'Doesn't score enough or create enough. Passes very short' etc. and as for lacking size, Jack is taller than makalele and not much shorter than Gattuso. Plus his best performances for club and country have been with someone else as the attacking mid
Comparing Jack to Makalele or Gatusso is difficult because they are obviously completely different players.
If you are comparing size, then Gatusso was the same size as Roy Keane and has about 2 stone of weight over Jack. He could physically bully and intimidate midfields in ways Jack never will.
Makalele was just an exception to every rule. He was similar size to Jack but could jump a mile and was still a strong guy. I know Jacks put on size but he still gets swatted around a lot in midfield and spends as much time on the floor as actually playing! He obviously gets targeted but hopefully he just learns to deal with it.
I wonder if Jack and Ramsey could strike up a partnership with a similar dynamic to Keane and Scholes.
I feel his performances are improving, he just lacks the final ball/that killer instinct. He's never really had it/or the need to have it because in his breakthrough season he basically shared "Water Carrier" duties with Song for Cesc, albeit he did a good job.
Of course his level of performance has dropped, largely in part to injury IMHO, not an excuse...but the boy has missed a lot of Football over the past few years.
Jack has amazing natural ability, I've no doubt in my mind he'll be playing at a high level pretty soon assuming he keeps himself fit.
there is no exception to a rule. If there was it wouldnt be a rule.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Singh
And the point was that football fans' fetich with being being and imposing is ridiculous. You're not the only one though - plenty of numpty managers have wasted huge sums on shit central midfielders who offer nothing other than speaking french, being tall and looking a bit nubian, like. You dopnt need to be 6foot 2 to play in midfield.
Of course you don't need to be anything, but it helps having a physical presence in there.
Why do you choose to pick out the 'numpty managers' and just ignore every fantastic double pivot I mentioned above - every single one of which have a physical presence and more natural defensive instincts in there?
It's clearly part of a formula that works. Even Barcelona at their beautiful best had Yaya Toure and more recently Busquetes doing the dirty work.