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cubeadvance

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The Fox

The Fox

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http://www.football365.com/f365-features/9775165/F365-Focus

I think Coquelin has clearly exceeded expectations since coming back into the side, but stuff like this based solely around tackles/interceptions makes me want to take the carlito approach to stats in all honesty and write them off as a load of shite. "He's good at winning the ball back" = "He's the long-term solution at DM". Nothing mentioned about how he's genuinely worse than Flamini at showing for the ball, let alone Arteta; or that his passing is unambitious but he still only completes 83% of them; or that he's switched off from tracking runners several times, sometimes leading directly to conceding.

Don't get me wrong, I've been surprised at how well he's done, but people are increasingly going way overboard with the bloke, and you have to say he's been hugely helped by circumstance. We rarely, if ever, gave Arteta the level of protection that Coquelin had at City away, when he always had at least one of Ramsey or Cazorla within about 10 yards of him to help out. Contrast the midfield approach with the way Arteta was left isolated at Anfield last season, for instance. Coquelin has also had the good fortune to play in front of a stable back four in every match, which wasn't a luxury Arteta and Flamini were getting earlier in the season.

Personally I think he's very good at some stuff, the stats bear that out, but he's too limited to be the go-to guy for any team with serious aspirations. The Matic comparison in that article (based on 'Whoscored rating' :facepalm:) is farcical, and I can't imagine any team could ever win a league or Champions League with a player of Coquelin's level as the first choice defensive midfielder. As far as I can tell, he's a very effective midfield destroyer which is useful in games where we're happy to cede control of the midfield. But most of the time we should be looking to control the middle, and Newcastle in the second half was a perfect illustration of why Coquelin is no good for that job. Put Arteta in that side and there's no way we lose control of the game like that. Similarly, look how we instantly lost the plot vs Anderlecht when Arteta went off injured (obviously, though, I'm not saying Arteta is a long-term solution either, because he also has limitations and probably only has one more season in him at our level).

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Rev

Rev

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I'm inclined to think that with Coquelin by him, Arteta could play for us for years still. As long as he doesn't have to do anything other than control the tempo and get things started he's never going to need pace when there is someone running around tackling anyone who comes within 30 yards of our half.

It brings new problems (not enough space for everyone else, particularly), but it'd suddenly be a very stable platform.

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Rev

Rev

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Skrtel missing for our game vs Liverpool. Assume they will definitely switch to a back four now, but I dunno who comes in out of Lovren and Kolo. Depends how deep they want to play I guess.

I know it's shakey ground being an Arsenal fan talking about central defence, but god. That's a hell of a choice to make.

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Gabe

Gabe

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carlito was spot on with them: their excellent run of results had belied some very mediocre performances. Was always likely they'd come unstuck at some point.

Our play has been very up and down all season. Prior to the United game the only decent performance we'd had in the previous month was against City. Just before our current slip though things were better - we'd found our pressing game again and played with pace. Much like you guys today.

Still, we were humped today in a game that was very scrappy at times with both teams giving the ball away in poor areas and lots of unforced errors (more from us, but you lot looked pretty shakey on occasion too). You were well on top for the first 20 minutes, then we had a good 15-minute spell and really should have scored, but for an awful pass. Then you scored and once the second went in it was all over.

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