Archive for March 21st, 2007

Abou Diaby should play every game between now and the end of the season

356 comments March 21st, 2007

Arguably our most promising young playerAs you may have gathered by now, I am not the manager of Arsenal football club. That’s probably for the best, although my record on Football Manager 2007 would stand me in good stead should Arsene ever up sticks and leave.

However, if I was in charge, I’d make sure I gave Abou Diaby as many games as possibly between now and the end of the season. Why? Because our team is a better one when Diaby is in it.

When he arrived in January of last year, he and Adebayor made an almost instant impact, dramatically improving our pitiful performances away from home. The highlight was Adebayor’s debut – a 2-0 win over Birmingham in which the Togolese scored and Diaby was the undoubted Man of the Match.

Of course, as we all know, injury ended his season early and kept him out of any serious first team action until last month. But since he has come back, his performances (particularly in the Carling Cup) have been as promising as ever. Playing from the left, he’s shown wonderful drive to go past players, and his lucky goal against Aston Villa only came about because of a determined surge up the wing and into the box.

The game at Everton was his first appearance in central midfield since he has come back into the squad, and came alongside Cesc. I’m a big fan of Denilson, but for me Diaby is the more natural partner for Fabregas. Gilberto is fantastic, but it’s my belief that within a couple of years it will be impossible to leave Diaby out. His ability to ride tackles and go past players gives us an ability to turn defence into attack that we haven’t had since Patrick Vieira left.

There are flaws in his game, of course. Such is his determination to carry the ball the length of the pitch that at times he misses inviting passes or gets outnumbered without offloading. This will come with experience. Crucially, he doesn’t lack confidence – he believes he can win in the key challenges, and that’s half the battle.

People have talked about our need for more physical presence for a couple of seasons now, and when you consider some are calling Diaby “The Real Beast”, then he could well be the answer. As if to underline his promise, he’s now been called up to the full French squad. Against Liverpool (and perhaps in all away games until May), I’d play Adebayor up top, supported by Rosicky and Freddie, with a mouthwatering midfield trio of Diaby, Cesc, and Gilberto.

Not much news to speak off, but East Lower has an interesting piece of Senderos.  If you ask me, Gallas and Toure need to be our centre-backs on a consistent basis if we want to win anything.


Search Gunnerblog

Get your Gunnerblog t-shirts now!

get regular updates from GS with twitter

Top Gunn

Cesc Fabregas
The man in form.

    Retro Arsenal T-Shirts from
RetroFootballTShirts.co.uk - Bringing Back The Good Old Days!:
www.retrofootballtshirts.co.uk: Click Here!

Latest Posts

Sponsored Links

Calendar

March 2007
M T W T F S S
« Feb   Apr »
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

Posts by Month


Most Recent Posts

Posts by Category

Syndication

Powered By

eXTReMe Tracker