Bleacher Report - Articles by Amartey Armar

Arsenal: Jack Wilshere and The Arsene Wenger Project

Amartey Armar — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:10:47 -0400

I’ve been biting my tongue very hard since joining BR about a particular issue. For two reasons—firstly, I didn’t want to come across as too blinkered in my support for Arsenal (that ship may have already sailed unfortunately).

And secondly, I wanted to be sure. I didn’t want to jump the gun. Plenty of predictors end up with egg on their face, so I thought it best to tread carefully. But I have been shouting this kid's name (off the record) to anyone who would listen since the tail end of last season.

Forget all that, he’s just been given a jersey for the season so I’m gonna shoot my mouth off. Not a number in the high 20’s and 30’s that you see on the backs of other Academy graduates, but Gilberto’s No.19 no less. He is a part of the team now, and you’d better believe he’s good enough. And that's on the record.

Jack Wilshere is the name on every Arsenal fan’s lips at the moment, and it’s easy to see why. His reserve team debut against West Ham was the first I saw of him, and he was hands-down our best player in that game. He was confident, elegant on the ball, has a great eye for a pass, and his top-corner finish was one of the reserve team’s goals of the season.

Wenger said at the time that he may be ready for the step-up into the first team this season, so as expected he took Jack along with a few other reserves on his preseason tour of Austria.

What we didn’t expect was a run of four games, three goals, at least three assists that I can remember. He had a fantastic cameo against Real Madrid no less, and a starting berth against Juve. Make no mistake, his start against Juve was on merit.

An attacking midfielder, Jack is predominantly left-footed, but he looked equally comfortable on either flank during the pre-season tour. He’s Wenger’s dream for the future of Arsenal; an Englishman that plays like a continental.

Because he has been educated by Arsenal, he has two very good feet, great technique, vision and body balance, and a precocious understanding of the game.

But it’s his mentality that has won him Gilberto’s shirt. He played against average, poor, AND top-level opposition this summer. He literally does not care who’s in front of him, and to my memory the last sixteen old with that mentality in the Arsenal squad was a certain Cesc Fabregas.

That’s not to say he’s as good as Cesc was at that age, but he's not far off at all. He certainly looked more comfortable on the ball this summer than some of our squad. He actually outperformed Nasri in my opinion in a couple of the games this pre-season, and although that has more to do with his education within the Arsenal system than him actually being a better player than Nasri (which is not the case, obviously), this also means that half the battle is already won when it comes to his development.

He understands his role, at 16 years of age!

Now at his age I’m not suggesting that he’ll be starting games this year, but if he continues like this he’ll definitely be playing a bigger part than some people think in the next couple of years. The Carling Cup will show us just how good he is in competition.

This type of player is what Wenger had in mind when the Anelka sale funded the Arsenal training facility all those years ago. This is what he’s been trying, time and time again, to explain to the media when faced with lazy journalists relentlessly attacking him for supposedly forgoing English talent in favour of foreign players.

The English players will come when they’re ready. In the meantime there are books to balance and a long-term future to build. We’re almost there.

The first trophy this team wins will be the proof that we have arrived. Wilshere and his youth team-mates are the long-term future of the club, along with the current first team given our ridiculously young average age!

The Arsenal Academy is really coming into its own now. It's is not just due to the development of talent in the players that came up a couple of years ago and are staking their claim now that I am saying this. It will become really apparent in players that were recruited from under-nine level and are almost completely Arsenal-educated, having had the benefit of learning the game through the eyes of the Professor.

He’s already told us that there are at least three players in the youth setup that have nothing more to learn technically, AND the bulk of the youth system is English. Expect more English talent to come through the system. But we have to be patient.

Wenger and Liam Brady have been working on this project for about nine years now, and the seeds are finally beginning to bear fruit. We are now breeding young English players educated to play like continentals. And we have fantastically talented continentals already in the side who continue to improve and are fast becoming some of the best in their positions.

Adebayor (now that he’s staying I’ll reserve comment on the summer he’s had), van Persie, Fabregas, Clichy, Sagna, Toure, Rosicky, Eduardo, Nasri, Gallas—these are top level footballers, yet somehow I’m still reading about how we need experience in the side!

We have the experience now, believe me. In Diaby and Denilson we have two players who are ready to make the step-up this year, just like Flamini did at this time last season.

The sky’s the limit for Jack Wilshere, and he’s not the only one in the academy. In fact, as of today, he's no longer in the academy.

He’s ahead of his time, but the ingredients are there for all to see. He may slow down, he may continue to improve at this stunning rate. We won't know until we see more of him.

But there are more kids within the Arsenal setup that have the ingredients to become top players. And they’re ENGLISH, just like Wenger said they'd be. Arsene knows, you know.

Arsenal: Facilitating Fabregas - A Solution To The Diaby / Denilson Dilemma?

Amartey Armar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:53:40 -0400

There are a couple of things that I felt I learned from watching the Arsenal boys in action during the Euros, and my memories of the World Cup two years previously.

Firstly, Robin van Persie is awesome as an inside forward. He can create from deep, he can stretch defences by pulling wide, and he can connect very well with his counterpart on the opposite flank. Just ask Marco Van Basten and Arjen Robben

The other thing I'll get to in a second, but watching the Dutch and the Spanish during the summer got me thinking about a certain Arsenal No. 4 and how he could become even more powerful within our lineup.

Here's a thought... Why not play Diaby AND Denilson alongside Cesc?

I know this is all very theoretical, so please try to keep an open mind.

Take a look at the formation I've laid out below. The forward names are not too important at the moment, but have a look at the middle of the park.

Almunia

Sagna—Toure—Gallas—Clichy

Diaby—Fabregas—Denilson

RvP—Adebayor/Bendtner—Rosicky/Nasri/Vela/Walcott/Eduardo etc….

With two of our three midfielders given the defensive responsibility in a formation like this, Sagna and Clichy may have the cover they (or at least Clichy) needed last year down the flanks, and there will be more protection for the back four as a whole.

Our full-backs love to give us wide options, and our creative players love cutting inside, so ahead of the midfield we have two winger/inside forwards. We've seen the formation work for Manchester Utd and Chelsea in the past, but I really think this year it can work for Arsenal.

Diaby and Denilson are both naturally defensive midfielders but they’re also very good going forward. Potentially that’s been to Diaby’s detriment since Wenger saw the benefit in using him as our left-sided play-maker in Rosicky’s absence, but here he could be a serious box-to-box player for us.

With Denilson in there happy to collect the ball and distribute from the back, here we have two centre-mids who have an eye on the defence, releasing our most potent player to link with our wide play-makers and our line-leader.

I think Bendtner, RvP and Ade are good enough for the lone striker role, so long as they have our play-makers close by and RvP’s legs work for the entire season this time. But in Bendtner and Adebayor, in my opinion we have quality big centre-forwards.

By playing two inside forwards we can keep the link between midfield and attack strong, reduce the defensive responsibility for our wide players and have the flexibility to have our forward-thinking players interchange in a number of positions. We can even revert to 4-4-2 if necessary as Diaby can play wide...

Almunia

Sagna—Toure—Gallas—Clichy

Diaby—Fabregas—Denilson—Rosicky/Nasri/Vela/Walcott/Eduardo etc….

RvP—Adebayor/Bendtner

... as can Fabregas.

He is always the first name on the team sheet in the mind of an Arsenal fan, and we know what he looks like when he's at his best. Controlling the game at the heart of the midfield, alongside a more defensive foil.

But Fabregas was never in the centre of midfield during the European Championships, and whenever he played he was one of Spain’s most dangerous players.

He literally can play anywhere across midfield, even behind the striker, if Wenger decides to pull the inside forwards back into midfield and play 4-5-1. Aragones actually did this to good effect in the Euros.

When Cesc came on, every player in midfield interchanged positions with him at some point, and he was popping up in the most awkward places for the opposition.

Fabregas will always be the player that controls the game for us, and it’s his ability to find space that allows him to do this. One thing we learned about the Euros was that Fabregas is dangerous wherever he receives the ball, and he’s intelligent enough to know where to show for it.

Flamini gave him license to push forward for us last year, and it worked to great effect. Aragones always deployed him as a forward-thinking player, and it worked to great effect.

Maybe a Diaby/Denilson tandem could offer him more in the way of freedom AND options? He won't be starved of possession as he'll still be in centre midfield.

Fabregas, Diaby and Denilson are all players who are willing to get back and defend... Cesc also wins his fair share of tackles in there... so in effect Arsenal could have all three of them in the midfield contest, with support from the inside forwards on the flanks when necessary... the 4-5-1.

So long as Diaby and Denilson know that it is categorically not Fabregas' job to protect the back line, the shared responsibility may also enhance their defensive game without leaving us too exposed.

Going forward we have Nasri, Vela, Eduardo, Walcott, RvP, Rosicky... plenty of agile, quick creative players who can do plenty of damage from forward positions AND play wide midfield in a 4-4-2 if we are forced to revert during a game.

All of the attacking players we have can play in a variety of roles, so we have plenty of options as to who would play where, and we can stay true to our expansive, fluid style of football.

This formation has worked for United and Chelsea in previous seasons. If we don't sign a midfielder before the transfer window closes, what do you think of 4-3-3 as an option?

And even if we do, what do you think of using this formation with Fabregas alongside our new signing and either Diaby or Denilson?

Arsenal: Why Emmanuel Adebayor May Never Fulfill His Potential

Amartey Armar — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:15:42 -0400

Emmanuel Adebayor has managed to alienate the Arsenal fans that believed in him from the beginning. By being arrogant enough to assume that after one good season at the club he deserves the status of Thierry Henry and should be paid as such, he has also vindicated the people that put question marks over his attitude to the club, and to football in general.

I remember a conversation I had with a good friend of mine about two years ago, during which I vehemently defended Adebayor’s attitude, which my friend had questioned due to his chequered history. At the time I thought he was a brilliant prospect for the club, slightly rough round the edges, but he definitely had the determination and ability to become a top player.

My friends distaste for him was based almost entirely on his attitude and he had allowed that to cloud his judgement of the player himself, which I was at pains to point out.

At the time, Adebayor was not the goalscoring leader-of-the-line he is today. He was a brilliant foil for Robin Van Persie and Thierry Henry, tirelessly making runs to pull defences out of position, creating chances with his movement and sweating his proverbials off for the Arsenal cause.

He also showed flashes of skill that in my opinion were out of the ordinary—you could see he had a slightly unique way of controlling the ball, and a different take on how to beat defenders that often caught them off guard. I admired him for these reasons, and most importantly, for his commitment to improvement. You could literally see him getting better.

At his age, if he continued on the right path and honed his finishing skills, I thought Adebayor would become a monster. To be honest he still can, but he has made two fatal errors that I’m not sure he’ll recover from.

The first, and the most dangerous for his future if he is to be the kind of club-hopping, prima-donna striker that is becoming all too common, is publicly holding to ransom the club and manager who showed such belief in him when the rest of the world was wondering how we’d cope after we lost TH14. That shows a shocking attitude and I’m sure it contributed to AC Milan pulling out of the race to sign him.

Who wants a young player who is yet to peak, in the papers talking about himself as if he was “the one,” claiming everybody wants him so his club need to buck their ideas up and pay him an extortionate amount of money?

The kind of manager that wants an ego like that on his staff is probably only doing it to appease his fans, and it’s no coincidence that the clubs that court him are the ones that instigate tugs-of-war every summer to make sure they have the players who will sell the most shirts come the start of the season.

The second mistake, and the one that former Arsenal players seem to make time and time again, is thinking that he was the biggest contributor to his success, and that he can play like that at any club. He has no chance. Look at former “world’s best left back” Ashley Cole. Compare him to his replacement, Gael Clichy, this season.

Look at all of the players Wenger has allowed to leave… How many of them have actually become better footballers since leaving Arsenal? With the exception of Bentley, who in my opinion could have been even better than he is now, had he not lost patience and left when he did.

At the time you could understand his reasons for leaving and he’s doing very well at Blackburn, but a bit of patience may have seen him nail down one of the regular spots with the departure of Pires.

Adebayor performed so well for Arsenal this season because he was playing for Arsenal. The system is suited to his strengths. Wenger made sure of that, ensuring that tactically Ade had the correct supply lines, and Fabregas and Hleb ensured he consistently received the ball when he’d be at his most dangerous.

All he had to do was work on his game. That’s the beauty of the system we have, its ability to allow each player to bring his own personality to the side, and grow into his role. That’s why time and time again Wenger seems to get the best out of the talent at his disposal.

Adebayor will not get the opportunity to develop at the rate he has thus far if he goes to any other club, and he still has plenty of things to work on. He’s not the finished article, but his belief that he already is, is the reason I won’t be too sad to let him go.

I’d rather that than have him resting on his laurels for a season, or upsetting the rest of the squad with his “I’m the man” attitude. We need players that will push themselves harder each year, and not congratulate themselves on their personal progress until they win something with this team.

If he hadn’t had a dip in form at a crucial time last season, we may have won the league. He could have just been happy with earning wages most of us can only dream of, playing football for the club that loved him, and working to further improve on his consistency over the whole season and win us some trophies.

It’s all there for him… we were so agonisingly close last year that you can still point to inexperience in some respects. If Hleb could shoot, if Gallas/Toure learned how to deal with aerial crosses—they are both good in the air individually, but when relying on each other to cut out the danger they’re still not quite there, if Eduardo or RvP had been fit, if decisions had gone our way… there were so many ifs and buts in the last campaign I had really hoped the whole squad would be itching to come back and put things right.

After a season in which we were the best team in the league for sustained periods I’d hoped they’d all be looking forward to going one better.

Adebayor’s numbers last year were phenomenal, and if he leaves will be a big loss, make no mistake. But with RvP and Eduardo fit (hopefully for the season this time), Walcott starting to show his true colours, hopefully some more goals from midfield now Hleb’s gone, and the asking price we have set, if he leaves we may be able to plug the gap.

And with the attitude he has shown, how much better is he really going to get anywhere else? I hope he realises that with massive wages come massive responsibility. The numbers he put up last season will be a pre-requisite, and failure to produce could see a rapid decline in his career.

If we lose Adebayor I can see another Anelka-type career, one which may or may not be laden with trophies but will fail to live up to the promise he has shown thus far. Remember that at this stage in his career, Thierry Henry was not as good statistically. The difference with Henry was that he knew that Arsene Wenger was undoubtedly the man to make him the best player he could be.

If he stays, he will have plenty of egg on his face. He just needs to shut his mouth, play his position, perform consistently at the level he has already reached and continue to work hard to improve. Then I may sing his name again, but not before.

What do you think about Adebayor and the Arsenal system in general?

How big a part does the system play in the individual performances of the players Wenger has?

Will Adebayor perform better elsewhere?

Arsenal: Alexander Hleb, The Pre-Assist and Its Importance to the Modern Game

Amartey Armar — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:36:53 -0400

Alexander Hleb has been Arsenal’s most polarising player ever since his arrival from Stuttgart three years ago. Oft maligned for his wastefulness in possession and inability to record a decent tally of either goals or assists in any of his seasons at Arsenal, he somehow simultaneously managed to become one of our most dangerous players.

He is a truly world-class dribbler and protector of the ball, whilst somehow simultaneously managing to be unselfish to a fault.

When questioned about his persistence with Hleb during one of Hleb’s less productive periods at the club, Arsene Wenger pointed to his quest for perfection in the pass—the eye-of-the-needle pass that would almost definitely result in a goal.

A look at Hleb’s statistics for last season show a frankly poor number in the total assists column. A look at his performances, however, will tell you that Hleb was in fact almost as important to Arsenal’s goal figures as Cesc Fabregas or Emmanuel Adebayor. He had actually been a major factor in the assists totals of many of the Arsenal players last season.

The Wenger system is designed to give each player on the ball the maximum number of short options, all over the park. We keep the ball on the floor, we move as a unit, and keep the chances of completing a pass in our favour.

Cesc Fabregas is vital to this system because he almost always executes the right pass to keep the tempo of our game flowing, ensuring the recipient of the ball will have the most options or an obvious option: whether it is to pass, run with the ball, shield the ball, or shoot.

Fabregas, as he showed in the European Championships, is also becoming a master at timing his runs beyond the midfield and receiving the ball in dangerous positions. That’s what makes him so hard to play against—wherever he receives the ball, his next decision is going to put the opposition under pressure.

The further up the field, the more pressure there will be. Even if he’s not up there, and the defence is sleeping, he will find that pass. Now that he can score goals, there is literally no limit to what he can achieve.

When Fabregas, or any other Arsenal player, makes that run, the run is rendered useless unless they get the ball. The easy assist—the square ball across the six-yard box or the short diagonal pass behind a centre-back on his heels—is rarely a result of a 20-30-yard dribble from the assisting player.

More often than not, he would have been closed down by the time he would get to that position whilst carrying the ball.

What Hleb does better than anybody is to pick the pass that the assister will receive. Perfectly weighted, with Hleb often having drawn defenders away from the space the recipient can run into. He opens the game up with the threat of his ability, then slides the ball into the area behind whoever’s focused on him. Cesc knew where that would be, as did Eboue, Sagna, Clichy, Adebayor, Van Persie, and Eduardo.

The trouble with Hleb is that if there’s not enough defensive cover around him, he could quite easily skip past a couple of challenges and end up in a much more dangerous position himself. It’s quite a dilemma for flat back fours who are used to cutting out crosses from wingers who just get wide and whip the ball in.

The natural instinct of a former No. 10 will always be to cut inside, and with fantastic dribblers like Hleb, Rosicky, and Nasri, that caused untold grief for a defensive unit.

They will all of a sudden have to deal with diagonal runs from the forwards, darting runs into the vacated space from the midfield, overlapping runs from the fullbacks, and the twisting and turning feet of the player on the ball. When it’s well synchronised, everybody has plenty of options and it’s a question of selection, and this is where the pre-assist comes in.

If you can’t see the pass that allows for the shot, it can be just as important to see the pass that makes it easy for the recipient to pick that option. With the short, fluid, mobile football Arsenal, Spain, Barcelona, Zenit St. Petesburg, and a few other teams play, the pre-assist could be just as important in breaking opposition defences down.

Arshavin would be a fantastic signing for Arsenal from a footballing point of view because he would easily slot into our system. Whether or not he'd be the right signing is open to debate.

Arsenal and Barcelona have, in my opinion, the most well-drilled units in world football when it comes to this system, and I’m sure Hleb will flourish there. He’s built for the system and he’s very good at it.

He's very similar to Iniesta and Deco in the angles that he picks when playing the ball. Rosicky, if he can build up another run of games, is brilliant with the pre-assist, as Nasri looks like he will be.

Nasri, if he can score some goals for us as well, could be the Hleb upgrade that we needed to carry us to the title last year. It’s a big shame Hleb didn’t take a look at the likes of Fabregas and Clichy and realise that as good as he’d become, a little more work on his game would go a long way towards securing himself the medals and adulation he’s obviously seeking in Barcelona.

We need players that will take responsibility for their part in the team’s success and be willing to push themselves harder and harder with their talented teammates to achieve this.

That’s what’s going to make this team’s first trophy that much more special. A team of world-class players, who grew together, fought together, lost together, and improved together. Anybody can see that the talent is there, and slowly we are starting to see the players that are willing to take on the responsibility of becoming truly great players.

Ade could have done it, but with the high opinion of himself he already has, one must wonder how much further he’s going to go. He already thinks he’s Henry :-)

Special mention for Jack Wilshere, who, after scoring a dream goal and setting up a goal on his reserve team debut with an angled through ball, registered an assist and then a pre-assist with pretty much carbon-copy passes during a debut 45 minutes in the first team.

Have a look at the reserve team's 2-1 win at West Ham, and the first team’s 2-1 win at Barnet and see what you think. It also highlights the importance of the pre-assist to a system like Arsenals. He really looks like the real deal. And he’s only 16! I can't wait to see his game develop over the next few years.

What do you think about the pre-assist? Is the shift to a more mobile, technical game putting new emphasis on it? Should there be parameters in place for its inclusion in player stats (e.g. must be beyond defence for a square pass etc.)?

Again, comments appreciated, and thanking Alex, Shyam and Jeff for their feedback on the previous article.