Arsene Wenger has praised Jack Wilshere, but says the midfielder’s strengths are wasted by deploying him in a deep-lying midfield role.
Wilshere has been asked to do a job for England in a more defensive role, and although he says himself he’s learning from the new position, the Arsenal manager believes Roy Hodgson would be better off playing him further forward.
“Jack is not a ball-winner,” he said. “I believe he is more a guy you want to get close to the final third, if you keep him deep you take a big part of his efficiency away.
“He is a guy who likes to penetrate when there are many people – he can provoke free-kicks, he can create openings. It would be detrimental to his strengths to play in a position that is not his strength.”
Wilshere is set to play ahead of either Mikel Arteta or Mathieu Flamini tomorrow against Hull, and although he didn’t start the FA Cup final back in May, he says playing against the team Arsenal beat at Wembley will bring back good memories.
“Our players were tired in extra-time so we needed a lift,” he said. “I’ve read since that the boss didn’t want it to go to penalties because he’d taken his penalty takers off. We knew we had 15 minutes to win the game.
“Me and Tomas had been warming up since half-time and the boss knew we would get the ball and run at the defence and we did that. Tomas and I were involved in Aaron’s goal so it was a good effort from us.
“Hull were a good team last year but they’ve improved their squad and they’ve got a year of experience in the Premier League. They’re going to be a hard team to play against because their players will want to do well at the Emirates.”
“(Jack) a guy that likes to penetrate”. Up the Arse!
Yeah says wilshere should play further forward but goes on to play ozil on the wing. Wth.
And provoking many fouls can be detrimantal to his fitness. And to be honest i find it hard to comprehend why Roy had to play him there esp when he’s got milner in the squad aswell.
Milner is ‘aswell’?
Assuming this word means the same sort of thing as ‘afloat’ or ;adrift’, then this brings all sorts of horrendous images to mind.
Any guy likes to penetrate…I would worry if he didn’t…=)… Hehe… I’m getting my coat already
Of course he likes to penetrate. He has 11 goals and 2 kids to show for it.
Says a man who plays an awful lot of players out of their natural position, strange thing to say really
So the English national team what it’s doing. What else is new?
Roy is out of his depth.
First he elects to entrust Liverpool product. Look where it got England. next, he tries to use Jack out of position negating his better attributes going forward.
God help England. 😀
I think it’s great for Arsenal. Wilshere needs to learn positional discipline and game-reading more than anything else to develop into a more complete midfielder. This way he gets a chance to hone that part of his game without it costing Arsenal points. Win/win IMO.
If you care about England it may not be ideal…but honestly, I don’t.
Says fucking Wenger the only manager to buy world’s best no. 10 @£42m and then play him on the wing!!!!!
And not bring back fabregas… Because we already had ozil in no. 10??!?!?!?!?!
“Wilshere likes to penetrate where there are lots of people”
Footballers and their orgies….it’s disgusting.
Ozil wwasted on wing. Podolski wasted on bench. Etc etc…..
he says jack is not a ball winner but he got fouled a lot less in England games in the DM role so can only be good for his fitness for Arsenal, is Diaby a ball winner was said he may play him deeper in the DM role to get less impact and help his fitness recovery so its a bit confusing from Wenger
I think jack could really benefit from improving the defensive side of his game. The lad is tenacious and I’d love to see him charging around hassling opponents
What a strange comment to be honest. I’ve seen the England matches where he’s played DM and he seemed much better at it than I would’ve expected, especially given how little experience he’s got as a DM. I’m not saying that’s where his future lies, but so far it has worked out well for England. Besides, who else should Hodgson play as a DM? Jack is probably the best option England’s got at the moment, and we all know how important that position is if you’re going to play with wing backs like Gibbs, Baines and so on..
Milner? Barry? Ok, Barry is not exactly excellent, but he is a DM by trade, and better defensively than Wilshere. There’s also Henderson as an option. Like Wenger says, Wilshere isn’t really suited to that position.
And Gibbs isn’t a problem at fullback. It’s Baines and Glen Johnson that are the problem, getting into the team on the back of free-kicks and six packs, glamour boys with no substance.
What are you going on about? I never said Gibbs was a problem. I said “we all know how important that position is if you’re going to play with wing backs like.. “, and I’m referring to wing backs in general here. We, Arsenal fans, should know the importance of the DM position for any team that uses wing backs instead of regular ones. Our own lack of a good DM keeps costing us points. As for the other options at DM: Barry is not an option, as Hodgson has to build a team for the Euro Cup, at which… Read more »
who cares where he plays for england, as long as he is playing and staying fit it can only benefit us. this was supposed to be his breakthrough ‘ramsey’ season so he needs to play whenever he can. dm’s can still influence games. anyway I dont care about england right now, Iits all about the gunners beating the tigers 😉
Actually, Hodgson looks like he’s got it spot on.
In the Barca Match a Couple years ago wasn’t wilshere playing in a deep role when he completely owned Barca’s midfield (at the emirates) ?