Friday, March 29, 2024

Wenger defends Coquelin from TV critics

Ahead of Monday night’s game against Liverpool, Sky’s punditry team bemoaned Arsenal’s lack of power in midfield, with Gary Neville in particular labelling Arsene Wenger arrogant for his failure to address what he sees as a big issue for the Gunners.

“He’s either naive or arrogant,” said the former Manchester United full back, as he pointed to a midfield due of Francos Coquelin and Santi Cazorla.

The Arsenal manager has defended his player, saying his statistics make him one of best performing defensive midfielders in Europe.

““I think we have had that debate for a long time now – ‘Arsenal does not buy defensive players’ – but Coquelin has the best defensive statistics and numbers in Europe,” he said, making clear he wasn’t referring specifically to Neville.

“Defensively, Coquelin is doing a great job. Since January, we have conceded fewer goals than anybody else.

“You know, in football you have to accept that anybody can be right. The only thing I want is that when people have opinions, it is documented and worked out before.

“Especially when it is football specialists. What is a concern is that it puts pressure on players, I believe that we are in a football job.

“With people who have been in the game, I love that they go on television, but what I would like is for them to help people to love football even more.

“The first mission is to educate people. That is fantastic because the [ex-pros] can explain things that the guy who has not played at the top level can understand and to get people to really love the game.”

While there’s an awful lot of clamour for Arsenal to buy another deep lying midfielder, it seems to stem from the fear of having no real cover for Coquelin who (despite the small sample size this season), is doing a good job in comparison with others in his position.

coqparison

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Cygan's Magical Left Foot

We use to have defensive problems, since Le Coq came in we are fine and I am a big admirer of his since he was in the youth team. However, now we have problem scoring goals.

Third Plebeian

Since the Coq came in we are fine.

heh.

gooner 44

who needs viagra?

Clock-End Mike

Am I the only one who is finding this schoolboy sniggering becoming just a little tiresome?

Lebo

Mike, I’m with you on this one. There is constant sniping at Arsenal players, including by Arsenal. It’s annoying and has no basis in fact or reality.

Lebo

Arsenal fans, I meant.

Bob's Mexican Cousin

It would be interesting to see his stats since he came back vs Vieira. I don’t mean to say they are strictly comparable but still would be interesting.

Personally I have always seen the departure of Vieira as the tipping point of our fortunes in the premier league. We’ve only won 4 games vs Chelsea and Man Utd combined since he left (out of 40). I am still confused as to why Wenger hasn’t put much effort in trying (underline trying) to find someone in that mold. There was Diaby but at the same time there wasn’t Diaby.

the only sam is nelson

There aren’t many Vieiras about and that might have something to do with it. Furthermore, we bought Paddy in 1998, before the financial doping of Abramovic or Mansour, and when Ferguson already had Keane, so even if there were some kind of latter day Vieira around (and I don’t really think that there is) we would be muscled out of the market by wealthier clubs. I mean if there’s even a smidgen of truth in the report that Citeh are offering De Bruyn £300K a week then that’s pretty much that when it comes to the crunch. Who on earth… Read more »

Eduardo Stark

good observation there, mate.
we should recall Sanogo back, he’ll be striker version of Coq. the pattern is similar.

Anonymous Physicist

The big question for me is: how related are the two? We can all see that Coquelin is better at protecting the defence than Arteta, but are we perhaps also scoring fewer goals because he doesn’t contribute as much offensively?

Henry! Chance!! Goal!!!

How many times did makalele scored from that deep midfield position? How many times does Matic score? The primary function of that position is to cover the back 4, create offense/defensive balance, and cover 4 the full backs when the overlap. There is a disturbing lack of understanding of the game by most fans and it’s due to the lack of the so-called experts to teach the fans about the game.

Henry! Chance!! Goal!!!

It’s also incredibly disingenuous when these experts talk about arsenal never replacing Vieria. One, the closest to Vieria we’ve seen in world football is Yaya Toure. Two, Vieria was a box to box midfielder not a DM. I truly don’t understand how these people go on TV and just spout nonsense. Vieria played next to Petit and later Gilberto, who were the DMs

Andy Mack

Did old red-nose ever really replace Roy Keane?
Before anyone comes back saying yes scholes or fletcher or… fuck knows, No they didn’t. They god some good at parts of what he was good at but they didn’t get another Keane.
We nearly did in as much as Diaby had the potential pre-sunderland fuck-wit attack.

Arsene's Secretary

Don’t touch our Coq!!

King Henry I (and only)

The Coq has been a revelation and the criticism aimed towards him is complete bollocks!

Miranda

Of course it is. But I don’t think the criticism is really directed at Coq himself so much as at Wenger’s refusal to address the problem in general. Coq was a fortunate accident. If it weren’t for last season’s early injury crisis, he’d almost certainly now be playing for Charlton. We made no attempt last window to sign a proper defensive midfielder; nor have we this. It’s all very well for Wenger to be praising Coq as the best DM in Europe as though he’d intended all along to make him first choice. He didn’t, just as he’s now not… Read more »

Noblegunner

Given that one of those”big club rejects” scored 20 goals last season….People love to criticize just because!! At least make an attempt and add some substance!!

Andy Mack

If Coquelin wasn’t any good then AW would have bought a DM this summer, but he is, so he didn’t.

Miranda

What if he’s so good a thug gets the idea of putting his studs into Coq’s shin? What if one of the times this happens Coq is seriously injured? I know this is a novel idea and it’s unfair to expect Wenger to bear in mind the incredibly remote possibility of injuries, tiredness and suspensions, but might it not be a good plan to have more than one Coq, you know, just to be on the safe side?

Ferngunner

Oooh Schneiderlin you would have fitted in nicely.

As for pundits, seems they are paid to be controversial and Wenger does have a point but so does a compass.

He should just buy.

eddymc2

Or, How to Ruin A Fairly Good Comment with 9 Words.

Third Plebeian

fitted in?

That stats comparison at the end tells you that Schneiderlin and Coquelin are nearly identical, except that Schneiderlin loses more tackles!

Ferngunner

They were never going to play together anyway unless we were facing a combined Barca/Madrid xi away.

Mpls

Which is probably why we didn’t go in for Schneiderlin. Not an actual improvement, but would likely expect to be a starter.

Stillmatic

Honestly, I don’t even see why Arseblog felt the need to post stats from just 3 games. 3 games is nothing for a sample size. I’m sure there are other DMs in those 3 games with better stats than probably all of them, as it’s just 3 games.

At least post last season’s stats from Jan Onwards (Coq still does well defensively).

neutral

I also remember Arseblog getting upset when some other site took an exclusive story from Arseblog news and ran it without attributing the source.

If Arseblog is going to use http://www.squawka.com/ to generate nice graphical stat comparisons he could at least cite the source.

And 3 games is nonsense, why not use last season stats and correct for # of minutes played

Hari

Actually you’ll see just below the player pictures in the comparison that it’s from Squawka. The article also clearly caveats the small sample size of 3 games.

Also, le Coq’s stats from January to end of last season were fantastic too. I could find them for you, but I cannot be arsed.

StowGunner

First reaction to this was… well I thought it was an ex-manu/liverpool pundit 😉 But tbh the issue is we need a backup to our mighty Coq and Schneiderlin perhaps would have been a good one at that. They wouldn’t play together but they would have pushed each other all the way. Well that’s the theory, which Wenger knows is not always the case. Wenger is looking at balancing the squad and keeping the harmony. Apart from eating people in the tackle, taking hits and reveling in his transformation to team savior; I don’t know what makes our Coq work… Read more »

Mayorlincoln

Do you think that a first team player with a cconstant shirt will want to leave Southampton and warm the bench at arsenal? Even if Wenger did a 50% between Coquelin and Morgan, they would never be both happy

Arse Sutra

What a manager… defends players like his own sons..
Its high time these players pay this great man back with
what he deserves…

Tshaka the gooner

If Carragher and Neville’s knowledge and understanding of football is that good why are they not coaching professionally. Is it because talk is cheap?? Or maybe its easier to hide behind the camera, get ready prepared and easy to read statistics out there and rumble on about how bad this and that is.If Neville was that good a football man he tries to potray himself England would have won the last world cup in Brazil.
Yes Arsenals brand of football attracts criticism and some of is warranted but most of it is just misinformed gibberish.

Runkeball

My theory:

Neville is so annoying that not even his own old club wants him around. He’s doomed to a life on telly talking out of his arse and gaining the contempt of everyone except some (many maybe but probably not all) Man U fans.

Xxxrob

I actually like Nevilles punditry and analysis. Ok, his most recent comments hit a nerve but I think that is partly borne out of our underlying discontent with out transfer business so far. For me, I am more than happy with Coquelins performances the past 6-12 months. My fear stems from the worry that if you take him out of the team for any reason there is nobody who can step in and perform to that level. Wenger is right and wrong on thing. He’s right when he says if we’d bought Coq for 30m nobody would be talking about… Read more »

GoonerChris

Is it really that important to have a backup player of such quality waiting for our Coq to be out of action? Chelski have Mikel and Ramires, none of which compare to Matic. Even before Coquelin came into the side everyone was calling for a great DM to be signed, now we got one everyone is still calling for another! We have Flamini, Arteta, Wilshere and even Rambo who can do a job there (as good as any other PL side). I’d rather Arsenal spent the money on getting more goals into the side than worry about a newbie pundit… Read more »

Runkeball

I don’t like his bias towards his old club. It was particularly unsavoury when he tutted down another pundit for mentioning Roony’s blatant dive against Preston in the FA cup.

The man is a bellend!

OOzil

The truth is everyone wants the Arsenal and Arsene way to succeed because that is as romantic as football can get. Maybe Neville wanted Arsenal to strengthen to make sure that we can challenge for the title. He did defend Wenger before the Ozil buy- a time when everyone,even Arsenal fans, believed that Wenger was arrogant or naive.

Andy Mack

Unfortunately there’re plenty that don’t want us to succeed as they think the old ways are better. Lots of our own want us to go back to kicking the opposition rather than the ball.

GoonerChris

Neville said Chambers needs a run in team or what is the point of the hiding he took against Liverpool.

…but then Carragher went on to say Gabriel is useless, and Arsenal need a CB/CBs to replace both of them.

Wish these “experts” can make up their minds so Arsene can follow their invaluable advice!

There was one point where Henry was laughing at Neville’s suggestion Cazorla and Coquelin are not good enough, and rightly so. That midfield pairing has been a revelation since early 2015 and it is no coincidence Arsenal have accumulated the most points since.

Mpls

Kudos on successfully translating the Carraghese.. That statement on Gabriel shows just how far from reality that guy is.

Clock-End Mike

Neville is actually one of the more intelligents pundits around, imo. I don’t always agree with him (and his recent comments saying he considers AW “naive or arrogant” were ill-advised, as he admits himself), but I have generally found him interesting, knowledgable, and despite what others may say, more unbiased than most. He contributes something with his analysis, which is more than can be said for most pundits.

Carragher, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite.

Aedan

I think the reason people are so desperate for a DM signing is that they don’t understand ‘backup’ players generally are not world class, because then they’d be starting somewhere else. 12 months ago Cuadrado was seen as one of Serie A’s best players, but after a year as Hazard’s backup he is rightly unhappy and has now left on loan, tail between his legs. We went unbeaten with Pascal Cygan as a back up centre half and a Gael Clichy who was barely out of puberty as second choice LB. Arteta is a great alternative, and an Arteta-Ramsey partnership… Read more »

SB

Form, injury and to an extent Wenger himself doesn’t rotate much. Le Coq, Mert, etc are guys who Wenger plays on most games when are fit!

Playing between 50 – 60 games needs more than 1 good DM

NC Gunner

EXACTLY! I’ve been saying this until I’m blue in the face. No player “World Class” is gonna sign on to be a backup.. and let’s say you sign someone “world class” to replace Coq, after the season he has had, do you think he’d want to stay? “But what if he get’s injured” people say.. well what if Arguero, what if Costa, what if Rooney get injured?

Gervinho's Forehead

I have to disagree. Arteta is most certainly not up to scratch to replace Le Coq. I love the guy, he brings a great deal to the team and club as a whole, but anyone who genuinely thinks he can replace Coq is slightly deluded. Does no-one remember the pre-Coq days? We were often torn apart in midfield with arteta there. I think he is more of a replacement for santi (deep lying playmaker), not Coq. i think Coq is fantastic and we don’t need to replace him, but we definitely need good cover to rotate or support him across… Read more »

Mayorlincoln

Let me ask you a question, which cover is available, that will leave where he is playing constantly to come and sit on arsenals bench? Have you ever asked yourself why Edin Dzeko and some other players leave a club? He knows that he is not as good as Aguero but he needs to play cos he is good enough to play regularly. If you were the coach of Mancity, will you ever want to play any team without Aguero leading the front line? And all these stupid rotarotation excuses people give, an old man John Terry played all Chelsea’s… Read more »

Noblegunner

Oh my, we must have been perpetually relegation bound when Arteta was our top DM!!

Algooooooner

J’aime le coq

Danger Mouse

It’s quite simple. The majority of pundits are ex Man U or Liverpool. Therefore I couldn’t give a rats arse what shite theyre on about.

Danger Mouse

And as Michael Owen is both ex Man U and ex Liverpool he therefore talks the most shite of all.

SB

If only I can double, triple thumb it up!

GeneWildersCrazyDNA

I’m not trying to take anything away from your point here, but we have a surprisingly large amount of ex-Gunners who do punditry:
Charlie Nicolas
Martin Keown
Thierry Henry
Ian Wright
Nigel Winterburn
Niall Quinn
Alan Smith
Ray Parlour
Paul Merson
Lee Dixon

They’re just the ones I can think of right now, there may be more.
The key difference is that most of our ex-players adopt the AFC ethos and incorporate respect into their judgements and generally tend to think before they make comments. Sadly other teams have created televised brain dead yobs for pundits.

assistantref

Coq is good enough to win the league, no question. The issue isn’t him, it’s what we’ve got to cover for him. Arteta is a great player, but he isn’t a like for like option. The team has to be reconfigured when we replace Coq with Arteta. Santi and Coq is a great pairing; Santi and Arteta doesn’t really work. I think pretty much everyone with a brain now agrees that the priority is a striker, but I also look at the DM situation and think “if Coq gets injured/suspended/etc we are going to have to play in a very… Read more »

Stillmatic

I’ve been quite possibly the biggest supporter of Coquelin, if not the most vocal (as arseblog can attest to), so I can never be deemed a hater. But the issue with Coq isn’t his defensive stats, it’s his passing. We know when it comes to back to the wall and counter-attacking, Coq is the boss. It’s quite clear he is a massive liability in terms of possession. Coq came through when Wenger decided to cease possession and go for counter-attacking in January, which suited him to a T. Now for whatever reason, Wenger has once again reverted back to possession-style… Read more »

mollers

Is his passing really that much of an issue or is this a bit of a myth? It can’t be affecting the team that badly either way because we have been creating plenty of chances, the issue seems to be much higher up the pitch than Coquelin. If the attacking players were putting away the chances being created, would we even be having this debate about Coquelin’s effectiveness?

Stillmatic

If it’s a myth, go check the sqwuaka passing stats from last season (not a silly 3 game sample size) and even I was surprised at how limited his passing was compared to the Schneiderlin (who had the second best defensive stats after Coq, but the best offensive and passing stats of the DMs).

I knew I’d get a thumbed down. I bet half the people thumbing me down were also the same people that thumbed me down when I was calling out arseblog on writing off Coquelin so early this time last year.

Stillmatic

And there is a reason why it only took 45mins for Wenger to drop Santo back to midfield along with Coq.

Siggi Jonsson

That reason being that Aaron Ramsey is not good enough technically and does not have the positional discipline to play in the middle, and Wenger quickly realized this after 45min of watching him take too long on the ball, misplay passes and get caught too far forward. I know its popular to complain about Ramsey on the right, but he gets exposed playing centrally.

Fabulous

Those are very valid points. It’s either Coq and Cazorla, or Ramsey and Arteta for the midfield pairing. Ramsey’s best season came when playing with Arteta alongside. That pairing however tends to get exposed when teams play on the counter against us. Coqs greatest strength is winning the ball back early and stopping the counter. Playing it out from the back, recycling play etc is more what Arteta is good at. So I tend to agree with Stillmatic, maybe Wenger needs to freshen things up a bit. Change his midfield pairings depending on the opposition.

BaldinhoAFC

I’m sorry but Coq a liability in possession? Utter nonsense. Did you see the game against Liverpool? There were several players more guilty of gifting it back to them than him. And (not for the first time, I should add) he played a couple of glorious cross-field balls to instantly change the point of attack. Even the possession table in the article exposes your point – he’s on 90% so far this season! If Chelsea can win the title with Matic, we can do the same with Coq. He’s been the better player since January of the two by some… Read more »

Pete

I don’t know if it’s a true reflection but the impression I get is that Le’Coq wins the ball and then either plays asafe pass to Cazorla for him to take it forward and distribute. Or he looks for someone making a counter attacking run and plays a cross-field pass to them. He seems pretty good at those cross-field passes and generally has a good pass completion (90% and only really bettered by Cazorla). Excluding Cech, he’s made the most long ball passes in the team too. IN-fact if you look at Inaccurate-Short Passes per 90. it is Sanchez and… Read more »

Stillmatic

You’re right, he does pass it to Cazorla mainly. Even his attempted long range passes were to Cazorla against West Ham. I wouldn’t use the 3-game sample of 90% pass completion as anything or value right now. Virtually all DMs so far this season in 3 games are 80% or more. The sample is too small. Also, Sánchez and Ramsey are pretty bad at inaccurate passes, Ramsey surprisingly so as he’s a CM. But still, the reason why is because they are in the final third, with less passing options and more intent to be more creative with their passing.… Read more »

tapps

90% pass completion record for The Coq not good enough, eh?

Stillmatic

You think statistically speaking 3 games is even worthy to be called a sample?

I’m sure on his per minutes players, Reece Oxford is probably top 5 so far this season.

How about you wait 10 games or so before jumping on to trends?

gunner1905

“but Coquelin has the best defensive statistics and numbers in Europe” does not make “Arsenal does not buy defensive players” invalid cause both statements are true.

John C

Exactly, how Wenger’s interpreted Gary Neville saying we need more powerful players as Coquelin’s crap i don’t know. We have 7 players wanting to play in 2 central midfield positions and only one capable of playing the defensive midfield position to the required standard. We have quantity over quality and Arteta, Flamini, and Rosicky should all have been shown the door in the summer as none of them have made a telling contribution to the team in well over a season now and replaced with someone who creates real competition for Coquelin in defensive midfield. A ruthless manager would have… Read more »

neutral

Agreed, don’t know why Wenger is holding onto Rosicky, Flamini, and Arteta instead of blooding younger players or buying better replacements.

Mpls

Players of their class don’t take long residencies on the bench.

John C

Players of who’s class?

Mpls

Ramsey and Cazorla.
Bench one and watch him leave the next summer window.

Stringer Bell

In that case we better play em. Jesus help me!!

John C

Who cares, if they’re not good enough for our team then they either fight for their place or leave.

I’d rather we had a successful team than keep prima donna players in the first eleven just to keep them happy.

lusekelo

These pundits talks nosense,Coquelin is one of the best DM since january,the only problem is he didn´t cost us 40M+,the only aspect i would love coquelin to improve is the long range passing,i think he is a bit shorter in this aspect,having said that i still think we need another DM to help Coquelin in that role,yes we have arteta as a cover but the captain is injury prone lately and flamini he is not good enough.

CLEgooner

It’s odd. I feel totally justified in criticizing Wenger, but when pundits and/or non-Gooners do it, it enrages me.

Destr0

It’s a natural response. It’s like family, my brothers and I would always beat on each other, prank each other, make jokes about each other, but the second anyone that wasn’t family even sniffed in our direction…heaven help them!

edzo

Yhe pundits were going crazy about our weak spine against Liverpool but our starting center backs were out. And as I recall the coq had a massive game covering chambers mistakes.

Pundits talk just to hear themselves speak. Screw them.
That said it would be Nice to have a backup for coq.

TheNicolau15

Neville has said that Cazorla and Monreal are kids without experience! Why people are still discussing his analysis?

GoonerChris

Neville also said Chambers needs a run in team or what is the point of the hiding he took against Liverpool.

…but then Carragher went on to say Gabriel is useless, and Arsenal need a CB/CBs to replace both of them.

Wish these “experts” can make up their minds so Arsene can follow their invaluable advice!

There was one point where Henry was laughing at Neville’s suggestion Cazorla and Coquelin are not good enough, and rightly so. That midfield pairing has been a revelation since early 2015 and it is no coincidence Arsenal have accumulated the most points since.

santori

Neville actually isn’t such a bad pundit. The ex Liverpool lot in Carragher and Owen are abject to the point of laughable. I think its a bit off to say Wenger is arrogant not to add. Arteta and FLAMINI are both decent cover and far better players than most imagine them to be. That said, I feel the issue on hand if Wenger does not buy in the position may be more due to the fact that the gaffer could be looking to cover for the potential loss of Santi instead (and to some extent Arteta) We (Coquelin) has profited… Read more »

Pope Football

And ze lord saith unto ze faithful: Zey who attack ze coq shall face ze attack of ze coq. (Wanker 11.1)

AntiSpud

And then award for the twat of the week goes to

………………………

GARY NEVILLE. congratulations Garry. You deserve it

Mayorlincoln

These pundits are shit, how many of them have coached a football team? Which team in Europe has a Patrick Vieira? None. There is no team in the world that has two world class players for the same position. Backup players in any team cannot be world class. Cos world class players don’t sit on the bench

Jimbo 1

Coquelin is not the problem. It is the strikers. We have been operating with a back up centre forward as first choice since Van Persie left, as Giroud and Podolski were bought at a time when it was still hoped that the VP would stay. He didn’t and Wenger has just stuck with the players he had. Three seasons later he still has not upgraded, despite the overwhelming evidence that Giroud is not good enough to convert a sufficient proportion of the chances that Arsenal create. If a top player does not come in then I can’t see us finishing… Read more »

Arseology - Reloaded

Saw a stat on sky that Arsenal have created just north of 60 chances so far this season and have only scored 2.
With numbers like that the title is in the bag with Giroud leading the line.

Mpls

Yeah, and we should get rid of Alexis. 0 goals in 13 attempts, he’s obviously shite.

Chuffy

Problem is, there simply isn’t anyone in the world like Patrick Vieira was. He had everything, pace, power, desire, awesome on the ball, awesome tackler and a great leader. Coquelin is a very good player and he deserves his place in the team, but the pundits are right in saying we have a distinct lack of power and physical presence in the team. We also lack mental strength. There is no one who will really shout and inspire us, when we’re playing badly. We used to have insipirational players all over the pitch. This is what the pundits have been… Read more »

Fin

This is the same team that doesn’t have a certain German at the back who is regularly seen barking orders to any and all around him?A Czech in goal who is considered one of the best organisers around? A Flamini, who for all his faults has never been accused of being quiet? Even Coquelin himself can regularly be seen harassing his team mates into position. Spare me.

Izzymuzzet

Lol – yes let’s all call Gary Neville a twat.

Is it cos the truth hurts?

TeeCee

Well if Gary Neville ever reads this lot it’ll hurt him, I’m sure.

rch

The Coq is the best dm midfielder in the league without dought, the stats don’t lie and come the end of the season I am willing to bet he will be top again.
I do think that it might be worth looking at changing the system and trying to find a way of getting to up top as Walcott playing directly of Girould would scare the shit out of defences.
4-1-3-2 or even 3-5-2 just to try something different unless we sign this mythical holy grail of superstar srtiker but the clock is ticking down.

James

If Wenger had spent £30m on Coquelin then pundits (and fans) would be saying he is an amazing signing and has solved our DM problem. The fact he was recalled from a string of fairly unexciting loan spells doesn’t prove them right when they’ve said Wenger must spend vast amounts of money on a DM. Makelele wasn’t known for his power, it was his timing and defensive cover…. i.e. Coquelin’s abilities. The argument should be Coquelin is superb defensively and surprisingly has a good range of passing to his game too, however what will we do when he gets suspended… Read more »

Sol

Where does arseblog get his statistics from pls ?

TR7 > CR7
Essy baba

Can we just be at peace and enjoy being fans for once? Its either OG is not world class or coq can win us the league. Just enjoy your life

like a red head Ljungberg

of course you suffer when you care so much, but i remember when i was younger n i enjoyed like too much when we used to be successful, again ’cause i cared.

arabmoney

Come on you guys, we bought that polish dude, what was his name… Stop with the pressure already, I am getting this really weird chelseaish, unitedish or cityish feeling…

Mayorlincoln

His name is, Krystian Belik. He will play for the first team next season.

John C

I really don’t understand how Arsene has interpreted Gray Neville saying he’s arrogant because he’s swapped physically powerful central midfield players like Vieira, Petit, Gilberto, and Edu, all of whom we’re 6’2+ with the likes of Denilson, Fabregas, Arteta, Ramsey, Wilshere all of whom are below 6′, as Coquelin’s not very good?

He’s just making up an argument

Mpls

The arrogance is in Neville thinking Managers should be doing things the way he thinks they should be done.

John C

Not really, no one has to do what he thinks, Wenger’s free to ignore it.

Wenger’s defensive attitude shows it hit a nerve, mainly because there’s more than an element of truth to what he said.

Dan

Bas dost

Serge Blanco

We do need cover for Coq but he is easily good enough to be our first choice DM. It is true that as he did not cost a load of money he gets less credit than he should but that is a reflection on the tabloid football punditry that permeates the English media. One of the L’equipe writers (Matt Spiro) thinks Coq is better than Schneiderlin. The problem with Gary Neville is he has begun to believe his own hype in the same way Alan Hansen did and he seems to think people just want to hear him criticising. They… Read more »

like a red head Ljungberg

of course damands are addressed to the back ups on that positions, a dm misses matchs naturally due to suspensions(even if doesnt suffer an injury), he needs rest as he needs to work his ass of in a “nice” team like arsenal, they are also lots of times we need two of them on to defend leads for example… saying arteta or flamini can do a job is one thing, but who are we kidding if we ever wanna be a contender again we need people to do “the” job.

I bought a pony and Glen Roeder

We wonder why the England football team struggles so much, Gary Neville is one of the better pundits and he has given a brief insight into his ideas. Primarily that statistics and skill set are secondary to size and cost. If coquelin was 6ft4 and £30m Neville would glorify him as the signing we have been missing for years. But because he is an internal solution who isn’t 6ft4 he will never make it and we will always fail until either he costs £30m or someone who does comes in. Neville also did an article on Cazorla where he said… Read more »

KayStephen

What physical presence made roy keane the world class DM he was? As far as i can tell coq is about the same stature and height as keane and he gets the job done, why can’t these cunts just leave arsenal and wenger alone, fucking voyeurs

Mayorlincoln

He should leave Arsenal alone and talk about his fucking manunited that has a world class striker (Rooney) that cannot score as many goals as Giroud.

LaLaLa

If it’s hard to find the right players now it will be much harder in 12 months time when the new TV money lands and every club is loaded? I’d think it would be sensible to spend now, even if it means paying a bit over the odds for a couple of players. Pogba is 22 years old and genuinely world class, so why not spend £60-70m on him now if we can afford to? No one would be craving a back up DM then and if it means selling Jack, Aaron or Santi so be it. Instead we’ll watch… Read more »

TeeCee

“He’s either naive or arrogant,”

Even if that were true, both are preferable to being a steaming bucket of bullshit. That gives Arsene the edge over you Gary.

Goonsquad

It’s both naive and arrogant for Gary neville to even consider calling Arsene Wenger either. Just when everyone was starting to think actually he’s speaking some sense, he just has to remind us that he’s also still an annoying twat.

Mark

Most will agree that Coquelin has excelled since he came into the squad last year, but there are two big concerns that I have (and many share) with such a reliance on him:

1) He will get suspended (either a red card or multiple yellow), injured or just need a break throughout the year and then what – Arteta, Flamini or someone like Ramsey/Wilshere dropping in?

2) What happens if he has a dip in form or gets complacent with no competition, there is no like for like option to replace him.

gooner1886

I’m not defending neville because he was well wide of the mark with the coq comments. But he does have a point about how our midfield has lacked power over the years. This is the premier league not la liga, you need to compete im there and you will notice the title winners over the last few years all have some degree of power in centre mid. We haven’t had that for a long time and with coq’s performances it shows how much we have missed it imo. Why he raises the point now when coq’s been playing as well… Read more »

Huss

I’m a relatively new Gooner, as I’ve only been following the sport intensely over the past decade (which has culminated into me coaching futbol at the high school level here in the states), so I know I’m not exactly an expert on any one thing related to futbol or Arsenal. However, criticisms like this one – ones which stress Arsenal’s “lack of power” and the need to become “more powerful” – are absolute bollocks. It is the kind of criticism you always hear about any team in any sport that is perceived to be struggling or missing something. I’m a… Read more »

Macharia

I’m confused as to why I hear we need to sign someone back, we played with our backup defence against Liverpool and got a clean sheet! Chambers was v.tense having not played for a long while but he did his job Gabriel was a beast . Wenger should keep them on up till the league cup coz all they need is gametime and the mumbling will stop The Coq keep doing what your doing we have Arteta, and flaming as backup buying a new DM will not change alot. CM, is good but Strikers need work Giroud needs to bully… Read more »

igor stepanovs

Le Coq has, this season, started to unleash some delightful passes too. Obviously he needs to maintain a focus on the core aspect of his game, but criticising his contribution in the role is ludicrous. If we can buy Yaya Toure / the next Yaya Toure, I’m all for it; until then, aside from the issue of cover, I don’t think we have much to complain about in Defensive Midfield. Up front, however, is another matter altogether…

AnthonyG

Gary Neville is a rat-faced cunt, always has been, always will be.

Those fornicating over his supposedly touched-by-god commentary/punditry need to get a (different) grip. I’ve never learned a goddamned thing from his rote drivel.

No time for that Manc scum.

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