Krystian Bielik says he’ll do everything he can to become a top class centre-back after Arsene Wenger asked him to drop back into defence.
The 18-year-old Pole was signed from Legia Warsaw in January 2015 as a holding midfielder but has been handed an opportunity to challenge for a first team position at the back after impressing in the position at Academy level.
At 6 foot 2 inches tall Bielik already has the necessary stature to compete with English football’s physical attackers but it’s his quality on the ball that Wenger sees as a real platform for life in defence.
“Arsene came to me and said ‘I see you as central defender, so I want you to start learning to play there’,” Bielik told FourFourTwo.com. “So I started working on that right away.”
“I came to Arsenal as a central midfielder, so it took some time to get comfortable in a new position, but now I feel alright. I know what my new responsibilities are, try to learn as much as possible and be ready to compete whenever I’m asked to.
“I just want to play for Arsenal, it doesn’t matter where that would be – defensive midfielder, right-back. If Arsene wants me to be the centre-back, I will do everything I can to make him happy.”
Bielik was fielded in the centre of defence next to Rob Holding and Calum Chambers during Arsenal’s two recent friendly wins over the MLS All-Stars and Chivas de Guadalajara. In the absence of experienced trio Per Mertesacker, Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny, his performances earned praise from Wenger.
Reflecting on his qualities, Bielik continued: “Arsene knows that one of my strongest points is my distribution of the ball. He saw that I can play direct passes all the way forward, and start moves.
“I’ve talked to his assistants on numerous occasions and they repeated constantly, ‘We know your offensive qualities, now we want you to get all the necessary defensive mechanics’. So I’ve worked on positioning, reading the game from centre-back, intercepting passes, clearing the danger.
“Arsene told me that the best centre-backs in the world have both defensive and offensive qualities – they can balance both sides. Those are the footballers that every top club values the most.”
Anybody who saw Bielik play for Arsenal’s under-21s as they secured promotion, via a play-off, to the recently rebranded Premier League 2 will have been impressed by his ability to read the game and carry the ball out of defence. In a world where that type of quality means Jon Stones is valued at £50 million plus you can understand why Arsene is putting his faith in Bielik coming good.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens this season, the boss has already hinted that the lad could head out on loan in January to garner more experience.
For the full interview, check out FourFoutTwo.com’s nice feature.
Can imagine a Holding and Bielik partnership 3-4 seasons from now. Hopefully they get plenty of opportunities to play/practice alongside each other. Could become a strong partnership in the future!
Everything, you say? ?
I wish my girlfriend was so eager to please!
Haw haw haw!
I don’t have a girlfriend. 🙁
good attitude. Let’s hope he can back those words!
Just be good.
But will Wenger do everything to make the fans happy?…..No.
Great comment Joker. I was just thinking about how much criticism Wenger gets about not spending money but look at our defense.
Gabriel – 12 mil
Mert – 10 mil
Kos – 9 mil
Holding – 2 mil
Chambers – 16 mil
Bielik – 1.5 mil?
It is a good mix of experience and youth. Lots of athletic guys who are all over 6′ tall. I am excited about our centerbacks. Now about the strikers…………………………………….?
Ozil 42m. Sanchez 35m. Xhaka 30m.
Oh, but our central defense of the future cost us a few mill. Not bad Arsene.
You can’t equate the quality of a player based upon their transfer fee (David Luis for £50 million is particularly apposite), especially if you’re comparing potential talent (Chambers / Holding / Bielik) against established talent.
Invincibles Back Four:
Lauren – £7.2 million
Sol Campbell – Free
Kolo Toure – £150,000
Ashley Cole – Free (youth development)
Total Cost: £7,350,000
The total of those fees is only slightly higher than what Everton are asking for Stones @ £50M.
Completely over-priced.
Nice guy too. Clocked him on the tube before the West Brom game so I accosted him at the Arsenal tube station:
https://twitter.com/MrTwomey/status/723259449218084869
I don’t understand this one to be honest. He’s a top quality CM, in my view he’s wasted at CB. You talk about ball playing CB’s like stones going for £50m but physical yet technical CM’s like Pogba are going for £100m and in my view this guys the latter
Sure, you’ve seen him in practice every day, just like Le Prof. I guess you know better than he does.
We have young CM’s with more experience than Bielik; maybe his qualities will be more useful to the club elsewhere; and maybe he has just the potential we’ll need in a year of two at CB. He’s certainly done well enough there for the U21s.
Have you watched the U21’s? He looks far more comfortable at CM than CB, and I don’t know what you mean about young CM’s with more experience than him, he always played CM before we bought him, how could he have any more experience there? I do hope he makes a good CB but I’m just saying what I see, Wengers not infallible
Young fella called Henry was a decent left-winger too… perhaps Arsene should have left him there as well?
Agree with C-E Mike… it’s too easy too prophesy from the sofa! Trust in Wenger’s proven instincts and let’s see what happens. I’m not saying Wengers perfect in all things (buy us a striker FFS!) but credit where it’s due mate.
I wrote on this site some when Mert first got injured that Bieliek could find the gap here… necessity and Mothers and all that – look no further than
the written off Coq.
It’s not like Wenger has never made a mistake in his career is it? Some people who have seen him play simply disagree and think he’d make a fantastic CM. Truth be told, if he was 6 foot instead of 6 foot 2 inches i don’t think we’d see this transition. I think Wenger is looking at him and thinking he’s got all the physical attributes plus technical attributes to be a complete CB and he’s taking a risk that he can develop the defensive and tactical mentality required. Good be a great decision, could equally set the lad’s career… Read more »
This is the Arsene’s way of making a pogba, same way he was moulding Song from a CB to a midfield assist machine/ general before he got moneyed. *Money-eyed, Watch this space.
Frank that’s why he has to LEARN CB because obviously like he said he came as a CM so obviously he’ll be more comfortable at CM lol he’s still developing he might turn out like Dier who can play CM CB and RB. Also with our midfield right now he’ll never get a game. That’s why we let Hayden go to Newcastle. If he wants to play for Arsenal he’s only shot is at CB at the moment maybe in the future he’ll return to CM but right now Bielek is a CB.
Bielik can kick Mourinho in the balls. It will make Wenger and me happy.
Anyone who manages to do a slide tackle into Mourinho during the course of a game gets instant Arsenal Legend status. It’s in the program notes on the back somewhere in small print.
Just need him, chambers n holding to hopefully make it in the long term. In the short term we need one of them to have a breakout season even IF we sign an experienced player.
It’s about time we had a young Centre back making it hopefully with us
We still need a killer striker
By the law of averages, you have to hit one winner amidst a sea of losers and this guy might just be it. He has two things clearly going for him. Some considerable physicality and he appears comfortable in possession allied to a decent sense of distribution. In the absence of anything coming in, we could do a lot worse than start with him.
How i wish Theo realise this few years ago….. Oooooh Theo
ew
More Pole Less Goal.