Francis Coquelin

Tbh the “”“joke”"" is getting pretty old at this point.

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It stops being fun when you stop responding to it. :smile: don’t take it personally, you know you are both knowledgable and a good poster.

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Sure. But under Wenger we have been, and are going to be, a disjointed team. At least from the moment he stepped away from his traditional 4-4-2. I’ve said this about Guardiola and his work in comparison to Wenger’s 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 a couple of times before in fact.

Wenger can’t make the team defend like a unit and make the team utilise that pressing style, Guardiola is known for. To expect that to happen after trying with the current system and 3-man midfield for the past 6 years now, since 09/10, is an utopia. We just need a player who will clean things up and be a ‘sitter’, because of those deficiencies. At least for as long as Wenger is here.

But surrounding a pivot pair of Xhaka-Coquelin with more technical players and creativity will improve our combination play imo.

Because Xhaka is supposed to be a terrific deep-lying playmaker? When Ozil and Sanchez have to combine in the final third with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott there is a serious ceiling to what they can do. When you have three or four players with the technic and intelligence to play one-touch, to pick a pass, who are intelligent, who have proper dribbling ability, our play in the final third will improve. I still don’t rate Iwobi that highly. He’s no Hleb (yet) or somebody like that.

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Right, he was the most defensive of the two. That’s not quite what I was trying to say though. I was thinking more of the idea of Xhaka supposedly not being good defensively, hence him never being described as a “dm” (even though he was Gladbach’s holding midfielder.). If that’s the case, then why is Matic a “dm”? They’re both flawed defensively in somewhat similar ways. But the both of them offer enough to still start as holding midfielders. If having players who contribute in possession in these positions wasn’t really important, then managers wouldn’t use players like Matic, Herrera or Henderson as holding midfielders.

It’s not like Wenger thinks Coquelin is good on the ball. If he did, then he wouldn’t ask him to move away from the ball during the build-up.

Thought he played another excellent game today.

Third name on the team sheet after Ozil and Sanchez.

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On the team sheet before Kos or Bellerin ? :eyes:

Before Cech too :jakey:

Mister octopus! He intercepted every ball.

Did you watch the game at all?

@AbouCuellar, still not convinced by him?

No, though I actually would’ve liked to this time.

@Luca_from_Italy didn’t watch, but no. :wink:

That’s the reason why you are winning two awards this year :wink:

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Best DM in the league and it’s not even close tbf.

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Better than Kante :eyes:?

Kante is a poor man’s Flamini.

Kante is a midget.

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Kante is a cunte

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Le Coq hard as rock! Love him!

Kante sounds like can’t play.
No thanks.