By 1970’s Gooner
During the summer of 2007 and looking ahead to the following season, Gilberto Silva was naturally expected to star in the centre of Arsenal’s midfield next to wonder boy Fabregas.
He had already assumed the captaincy while Gallas was injured during the previous season and had an inspiring campaign, providing the maturity and experience the young guns desperately needed after the high profile departures of Henry and Vieira before that.
But alas his country came calling and off he went to captain Brazil in the Copa America. This meant that he missed the first few games of the season and Arsene Wenger had to find a replacement from within the squad, as he normally does.
In stepped Flamini and the rest is history.
I can see very a very similar scenario building up this season with Denilson. Normally he would have been third choice behind Song and Diaby to partner Fabregas in midfield.
Wenger, at least for the short term, has to promote from within as the important Champions League qualifying game is upon us next week and the players are there to fill in that post.
But his options are now limited.
Diaby would have been the one to start against Twente next Wednesday.
He already has a lot of first team experience as Wenger made sure of that last season and has been played in that midfield position in many of the pre season friendlies. But he is injured again (thigh).
The next best option would have been Song who had a tremendous close season last year.
If he was good enough to play against Manchester United at Old Trafford at centre back then surely he would now be good enough to play in his natural position in midfield.
But like Gilberto, Song is representing his country in the Olympics.
Guess who played in all of Arsenal’s “meaningful” pre season friendlies. Guess who was man of the match against that wonderful away 3-1 win at Stuttgart.
Guess who run Adebayor very close in our poll as to who was man of the match against Real Madrid in the Emirates Tournament.
Out of 1220 votes cast Adebayor got 26% and Denilson 21% of the votes.
And although he had an average game last night against Ajax which was probably due to fatigue, guess who sprang into the opponents box after playing the one two with Adebayor before giving the perfect assist for the winning goal.
Denilson is a skillful midfielder who plays with his brain. He is seen as a similar player to Fabregas in the sense that he is a creative midfielder rather than a defensive, destructive type of player like Flamini was.
In this sense many do not think that he can flourish in that position but in my opinion if a player has brains then he can be flexible enough to adjust his game to become effective in various positions.
A typical example of the opposite is Eboue who has not been able to make the switch from defender to wide midfielder.
So Denilson is very likely to start against Twente and if he does well you never know do you?
No one expected Flamini to play any games in the first team last season or even to keep his place after Gilberto came back.
Maybe Denilson can do the same……
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21 comments:
Cannot tackle! We need someone who can protect the back four, and Denilson cannot do that at all.
Not for one minute am I doubting his ability, but I think we'll struggle if he is our replacement for Flamini. He should play when Fabregas is injured.
I disagree with scottpuffin. I think that Denilson can do a great job for us. Flamini was not really a tackler was he? He was just very energetic and a hassler, something that Denilson can do no problem.
Completely disagree with you....If we go into next season with Denilson and Diaby as our Midfield options then we will NOT win anything !!!
If our midfield options are Diaby, Song and Denilson then it looks good to me
I am prepared to give Deni a chance. ok he cant shoot to save his life (but at least he tries), but he can pass the ball as seen last night with a great pass for eboue to set up ade.
as for winning nothing with deni/diaby, well we won nothing with flamini did we.
i'd still like to see another midfield signing as we seem so injury prone there. purely from FM experience i'd like Miguel Veleso (sp?) who can play in defence too. dont know anything about Inler really to judge.
Im happy with Denilson. The thing that i like is, ok he is not the energiser bunny that flamini was, but he has better technique and skill, can still run all game and hit cross field balls or short balls as needed. He is actgually a very good tackler, but he is more of a nipper than a scyther which means he is not going to dominate the midfield like Viera used to.
Last thing, Diaby doesnt have more experience in midfield, he was always played out on the left which is a far different role to DM.
Diaby has played central midfield before and if you remember he was very effective there. All he needs is a run of games and then we will all be rubbing our eyes with delight.
Wenger's comment On Arsenal's defence...
"I'm not too much concerned about the defence because I think we played against a good attack. As long as we score more. We were not well positioned on the pitch that's why we were sometimes in trouble.
Mr Wenger's gone a lil mad over his years at Arsenal. How could he possibly be happy with our defence when he in the past stated that we cannot deal with long balls,
from his quote he ok if we concede goals, as long as we score more. What mad man says that!!
we cannot afford to keep conceding the first goal and chase the game. You cant always breakdown defensive team. Take the game vs Juventus. they scored the first goal defended their lead
So funny reading all these posts. Everyone is a football manager!
Denilson cant shoot? lol, best goal I seen at the Emirates was his 20 yard shot in the top corner against Newcastle.
Denilson cant replace Flamini? Denilson cant tackle? huh? so basically he is playing for Arsenal and he cant do basics?
And is Denilson soooo old that he cant get any better? huh?
FFS, so many negative Arsenal fans, pisses me off, same sort of people that come January if we are top of the league they will be like: "I knew we'd win it!"
Last year was the same crap, all Arsenal fans I knew were being negative, Wenger doesnt know what he is doing, blah blah blah, by January they were all like: "we are going to win the league now, I am sure!"
Do what you are supposed to do and support your fucking team!
I cannot understand how you can even imagine that Denilson is third choice midfielder behind Song?!?
If you disregard last season, a injury night mare for Denilson, he has been great and fantastic alamost every time he has played?
Denilson can tackle, he has a great passing abillity and he is good at adjusting the tempo in a match.
In my view we are not looking for a holding midfielder, but someone with the energy levels to keep running all the time, that can intercept and get into the face of opponents.
I think Denilson has all that and I would love to see him get his chance.
Also worth mentioning is that if it is true that Arsenal are looking at Anthony Annan of Stabæk/Start, I think he could be a super-cheap scoop for Wenger as that guy has all the attributes we need.
I agree with the comments about Denilson being a fine player he's far, far better than Flamonie and as for suppoting the team it's about tim esome of supporters either grow up, shut up or go and support some other team
to me its all about taking your oportunities being at wright place at the write time ,flamani was not first choice but he had his chance and he made of it,i think the likes of diaby,song,delison and dijouro have the ability,personly i think delison,diaby and song are than than good enough to step up, but we are short in this area we could do with a dm,we ahve more enough attcking options,dm area is were we are bit weak. i think we have two weak players in senderos and hoyte, i feel that he shoulfdgive dijouro a chance this season.
I think Denilson could be a better player than Flamini. What I like about him is he doing all the jobs as simple as possible like Gil (No fancy moves or fancy dribbling) Just trying to get the job done. BTW ... at least I think he will not be as reckless as Flamini in his tackle as I think this is the weakest point for Flamini. I donno why people are saying Flamini as if unreplacable.. all I see in Flamini is his tireless runs but sometime I feel he runs like a headless chicken with no aim... hopefully Den can put in more football brain juice and play a more elegant game.
Who gave Denilson MOM versus Stuttgart? He did nothing in that game.
He's a one-paced plodder who can only impose himself when the other team play at a slow pace.
Denilson still lacks strength and stamina. I think we may see more of him this season but he needs a bit more time yet if he's to become a first team regular - imo
OK after the pre-season we can now say without any doubts...........
1. Our defence will still conceed too many goals, Gallas & Toure are not the answer, neither is Senderos...Djourou has an outside chance of coming good given the chance and given a class partner!!
2. If we have one or two long term injuries to our 1st choice 11, the quality/experience is not there.
3. Diaby looked woeful in the games he played....but injured again, !!
4. Eboue still looks terrible and a liability....why AW stil continues with him I really cannot understand...can anyone??
5.The same can be said for Hoyte....again, why does AW not see he can't defend, he can't pass, his positioning is poor, his covering is worse...and he is our backup right back!!
6.Nevas & Diego Capel showed us what 2 class wide players can do.....they tore our defence to sheds!! Why not buy one or both of them???
7.Ramsey & Wiltshire have lots of promise, but when up against class experience who are committed to play they will struggle, Sevilla ran riot againt them
8. Vela looks good, Bendtner must pass more and think quicker.
9.Adebeyor will continue to frustrate....misses loads, offside too much, miscontrols the ball too much....... but he is the only forward we have who can score goals...Robin VP doesn't score enough!
And finally..... We will not win anything this season because we do not have the depth
in the squad.....be prepared for another frustratingly, trophyless season guys!!!
http://www.arsenalspot.webs.com claims Wenger has already confirmed he will use Denilson permanently in the Flamoney role. I think it’s good!
plzzzz....what is 16 million for alonso he has ALL the experience which we lack mremeber champ league finals...........there is a reason y the kop dun want to let him go fortunately for us rafa thinks that barry is better than alonso....pffft.....honestly......someone who has won zip is better than alonso......PLUS alonso is younger...BUY PLZZZZ aLOOOONsoooo
EBOUE as a holding midfielder is a good idea to make the most out of EBOUE.
but if he plays as DM/HM than denilson is on the bench- not good for this young guys development.
I think it is an investment and faith in Denilson if he plays as replacement for Flamini,because immediately eboue would be better
eloo.. he gave 100 at all pre season n amsterdam cup.. nice.
nway plz suport n promote my arsenal blog.. uhuh
http://arsenal-zzz.blogspot.com/
He wanted to be subbed against Twente (2nd Leg) and feigned injury. Cried when limping off and then got ordered back on the pitch like the poof he looked. He must be colour blind because he only passed to Twente and he proved he didn't have a single defensive bone by losing possession on the edge of our penalty area.
He was pathetic and had the perfect opportunity to make that his position, but instead of taking it he convinced Wenger to look for another Midfielder in the transfer market. He was Shocking!!!
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