Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny running out of opportunities

Arsenal will likely sent Mohamed Elneny out against FC Koln in some capacity, but he needs to start doing something with these chances before they disappear.

When Arsenal signed Mohamed Elneny for just £5m from FC Basel in the winter window of 2015, there were a fair deal of questions. We had all been crying out for a defensive midfielder for half a decade, so to see anyone coming in was such a blessing.

But at the same time, he was young, cheap, and pretty widely known as good, but not great. At least not yet. He looked like a back-up, but the point of a back-up is to actually back someone up, and Elneny didn’t have anyone to back up, so the back-up became the de facto starter after making it through the famous Arsene Wenger protectorate period.

Then he was replaced in the summer by Granit Xhaka and it was clear that Elneny was indeed a back-up with a bit of upside. However, on a top tier club like Arsenal, even the back-ups have to actually threaten the first team.

Elneny has never done that in large quantities. A few glimpses of top quality, but nothing consistent or cohesive. Xhaka has had his struggles, but Elneny has not once looked in a position to take his spot from him. Meaning that he does not have the quality to be on this team and we’ve waited almost two years now to see it.

I greatly admire Elneny. He is such a hard worker and will never stop. He’s just an all-around good player, though. He isn’t great. The way I judge that is I ask myself if I’d trust him outside of these lower-tier games and the answer is easily no. I wouldn’t.

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So unless the Egyptian wants to tie himself to baby sitting duties in League and FA Cup and Europa League competitions, I don’t see what he would continue to want with the club.

The key here is that Wenger will most likely let this rotational squad go all the way in the League Cup. That is the competition where teams typically let the youngsters play it out and Elneny is part of that squad. If, and this is total speculation, but if Elneny can drive that team to the League Cup, then I may refine my tune a bit here and give it a fresh thought or two. But so long as their are young players coming up the system, I’m convinced that if they prove themselves of a high enough quality, then Elneny fades into further obscurity.

The point is simply that I think we can do better. There are handfuls of midfielders I’d rather see challenging the first team and playing alongside our youngsters, proving that they can be in the first rotation.

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Elneny still has a few opportunities, but I have to believe they are coming to an end. I would also have to believe that he knows this. So maybe, just maybe, he can take instability and make something of it.

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