Is Mathieu Flamini an Adequate Holding Midfielder for Arsenal?

Arsenal and Liverpool played out a bit of a lackluster affair from an Arsenal standpoint, at least. One of the main glaring points of the game was just how weak Arsenal’s midfield looked. Liverpool had all the room in the world to set up attacks in front of the box, as Arsenal was nonexistent as far as closing down.

Lazar Markovic in particular had gobs of space to maneuver down the right side. It’s a wonder how a team can have so much room to manipulate and face such minimal opposition.

I’ve continued to blame this openness on Arsenal’s lack of a true holding midfielder, and I’ve been very critical of Mathieu Flamini in the process, seeing as how he is our holding/defensive midfielder. But look how his stats (via Squawka) stack up against some of our holding midfielder transfer targets. As usual, the stats are on a per 90 minute basis.

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As you can see from the statistics, Mathieu Flamini is the better overall holding midfielder when compared to some of our top transfer targets. The one area he falls short is in take-ons but given how undersized he is, that’s understandable.

These stats were honestly kind of shocking for me. They give me a new appreciation for Flamini. Stats can be deceptive at times, and while Flamini is by no means our ideal holding midfielder, he has been doing a much better job than we give him credit for.

He’s still undersized, and his attacking numbers fall short, but as far as doing his job, he’s been incredibly successful.

So do we need a holding midfielder given what the stats say? You decide:

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