Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey Should Ignore Frank Lampard

Aaron Ramsey has been excelling since hitting Arsenal’s central midfield role again, but some think that he needs to up and change his game. Wrong.

Everyone always has something to say. Even Arsenal legends can harp a bit more than necessary about one thing or another that may or may not be going right with the club. The same is happening again with Aaron Ramsey. Frank Lampard, serving as SkySports’ weekly fill-in, offered his take on what Aaron Ramsey should be doing with his renewed Arsenal position.

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“Ramsey has to change his game and think about the defensive side of his game. With Ozil playing so well he knows he’s not going to get that number ten role, so he’ll have to drop deeper. At the moment he doesn’t yet have the ability to play in midfield two. I love him as a player, very bright and very clever but you can see the way he’s running back he doesn’t really want to do it,” Lampard said, as quoted by the Telegraph.

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I could not disagree with the former Chelsea midfielder more. It is precisely what Lampard wants to cut out of Aaron Ramsey’s game that makes him so special to Arsenal. Ramsey is a box-to-box midfielder. He contributes to both ends of the ball with high quality.

To say that he needs to focus more on his defense is to downplay the offensive impact he is having. Ramsey recognizes that Ozil is the No. 10. He also realizes that he is a very important tool in this Arsenal attack. That is why he has scored two goals and added two assists in three games. You don’t get that by focusing on your defense.

Ramsey is starting to form an excellent partnership with Mesut Ozil at Arsenal. He does not have the same bizarrely amazing passing ability as the German maestro, but his importance to the attack cannot be downplayed.

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Plus, to say that he needs to focus on his defense more is to downplay how well he has been doing on defense for Arsenal. I have seen Aaron Ramsey tracking back with gusto on more than one occasion. Against Ason Villa, there was one instance in particular where he made a crucial tackle to save a potential on-goal situation. You don’t do that by ‘not really wanting’ to track back.

Look at the heat chart from last game alone. Ramsey took the majority of his touches behind the midfield line while Ozil took the majority of his in front of it. Clearly Ramsey is not just recklessly bombarding forward in the hopes of abandoning his defensive responsibilities.

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Statistically, Aaron Ramsey averages two and a half tackles and one and a half interceptions per game, and that is including his time spent on the right wings for Arsenal this year. Against Aston Villa, he had more tackles than any two of his team mates combined. Against Olympiakos, he was tied for second on the team in tackles.

Arsenal have an absolute engine in Aaron Ramsey. Up until the last whistle he is steaming up and down the pitch, contributing to both aspects of the game. To restrain him to one is to cut his usefulness in half. No thanks, Frank.