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Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey’s Role Will Benefit From Presence of Coquelin

By Finn Laister-Smith

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Aaron Ramsey’s recent return to the Arsenal team was a successful one. Is the Welsh playmaker’s role in the Gunners’ tactics bettered by Francis Coquelin?

Aaron Ramsey’s bit statement return to the Arsenal team came in a game where there was not much doubt about how his team would fare. Struggling Aston Villa and their manager Remi Garde posed little challenge to Garde’s old mentor and his team. Olivier Giroud’s early penalty paved the way for an easy win, and Aaron Ramsey’s tap-in thirty minutes later was testament to how easy it was for their midfield to break down the Villains’ defense.

Related: Why Ozil Needs Ramsey

Arsenal benefited from Villa’s weak back line, but the result could have been more in the Gunners’ favor with a more proficient tackler in midfield. Mathieu Flamini’s passing ability is good enough to trump Villa’s inconsistent midfield. But his superior Francis Coquelin would have allowed more space for the other midfielders.

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The subject of this is not Francis Coquelin’s role, though – that has been dissected before and it is clear what his purpose is on the field. The tactical mystery that the Gunners face now is what to change, if anything, about their team now that Aaron Ramsey has taken the spot of Santi Cazorla.

Cazorla has played alongside Francis Coquelin for over a dozen Arsenal games already, showing his versatility in midfield and ability to play a deeper role. Cazorla’s play has benefited from his choice to not change his style of play while on the field, but simply changing where he starts his runs and dribbles from. Instead of running through the center of the pitch ahead of two deeper midfielders in the number ten role, he is starting moves from deep and dribbling in the middle third of the pitch.

Unlike his Spanish team mate, Ramsey has never been the first option in Arsenal’s central attacking midfield, normally either playing as one of the deep midfield two or as part of a moving flat midfield four. The Welshman’s game is much different than someone like Cazorla or the 2014-15 Mesut Ozil, because Ramsey operates all the way up and down the pitch.

Here is his heat map for the match against Aston Villa.

Ramsey’s starting position was the left side of central midfield, and he made an impact all over the left-hand side of midfield as well as the rest of the pitch. A well-rounded contribution from the Welshman in a position that is his favored one – unlike where he started, which was the right side of attacking midfield.

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The fact that Cazorla is now injured presents Ramsey with a great opportunity. Their disparate play styles mean that if the Welshman outperforms the absent Cazorla, Arsene Wenger will have a hard time dropping him. That is very likely.

While Cazorla starting deep alongside Coquelin in many games, his inability to win tackles left Coquelin without protection a lot of the time and allowed Arsenal’s back four to be exposed against good attacking teams. Ramsey is different in that he actually knows how to make a tackle. He showed that against Aston Villa, making five successful challenges.

Ramsey and Coquelin playing next to one another will also benefit Arsenal by providing much more opportunities to rapidly switch between defense and attack. If both DM’s can tackle and dribble, there is no need to have one of them in charge of spearheading counter attacks, and one in charge of doing defensive work. Once they are playing together they will get used to their roles and begin to interchange with the flow of play.

Ramsey’s game will be further improved by Coquelin’s presence due to the Frenchman’s defensive abilities. If Coquelin has a mate in this Arsenal midfield who does get back and defend, he is less likely to be picking up cards and gallivanting around the pitch to win back the ball. That means that he will use less energy running, and more energy winning challenges. Ramsey’s attacking quality in the middle of the pitch will be given a chance to shine because of it, and it will lead to more goals and more fluidity for Arsenal.

Next: 5 Things On Arsene Wenger's Mind

In short, Ramsey and Coquelin together behind Mesut Ozil is a very exciting midfield trio for the future of Arsenal. The three create balance in their skills, and nobody will be inhibiting another’s play (hopefully). When Cazorla, Coquelin and Jack Wilshere are  fit again, there will be rotation between all of them and Arsenal will have to sort out how to fit them in. However, it is still a plan for the future.

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