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Arsenal: Gedion Zelalem’s Roller Coaster Loan Continues
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal have a large crop of youth products out on loan, but nobody is as hot and cold as Gedion Zelalem. The American’s enigma loan continued last match.
Arsenal’s crop of loaned talent is meeting with mixed reviews. Jon Toral is all the rage in Birmingham, as is Ainsley Maitland-Niles in Ipswich. However. Serge Gnabry is a virtual no-show and Isaac Hayden is still wondering where his next appearance will be at.
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Somewhere in the middle of all of that is Gedion Zelalem. The German-turned-American midfielder is currently on loan with Scottish side Rangers. After serving his original six month loan, both sides agreed that they wanted to continue the loans through to the end of the year.
There have been ups and downs in Zelalem’s loan. While the ups have been longer, the downs have been harsher. Earlier in the year, before the loan was extended, Rangers fans were crying out that Zelalem too often looked bored, uninspired and even uninterested in proceedings. He was referred to as lazy as well. Which, given the fact that Mesut Ozil was called all of those things just a year before his big breakout, could be a good thing.
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But for Rangers fans, it is not, because in one year he will not be with them.
Zelalem recovered from that negative feedback to latch onto another positive stretch. However, those negative reviews came in again following Rangers win over Morton. While some rather haughty comments included saying he was an awful player, the more composed reviews were indicating that he was looking rather ‘light’.
This has always been the concern with Gedion Zelalem and his future prospectus at Arsenal. His frame has been called into question as he is very undersized and it has become a major worry for the Arsenal faithful out there.
That is what made Zelalem’s loan so perfect. Scotland produces a very physical brand of football – one that can amply prepare a player for the physical nature of Premier League football. It was going to be a huge test to see how Zelalem could adjust to the added pressures.
When asked about what adjustments he was making, Zelalem indicated that instead of trying to outmuscle other players, he was just trying to think ahead and outsmart them. He pinpointed his objective of receiving the ball and distributing it to team mates as soon as possible. That way he would not have to deal with physical confrontations.
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Again, call it the Mesut Ozil approach. While Ozil did add some muscle to his frame, he is not going around boxing out his English rivals. He is just learning to be quicker and pick out his next move sooner.
You hate to put this added pressure on Zelalem, but his career is taking a very similar path as Mesut Ozil’s, only a lot sooner. That can only mean good things. It means we will be able to tell early on if he will be able to make it or not in English football. It is only natural that he is hitting a few hiccups in overcoming the physicality of Scottish football. It is a new development that he is working on to compensate for the opposition’s physicality.
The fact that Rangers wanted to extend the loan and the majority good reviews should be all Arsenal need to know. Clearly he is adjusting well or they would not keep playing him and they would not have wanted to keep him.
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Keep on keeping on, Mr. Zelalem. You are giving Arsenal a lot to look forward to.