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Arsenal Must Be Diligent With Calum Chambers
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal has a knack for player development, but they are at a crucial stage in Calum Chambers career and he still has no identity. Is this a problem?
When Arsenal purchased Calum Chambers from Southampton for the rather steep fee of £16m with add-ons, it was pretty soundly established that Chambers’ future was in the center of the defense. He had the strength, composure and token lack of pace that many Arsenal center backs tend to have.
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However, since that time, there have been questions. The 21-year old Englishman is bouncing around between right back, central defense and central midfield, without any role jumping out as his go-to. And that is in the rare instance that he actually does find playing time.
Arsenal first utilized Chambers as a right back. While he showed positive defensive qualities, his pace was always going to be a problem. Not to mention the fact that Hector Bellerin made short work of the competition at right back. Therefore Chambers was moved to center back, where he found very little play time.
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As such, he moved to central midfield as the drought was fierce without Coquelin. Two appearances later and he has disappeared yet again.
Chambers has made it clear that he is happy at Arsenal and that he loves learning from such world-class talents. Yet, at some point we have to wonder where his future lies. A loan move was briefly considered but clearly opted against.
It is useful for a young player to bounce around between positions because it helps them see the game from a different perspective and understand the workings of the team better. That’s what is going on with Krystian Bielik. But Bielik is 18 and in Arsenal’s youth squad. Chambers is 21 and in the senior squad sitting on the bench.
This is shaping up to be very similar situation as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The Ox was so versatile that he could, and did, play every role between the defense and striker. Many saw this versatility as a good thing, but a few stray opinions out there noted that without an identity on the pitch, he would be doomed to the fate of a utility player with stunted potential. Suddenly that opinion is looking rather credible.
It would be rather unpleasant to see Chambers confined to the same kind of thing. While they are both still young, when they don’t have any particular identity on the team, then all the positions they can get by at are still going to look undermanned. Just because Flamini, Chambers, Cazorla and Ramsey all play a holding midfield role does not mean that Francis Coquelin has four other defensive midfielders.
Similarly, just because Danny Welbeck, Theo Walcott, Joel Campbell and Alexis Sanchez can all play striker does not mean that Olivier Giroud has four competitors.
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Just about everyone in that list has an identity on the pitch. Ramsey is a box-to-box. Cazorla is a creative midfielder. Campbell and Alexis are wingers.Flamini is a temporary fill-in. The one’s that don’t have identities are the ones with inconsistency as a token trait – Danny Welbeck, Theo Walcott, Calum Chambers.
Wenger has said that Chambers has a future in the center of defense but the longer it takes him to get there and the more detours he has to take, the more likely it is that someone else comes in to replace him.
On the bright side, from Chambers point of view, Arsenal’s youth system does not have the defensive prowess to match its midfield prowess. So at least he has that going for him.
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As mentioned, he is only 21 years old so it’s not like it’s time to start panicking. It would just be nice to see Chambers start to make some headway at whatever position it is that he was bought for.