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Arsenal Bottling Krystian Bielik’s Potential
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal have announced their Champions League roster and it is surprising to see Krystian Bielik excluded from the youth ranks given his progress this year.
Arsenal have announced their Champions League roster, which usually gives a pretty good indication of what youth players Wenger views highly enough to include on the B-List. This year, that B-list consisted of some notable youngsters such as Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Alex Iwobi, Daniel Crowley and Julio Pleguezuelo.
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These are guys that are making waves either in the U21 side or at Arsenal, in Iwobi’s case. Even Hector Bellerin is included on the list because of his age.
But the one absentee that raises so many questions and brings to light so many frustrations is Krystian Bielik. The 18 year old Pole has made significant headway towards the Arsenal first team and was the only youth product to impress in Arsenal’s feeble showing against Sheffield Wednesday. In the same match, Glen Kamara got the start and he was less than impressive. Yet he would have been included in the Champions League roster if not for his loan.
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Perhaps the most confusing thing about this exclusion is that if any one was to play for Arsenal, in the unlikely event that they do, it would be Krystian Bielik. Some may point to Jeff Reine-Adelaide, but the Frenchman plays an advanced attacking role, something Arsenal have in abundance.
What Arsenal do not have in abundance is defensemen and holding midfielders, two roles that Bielik is excelling at with the U21 side.
Instead of including Bielik, Arsenal included newly signed Marcus McGuane, who also plays a holding role. However, McGuane has the capabilities to play an advanced role as well.
Similarly, Arsenal only included one youth center back in Tolaji Bola. Yet they included four fullbacks. When you look at the Arsenal senior roster, fullback is covered much better than center back, much like how attacking mid is covered much better than defensive mid. Yet Arsenal included four youth attacking mids and McGuane, who can play attacking too.
Again, the likelihood of these youth players getting time is very slim. But there is something to be said in the principle of it all.
So why exclude Krystian Bielik? Every youth product who is anything was included and as mentioned, if anyone was going to be used in a stopgap scenario, it would have been Bielik.
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There is no obvious answer to this question. Wenger is known to be allergic to supplying actual defensive midfielders. So much so that he is in the process of potentially moving Bielik away from the central defensive role and making him a center back.
This would be a huge mistake. Finally, Arsenal have someone that can grow into a role that has for so long been a void on this Arsenal team and the only thing on Wenger’s agenda is to convert him because he is too defensive. From the little bit we saw against Sheffield United, he proved that he is a solid option in the middle of the pitch.
Likewise, his time at center back has been hit and miss. The original plan sounded like it was to let Bielik develop some better defensive abilities while playing on the back line, that way when in the midfield, he would be more defensively sound. However, the longer this goes on, the more it feels like he is going to be a center back after all.
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Bielik is not a pure defender. He scored three goals in eight appearances for the Poland U17 squad. The capabilities are there to be a midfielder, Wenger just has to let those traits develop. Moving him to center back is removing one of your greatest future resources.