Arsenal Cannot Attract World Class DM Fans Want

Arsenal fans constantly clamor for defensive midfielders to be their club’s top transfer targets. Is it possible that those players don’t want to join?

Arsenal fans were calling for their defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin’s head immediately after a reckless challenge led to him receiving a red card in Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

Fans referenced Coquelin’s track record of reckless challenges, and said that the Frenchman needed to learn discipline if he wanted to play first team football. The more extreme end of Arsenal supporters were calling for new defensive midfield players. That led to unnecessary speculation about other DM’s joining the club and more articles about the ‘best fit’ for Arsenal.

Every transfer window, the speculation persists. Once in a while Arsene Wenger will address some of the rumors, undoubtedly denying that Arsenal were making a bid and saying there was no club-to-agent contact.

When that happens, people get on social media and talk about how Arsene Wenger is “naive” or “arrogant”, and that he doesn’t want to sign anyone because he thinks his team is perfect.

As a football manager enthusiast who assumes that real football managers look at their squads just as critically as I do, there’s no way Arsene Wenger has a giant hole in a position he thinks he needs, and is totally unwilling to sign a player for that position.

As we can see here in the DM heat map of Mohamed El Neny and Francis Coquelin, they play in a two midfielder set, deep in central midfield.

Both players occupy a rigid role, and neither of them move far up or down the pitch. Since Arsenal operate with this double-axel midfield and then three men further forward, there is no player right in the middle of the pitch.

(See the Spurs v Arsenal heat map here if you’re interested, there’s no heat in that center circle area.)

Arsene Wenger has used this type of midfield in a lot of his Arsenal teams in recent years. It’s preferable for him in his possession style of football. When Francis Coquelin was impressing while loaned out from Arsenal, he was showing his strength in the tackle and Wenger picked him for the team to play as the more anchor-like DM in that double-axel.

Aaron Ramsey has operated alongside him this year, but the Gunners were firing on all cylinders and in their most convincing form with Santi Cazorla alongside the Frenchman in the double-axel shape.

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The “world-class” defensive central midfielders, like Grzegorz Krychowiak, N’Golo Kante, Arturo Vidal or William Carvalho, all prefer the role in the middle of the pitch. Arsenal fans are always interested in these types of players who are able to play brilliant balls as well as make hard tackles in the middle of the pitch. But is it possible that Arsene Wenger – as fans might already have noticed – is trying to build a team around a system, and that the current players need to step up their game?

Aaron Ramsey has been tasked, thanks to recent injuries, with filling Santi Cazorla’s spot and playing that deep midfield role. He is not a deep midfielder. That leads to problems for the Gunners, and it makes the system Wenger is going for function incorrectly.

Francis Coquelin isn’t as good with the ball at his feet as his midfield team mates are, and that also makes the system function a little worse than it could. While being a great tackler, he’s not a complete players.