Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey Will Be Ruined At This Rate

Arsenal completely misused Aaron Ramsey yet again and if this is the path they are going down, expect him to be ruined by the time he’s 30.

I don’t like this feeling of being so livid at Arsene Wenger. It’s not fun. But that’s where I am. I blame him wholly for what happened at United, the good and the bad. But it was mostly bad. Arsenal were toothless and it all started with that starting XI.

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The first news I heard of the XI was that Xhaka was out and Ramsey was in. “Brilliant,” I though, “he’s finally put Ramsey in the center to cope with Cazorla being out.”

Wrong. Instead, he put him on the left hand side, where he has never had success, let alone played. In the process, he put in a poorly-equipped Mohamed Elneny in the role Ramsey should have been in and we reaped the rewards of zero creation and zero shots.

For that reason, as mentioned in my article acquitting Mesut Ozil of all blame, I absolve everyone in this attack from blame. Nobody is at fault when they are set up to fail. And starting a holding two of Coquelin and Elneny is setting up an offense to fail.

Ramsey was a part of that offense.

There is so much hatred being poured out on Ramsey but the simple fact of the matter is that Wenger is so horribly misusing him. He is pulling him apart like soft bread and if he keeps this up, there won’t be any of our magical Welshman left.

The worst thing you can do with Ramsey is put him in a box and give him a list of things to do. That’s what happens when you put him on the wings. “Stay in this area, help defend with this guy.” That doesn’t work. When you put him in the center, like we’ve seen for Wales and like we’ve seen for bloody Arsenal in the past, and you let him do his thing, that’s when the magic happens.

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I feel like Wenger is putting handcuffs on Ramsey’s wrists and ankles and saying “go on, be effective.”

This is going to ruin Ramsey and it is going to sour the love he has for Arsenal because it is blatant and painful misuse.

I don’t get Wenger’s aversion to playing him centrally when that role is needed. What am I missing here? Instead of letting a much quicker, much more inventive Ramsey play in the center alongside Coquelin, you let a slow, creatively-stunted Elneny do it. What is the hope there?

Ramsey is one of the best midfielders out there and I have no problem saying that. But you have to use him correctly. You can’t just toss him around the formation and expect him to always be the same.

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Play him centrally or sell him so we can enjoy seeing him play somewhere else and wonder what could have been.