Arsenal: Time For A Francis Coquelin Re-Evaluation

With Arsenal’s midfield having been atrocious of late, heads should probably role. Is Francis Coquelin really deserving of a starting role?

it was not too long ago that Francis Coquelin was perceived by Arsenal fans as the second-coming of Patrick Vieira. Strong, passionate, tigerish and defensively minded, he was the answer to the decade-long central midfield conundrum, that the likes of Abou Diary, Denilson, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini had failed to solve.

He wasn’t afraid to stick a boot in, pick up a yellow for the team, or fire up his teammates. Grit, determination, desire, spirit; when had an Arsenal player last been praised with those words?

Probably not since the Invincibles.

At one point, Coquelin was looking perfect. He was the perfect foil to his midfield partner, the impish Santi Cazorla, with his fancy footwork, mazy dribbles and precise passing. Their duo was effective in its simplicity, with Coquelin doing the bruising, dirty work: the interceptions, the tackles, the fouls, and Cazorla providing the transition, the link between defence and attack by wriggling out of tight-spaces, and providing pinpoint through-balls for the attacking talents of Ozil, Sánchez, Giroud et. al to feast upon.

It’s this ideal combination of power and poise, of physical and mental attributes that allows the pair to work as well as they do. When Coquelin and Cazorla are on song, Arsenal are too.

However, with Cazorla getting on in years and becoming increasingly injury-prone, Coquelin has failed to carry on alongside the various midfield partners Arsene Wenger has had him play with. Coquelin-Ramsey, Coquelin-Elneny, Coquelin-Xhaka; Wenger has tried the lot, and none have really worked out.

It is here that Coquelin’s lack of versatility becomes prominent.

Cazorla possesses a set of attributes rare to central midfielders, by virtue of the fact that he wasn’t one until three seasons ago. However, alongside the others, Coquelin’s technical insufficiency, lack of experience and creative limitations are exposed.

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Ramsey is not the best at retaining the ball, Elneny doesn’t create many chances, and Xhaka is a disciplinary loose cannon. Ordinarily, the other central midfielder would be expected to act as a counterweight for their partner’s weaknesses, but Coquelin, to put it bluntly, has failed to do so.

His creative output is still too low for a cog in the midfield of a possession-based outfit like Arsenal, he gets his pocket picked of the ball in dangerous areas a bit too often, and still does pick up the odd booking.

As (sort-of) the most frequently used of Arsenal’s midfield options, Coquelin should now have become a senior figure in the middle of the park, compensating for the inefficiencies of the less experienced, more injury prone players. However, putting it bluntly again, he has failed to do that.

(Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) /

Even looking forward into the future, it is hard to see Coquelin dovetailing with any of the midfielders in the squad not named Santi Cazorla. His faults are too obvious, too numerous and too open to exploitation by opponents for him to be consistently relied upon. Recently, Rio Ferdinand ripped him to shreds.

Thus, a serious re-evaluation must be carried out regarding his role in the starting eleven. Though no other midfield-partnership really presents a very strong case for itself, Coquelin has not proven himself deserving of an automatic-starter role.

He is not in the same class as Laurent Koscielny, Hector Bellerin or Alexis Sanchez. Coquelin certainly has a role to play, but if recent performances are anything to go by, radical change is required to fix the dysfunctional, creaking mess that is Arsenal’s midfield.

Could Coquelin be the casualty? Has he done enough to justify his place? Would it be deserved, or would he be taking the fall for someone else? Is central midfield really the question that needs answering? What other solutions could there be?

Next: Arsenal's Potential Starting XI Under Max Allegri

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