Arsenal: Deeper solves everything for Alex Iwobi

Alex Iwobi is attempting to restart his career after seeing it stall since his breakthrough into the Arsenal team two years ago. Trying to play deeper, I believe, solves everything for the young buck.

It was a frustrating World Cup for Alex Iwobi. Entering the competition as one of the faces of a young, exciting, vibrant team that was the talk of the world with its vivacious style and truly ravishing kits, the Arsenal midfielder never quite inherited the mantle of lead creator as was hoped of his prior to the summer.

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Nigeria were handed a tough draw. Croatia and Argentina in the same group is never kind, and after losing their first game to the Croats, the Super Eagles were always playing catch up. They could never quite recover.

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And for Iwobi individually, the World Cup was a microcosm for his first few seasons as a senior first-team player. Heralded as the hope, bursting onto the scene with effervescence and exuberance, he slowly slid into the shadows, his performances inconsistent, his production lacking, his confidence depleting, eventually dropped from the starting line-up altogether and forced to watch from the unhappy comfort of the sidelines.

So, at 22 years of age and still with time to turn the tide, Iwobi is hoping for a youthful renaissance of sorts, only for it to come at the start of his career, not at the end when it’s too late and his potential has passed him by. And I believe that a position switch — it’s not quite a switch, more a slight alteration of role and responsibility — could solve many of his current problems.

If Iwobi was to slide into a central, deeper position, as a more traditional central midfielder, I believe that it would limit the positions in which his poor end product, his unconvincing finishing and his poor decision-making in the final third are exposed, and accentuate his strengths, his ability to drive with the ball at his feet, his spatial intelligence, his tactical acumen and reading of the game.

In playing in that position, his confidence might also be helped. He would be doing things that are well within his comfort zone, simplifying the game for him with that extra yard of space on the ball, and that would ease his anxieties and unsettled nature that often come through when he plays in more advanced zones.

They may also be more playing opportunities a little deeper. With Jack Wilshere departing, there is only really Aaron Ramsey present as a natural ball-playing, game-driving box-to-box midfielder. There is certainly a chance that Iwobi could be afforded greater time in that position than if he stays to complete higher up the pitch, either out wide or centrally.

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At the end of it all, like Nigeria, Iwobi will just have to play better. His talent is still evident, but his production does not match it and, eventually, his managers will, like many of the fans, get tired of waiting for him to deliver. But I do feel that he will be helped to play better by starting deeper. Whether I’ll ever to see it, though, I am a little doubtful.