Arsenal: Joe Willock doesn’t have same fallback as Maitland-Niles

Arsenal are seeing continual progress out of Joe Willock, which is great, but if we don’t carve out a spot for him, he doesn’t have the same fallback as Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

Joe Willock put up another stellar performance for Arsenal against Bayern Munich in the ICC, playing alongside Granit Xhaka at the base of the midfield two. Chances are, that isn’t where he is going to find much time, since Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi are both there, but it was nice to see him doing quite well in the role.

There’s been a lot of debate over where to play Willock, whether in an attacking role, on the wings, or deeper in the midfield, as against Bayern Munich, but even as he is still quite young, it’s important to start figuring this out.

There was a pretty standard theme for young Arsenal central midfielders. See Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and see Ainsley Maitland-Niles. They want to play centrally, never get the chance, play on the wings and are then asked to play wingback. Oxlade-Chamberlain didn’t like it, Maitland-Niles grew into it (and is still growing).

Willock can’t take the same route because the option isn’t there for him. Maitland-Niles already took it. So now Willock has nothing to fall back on and is confined to trying to break into the midfield, which, barring any drastic changes, doesn’t look likely.

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As for me, I always enjoyed see him him play in an attacking role, because he plays with a directness that was becoming of the position. It’s not his usual position, and honestly looked third place behind deep midfield and winger, but it’s since turned into something I think he could grow into.

But the problem remains that trusting that singular position to the whims of a teenager is a dicey endeavor, and as long as we have Mesut Ozil lingering at the club, the opportunity isn’t going to be there.

What this really comes down to is formation. We saw a 4-4-1-1 against Bayern Munich, which was inventive, but likely not the way forward. We expect to see 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 as Emery tries to get back to a back four that’s functional, but the opportunity isn’t exactly shining through. Perhaps in a midfield four he could find some love in one of the two outside midfield positions, but even then, the competition is pretty fierce.

He’s going to have to seize what opportunities he’s given. Early signs are that won’t be a problem.