Arsenal: Why I’m still not sold on Joe Willock’s here and now

Joe Willock has been a sensation with Arsenal in recent years, but that doesn’t mean that he is ready in the here and now to carry the midfield load.

Arsenal‘s midfield is a beautiful thing, full of youthful exuberance, positive thinking and ridiculous versatility. The youngest of the bunch, by a few months, is Joe Willock, the talented 20-year-old English midfielder who has come up through the academy.

Willock has started both of the first two matches this year, and for his part, he’s played well. On an individual level, he’s finding space, he’s creating space, he isn’t proving to be a liability and he is learning and growing in the role, a lot like what Matteo Guendouzi did last year.

But like Guendouzi of last year, while there is tons of promise underlying his ability, I am not yet convinced that he is the best person to be starting in a midfield that could otherwise be populated by people who are ready in the here and now.

That’s why I wrote a few days ago that, moving forward, Willock may be the person who makes way. Not because he isn’t worthy, or because he doesn’t deserve it, but simply because, right now, the other options are much more impactful in the here and now.

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The problem with Willock is that, while he’s been steady going and reliable, he hasn’t made the kind of impact that someone like Lucas Torreira can. And with Torreira back, Dani Ceballos hitting his stride, and Granit Xhaka the deserved captain, even Matteo Guendouzi is going to have trouble keeping his spot in the starting XI.

Guendouzi has developed incredibly over just a year, but even still, the need for more development is still there, and in a world where we can suddenly be quite picky, we’d be doing a disservice to the club not to be.

I want Willock to continue to see time, and he will. I want to see him continue to develop, and he will. Opportunities won’t be lacking for him, he’s past that point in his career already. He just needs more time to fine-tune the bits and pieces. And as heartless as this sounds, that means that it’s probably a good idea to rotate the starting midfield a bit.

The best midfield combination we can put together right now is Ceballos, Torreira and Xhaka. It’s a damn good midfield and we need to embrace it.