If there’s any case you could say this doesn’t apply, it’s this.
99% of Arsenal fans couldn’t stand Ramsey before 12-13, and I didn’t see anything but joy at his success in 13-14, and in fact even before he had that break out people were very supportive of him in the pre-season when it looked like Wenger would stick with him.
So yeah, I don’t think anyone has wished ill on Ramsey whatsoever, rather that he’s proven those of us who were skeptical right, despite our wishes.
In short, I really can’t think of a player the fanbase has been more patient or generous with. Certainly not Coquelin, or Mertesacker, or Monreal, or even Koscielny (fans were calling Koscielny shit and calling for his sale in about a 1/3 of the time they patiently supported Ramsey and built up the myth of his pre-injury talent and his slow progression to its recovery).
I think most Arsenal fans loved the boy and after the shacross incident he was given bail for a long time . He appeared to have gotten over the injury physically but not mentally for some time but then in 2103-14 he came alive . . . . .for a while . Since then he’s been frustrated at wide roles and has been frustrating to watch with trick shot flicks becoming a trademark rather than driving forward play and goals . I still think he can come good but he isnt better than Santi so the only role he can excel at is taken but since he is a Wenger favourite he will get a start somehwere ,which doesnt always helpe the teams balance and shape.
I think this might be what winds people up the most. They rarely come off and you’re just left looking stupid if you do one and it doesn’t work. A missed pass people will quickly forget, a missed backheel, not so much.
He can’t excel in Santi’s role at all. He’s awful there. That was plain to see last season. Wenger plays him in the only position he’s useful in in a top club that isn’t playing on the back foot typically/has a lack of creative talent like Wales.
In the end Ramsey is pretty lucky he’s Welsh, if he played in a team with more options that wasn’t constructed around he and Bale, his cache would be no higher than any other English player that isn’t quite good enough, certainly no more than Ross Barkley, who’s just a slightly more technically gifted version of him, except with a poorer career trajectory/footballing exposure (i.e. he hasn’t been as lucky as Ranaey to develop in a top club, playing the style of a top club, around higher caliber of player).
The likes of Ramsey, Walcott, Podolski and Giroud to a degree are just technically too limited too succeed in the football Arsenal tries to play. Chamberlain has the technic, but not the brains. I wonder if Wenger doesn’t see that or sees something in training we don’t see.
There were certain factors with 13/14. He stayed fit for ages and was clearly in peak condition. He’d dropped deep to play as a DM the prior season and became a ball winning beast. Then he combined that with great off the ball movement and being literally everywhere over the pitch. It also helped that he played with Ozil, Wilshere and Rosicky during this period. He worked well with Giroud to. Flamini was actually covering well as a DM at the start of 13/14. I can’t remember if he played with Arteta much because I know Arteta was injured initially.
What is Giroud doing on a list of technically limited players? It’s one of the strongest aspects of his game. As evidence by the quality of his finishing and link up play
I did say ‘to a degree’. But Giroud has too many moments were he needs time too actually control the ball and stuff like that. He has above average/good technic, but it’s not great. It’s one of the reasons why he is a good striker, but not a great one.
When I think of technique the first thing I think of is first touch. Ox and Giroud both have a first touch at times that makes me want to yank my tv off the wall and throw it at a neighbors cat.
Yeah I would also say Giroud’s technique is good but not great, the biggest problem with as we know is we lack pressing from the front & our movement is very stagnant/ slower when he plays.
Giroud would be fine if we used a system to best explot his talents , Ie he plays center forward target man with someone playing off him .
We dont do that so his talents are largely wasted !
He was completely useless on the left. Honestly Ox probably should have started ahead of him if Wenger is adamant about playing Alexis at CF and having Giroud off the bench. Maybe it was just that Ramsey was so soooooooo bad on the left but when he went to the middle it seemed a lot better.
Whatever happened to the Ramsay of 3 season ago??!
Whatever the answer is to that - probably he had one of those lucky seasons which inflates how we view things - he’s certainly not good enough in any spot across our midfield; I feel like I’ve been watching him for 2 years now, seeing how crap it is but not wanting to admit it. He’s not really that impressive at doing anything, certainly not on a consistent basis, although I think he’s better than Ross Barkley @AbouCuellar, because Barkley is more on Ox or Aaron Lennon’s level. Ramsay is better than that, although with too many flaws to be properly complete in any position.
I think I mentioned it in the Liverpool thread but he needs to be in a team where they play him as a #10. He’s simply not performing well anywhere he’s placed in the team. He couldn’t control the CM role last season (albeit alongside Flamini) and he doesn’t cut the wide areas as well as someone like Iwobi, a fledgling compared to him.
I really can’t deal with another season of Aaron being shoved into a wide position, blergh.
He has stamina but no athleticism. Valencia literally tore him and Monreal apart today. Though I’ve always rated Valencia I kinda thought he was past it by now, guess all he needed was to come up against a couple of scrubs.
Yeah, maybe, like I said though, probably in large part because he’s been fortunate enough to have a far preferable football education/exposure. I’m not sure Ramsey is too high above Ox or Aaron Lennon’s level tbh, he’s an extremely, extremely flawed footballer.
@YJYUX Ramsey at #10 is an absolute myth, he’s never put in a single decent performance in that position for us. He’s a #10 (or high #8 really) in a set-up/level roughly correspondent to Sunderland/Palace.