Benjamin Cullen
Amid all the clamour for a new centre back, Arsenal are in big danger of failing to address one of the major short-comings of their squad. Because although Vermaelen’s achilles setbacks and Squillaci’s slight hamstring injury leave Arsenal with just two regular first-team centre backs to manage the busy few weeks of fixtures ahead. The fact remains that if those injury problems are overcome, Arsenal have within their ranks five strong contenders for this position: Vermaelen, Djourou, Koscielny, Squillaci and Song (probably in that hierarchical order ). Not to mention the two promising youngsters on their books: Kyle Bartley (who’s on loan at Sheffield Utd) and Ignasi Miquel.
However in the squad’s linchpin position - the main defensive midfield role - there is an unfortunate irony in the lyrics to the Arsenal fans’ favourite - ‘One Song, we’ve only got one Song’. Because, for all their wealth of talented young players, Arsenal still have not acquired a player who can fulfill the defensive duties that Song can and does so well. That is not meant as a criticism of Denilson or Wilshire, nor of the extremely promising young defensive midfielder Emannuel Frimpong (who it seems has more in common with Michael Essien than just his Ghanaian heritage). But for me, although those players can all play effectively alongside Song in the ‘double pivot’ system. They cannot yet replace Song satisfactorily.
Song is able to act in a similar way to that which Sergio Busquets does for Barcelona as Jonathan Wilson recently explained in an article for Guardian Football: “Barcelona often have both full-backs pushed high, a risky strategy necessitated by how frequently they come up against sides who sit deep against them. With width on both sides they can switch the play quickly from one flank to the other, and turn even a massed defence. They still, though, need cover in case the opponent breaks, and so Sergio Busquets sits in, becoming in effect a third centre-back”
But to play that role well a player normally needs the height, athletic ability and positional awareness that Song and Busquets both possess. Yet within the Arsenal squad, none of the aforementioned ‘Song substitutes’ stand taller than 5ft 11, and for all their excellent technical abilities, neither Wilshere nor Denilson are blessed with excellent pace or defensive positional awareness. And whilst Frimpong does offer more athleticism, aggression and natural disposition to the role: it is probably Abou Diaby who comes closest to fitting the mold , at least physically anyway.
But unfortunately for Wenger there are serious doubts not only over Diaby’s injury worries, but also as to whether he has the defensive mindset to play the role consistently well, despite some encouraging showings playing there for France and Arsenal towards the end of last summer. Those who are not quite convinced of the ‘irreplaceableness’ of Song in the Arsenal squad might be more convinced by looking at Arsenal’s record without him. In the eight games in which Song has not played at all this season, Arsenal have won 3, lost 3 and drawn 2. Of course Arsenal also suffered a late equaliser at Sunderland after Song was sent off.
It should be pointed out too, that not only did the three wins come against under-strength Newcastle, Wigan and Tottenham sides in the Carling Cup (with the latter requiring extra time to ensure progression). But the three losses and two draws were hardly all against major opposition either: Arsenal lost to Shakhtar, Braga and Ipswich and drew with Wigan (all sides you would normally expect Arsenal to beat) and although they managed a more respectable draw with Liverpool, it must be said that Diaby also feature in that game.
Arsene Wenger had suggested in his comments regarding bringing in some defensive reinforcements in January, that he’d prefer to bring in someone with Premiership experience, who could hit the ground running, so to speak.
I don’t pretend to be an expert on defensive midfielders, but I can think of only three players currently playing in the Premiership who could possibly do the Song/Busquets thing.
Those would be Vincent Kompany, who Arsenal could never realistically target. Jack Rodwell of Everton, who would be my favourite (but again he has shown a lot of resistance to leave Everton in the past and would look to be a difficult transfer to land) and lastly Jordan Henderson: who isn’t exactly an ‘out an out’ defensive midfielder (although neither is Song when you study his distribution carefully - as the Arsenal Column did here) but does have the passing ability, stature and athleticism for the role and has played there on occasion for Sunderland as well as in his recent England debut, albeit rather disappointingly. Of course Alex Ferguson is also reported to have first option on Henderson too, which might all mean Wenger would have to look further afield if Arsenal are to find another Song.
But I’d suggest they do, and quickly. Because, if Alex Song were to get injured anytime soon then I don’t think Arsenal fans will have anything to sing about: especially a trophy.
Twitter: benvenceremos
