Howard Davies
I can't peruse a media outlet or blog site without a tribute to the great man himself, Robin Van Persie. Now I like Robin, he's clearly a very nice guy and carries the sort of passion for AFC that we'd all like to see from each member of our squad, no complaints on that front, but the fans need to get this into context. The question we have to ask of every player in our squad, "Will this guy win us the Premier League?, Will he win us the Champions League?". My opinion is no, I don't think Robin will do that for us, even without taking his injury record into consideration.
Am I alone in thinking that the better RVP got towards the end of this season, the worse we became? I fear for us because if Robin gets any better, we're going to be relegated next season.
Football is not just about goals, it's a 90 minute spectacle. The media don't buy into that, if we put in an appalling performance and win 1-0 the reports the next day will talk of nothing but glorious passing football. If we put in a thrilling display, creating 20 clear goalscoring opportunities and failing to convert any of them, the reporters will talk of a dire team running on empty. Consequently, RVP is spoken of in glowing terms solely because of his end-of-season goal scoring record. But I'm not interested in RVP's personal goal-scoring record, I'm interested in us looking like a title-winning football team, I'm interested in us winning matches. We weren't winning football matches during this RVP crusade, we were drawing and losing football matches, no good. One might argue, and many are, that without his goalscoring exploits we'd have been in an even worse state. I can't buy into that. There's most certainly two sides to this story. The other side shows that at the beginning of our season when RVP was injured and Chamakh was up front, we were winning football matches. So whatever RVP contributed towards the end of this campaign, he was part of a collective shambles, and I would argue a primary contributor.
Am I arguing that Chamakh is a better footballer than RVP? No. Do I believe that he was part of a football team that had more purpose and more direction at the beginning of the season? Yes. Chamakh was playing in his proper position, up front, making a nuisance of himself, good pace, good technique, good strength, he can't score, you know he can't score, but he can hold the ball up very well for the five oncoming midfielders sitting behind him. Playing RVP in the same position makes no sense. He has no strength and no pace, he's a highly-technical footballer that likes time on the ball and this slowed our football to a near-halt in the final months of the season.
I know Chamakh's form collapsed and we couldn't continue to field him, I'm not necessarily saying Chamakh is the answer (though I believe he deserves another season), I'm just saying that RVP should not be held up as some messiah, and if only we had the players around him that he would lead us to the title. RVP is for me a puzzle. A good guy, highly technical like I've said, a good finisher, but it's hard to understand how we play winning football with him in our side. As RVP doesn't have the pace or strength up front, you have to look to play him either behind the front man in a Bergkamp role, or you stick him on the wing as a free spirit as Wenger often has previously. I personally don't believe RVP has anything like the cleverness of pass that Bergkamp had, so he doesn't fit the role. And personally I'd rather see an Overmars-like flyer on the wing, rather than RVP stuck out there looking to cut inside, we've had enough of that this season with Nasri.
RVP is unfortunately cursed with great talent, but not the physical attributes required to be one of the world's best, or at least one of the world's most effective. If you've watched many of the play-off matches recently, you'll see a whole bunch of really talented guys, some coming to the end of their careers. I've seen some brilliant goals, brilliant technique and you wonder to yourself, how did that guy manage to stay down in the lower leagues and never rise to the top? It's because great talent isn't enough, you must have the combination of talent and physical superiority. Likewise, Mr Walcott most certainly has the latter, but probably not the former.
I saw Samuel Eto’o a couple of times in the Champions League this season, and I was shocked at how good he was, pace, strength, a natural forward's movement, from a guy coming to the end of his career. You just have to see something like that to realise how we will always be struggling if we have RVP leading the line. RVP feels to me like a Spurs player, talented, will score the occasional great goal and at his best, he will help make you into a very good team, but not the very best. We need to try and find the best again, we need a Wright, an Henry, an Anelka. We need power up front or at the very least, someone like Chamakh who will fit into the team structure in a way that makes the better players more effective.
I'm convinced that we'd be a more effective outfit without RVP, if he was sold tomorrow I wouldn't shed a tear, I'd say thanks for the efforts Robin, appreciated and best of luck for the future, right let's look for something that might work now. Even without any signings this summer, Walcott playing off of Chamakh would give us more of a hope, it would make sense at least. One guy with a good leap that can knock the ball on, one guy with explosive pace to run behind. If we start next season with RVP up front, we're doomed.
