What do you think of Ramsey in this CM role?

You're assuming a lot of things I've not said and are arguing against that instead of what I'm saying.

Yes, Ramsey does like to go forward and the vast majority of the time Wenger is clearly quite happy with it. We've seen Ramsey play more conservatively in the past even though back then he enjoyed bombing forward just as much (12/13 & 13/14).

I agree Ramsey isn't particularly great at building up play. What does that have to do with anything? Wenger quite clearly hasn't asked him to perform such a role. I also agree that Cazorla and Coquelin is a much, much stronger midfield pairing and probably the strongest we've had since Vieira and Gilberto.

When we play Cazorla and Coquelin teams very rarely use a high press against us because the two of them are skilled at avoiding it most of the time. When we play Flamini and Ramsey, however, the pairing finds it much harder to avoid a high press and teams use it more frequently. Wenger reacts to this by having the two push higher up the pitch because that is the strategy he feels comfortable using against a high press.

Ramsey has played out wide because the team functions better with him out wide and others centrally. This doesn't mean that his style of play in CM isn't instructed or encouraged by Wenger. Or do you seriously believe Wenger just tells the guys they are playing "CM" today and then lets them do what they feel like?

Wenger bought Elneny because he's a mobile passer with good stamina and a defensive mindset, which means he can be used in multiple midfield roles (DM, B2B, DLP). Doesn't really have anything to do with being able to drop back between the central defenders as our current midfielders are able to too.

/r/Gunners Thread Parent