A more general review of the season will follow later. First I’ll look through the players, starting today with the keepers and the full-backs:
Must stop seeing yellow
Goalkeepers
WITH Jens you need to look at form and discipline. Form wise he was decent at the start of the season and there was one great save at Old Trafford. But then he dropped somewhat - conceding bad goals at Sheffield United, at home to Manchester City and to Fulham to name but a few.
A mere nine clean sheets from 36 league appearances (just 25 per cent) is poor by any standards and it’s particularly frustrating when 20 of those appearances yielded just 20 goals. But nonetheless, I don’t follow the argument that one drop in form from an older player equates to them being past it and I’d say his failings have been more about concentration than reaction speeds. Hopefully having a serious challenger for his position in Fabianski will focus his mind.
So too could an improvement in his discipline. I’ll be the first to argue that the unwillingness on the part of referees or the FA to stop players deliberately standing on Jens’ toes is wrong. But the man is 38 and eight bookings in a season is frankly pathetic for a goalkeeper. He should be setting an example to the kids in front of him (and let’s face it, a couple of them need one). Instead they are just watching an indulgent clown.
And the reason why it matters is that everybody knows that when you wind up Jens, he ends up making mistakes.
The situation with the rest of the goalkeepers is so unclear at the moment that there is not really a lot that can be said. I will say that Almunia proved himself over the season to be a very adequate number two and as far as third choice keepers go, Mart Poom looks a far better bet than Hilario.
Take note Eboue
Full backs
TO the untrained eye Gael Clichy and Emmanuel Eboue have so much in common. Both are lightening quick full backs who use their pace if their positioning lets them down. Both also love to bomb forward, linking up with their winger, getting to the line and feeding the attack. Both are in their early 20s and have the potential to be very, very good players.
But that is where the similarity ends.
I’ve no idea what the man is like in private, but on the pitch Gael Clichy is the best professional we have. He never moans, never backchats to referees, never goes in to hurt an opponent and never dives. He seems not to have an ounce of arrogance on him. He is a player I can support unreservedly and if his name was not so hopeless song wise, I’m sure it would be sung to the rafters.
But at right back, I can’t remember feeling less affinity for an Arsenal player than I do for Emmanuel Eboue. Regular readers will know I’m not one for dishing out gratuitous offence. But equally, some things need to be said. And the truth is that Emmanuel Eboue is a walking disgrace on the football pitch. I can put up with the youthful arrogance of Cesc and the Gallic shrugs of Henry but Eboue’s constant diving, exaggeration of injuries and general attitude is just too much for me. And yes, I know he had his injuries but I’m not sure how they affect anything.
At the moment, to me he is a shell. He wears the red and white and what he does makes me happy or unhappy as a fan of the team. But other than that, I feel nothing for him. No doubt some readers will think me too harsh and dismiss the above as the ranting of someone overly obsessed by attitude and not interested enough in ability.
But here is where I find it all most frustrating: Gael Clichy excelled this season. He got better and better. When he made mistakes he learnt. When he lost the ball he kept running and as the season wore on, his energy levels increased. He went for every ball like it was his last. Replacing Ashley Cole was not going to be easy. But he did it and was a major success.
Eboue, on the other hand, regressed. The more his attitude stank, the less he stuck to his man, the more he made stupid decisions and the greater the number of free-kicks he gave away because of sloppy defending. And because he became lazy, always choosing the easiest option, he stopped attacking too. What had been his greatest strength was suddenly present only in fits and starts.
On Eboue, there was a moment in the Pompey game on Sunday that kind of summed things up for me. We were attacking down the right, the whistle went against Baptista or someone, the ball dropped down a second or two later and Eboue just booted it way up miles in the air into the stand. It was not a shot, it was just a boot miles into the air. I know it shouldn’t matter, but it did. I just thought: “What on earth are you doing?” It was symptomatic of a player whose head was not there.
And the great tragedy is that if he pulls himself together Eboue could be one of the great full-backs. If he puts his mind to it he CAN defend and is good enough going forward to be the best attacking full-back in the world. The choice is his.
Justin Hoyte surprised many of us I think, particularly after seeing him at left-back for the first few games. But when moved across to the right, he got better and better. His distribution improved, his positioning improved, everything improved. He deserves his new contract.
Armando Traore is still very raw on positional defending. But the boy has outstanding talent. He has grown a couple of inches since I first saw him in the reserves at Underhill 14 months ago. It means he is no longer a dead ringer for Gael Clichy looks wise, but in every other sense his emergence feels much like our current left-back’s four years ago. He did particularly well in the Carling Cup semi first leg and final.
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