Season in Review, Part I: The Bad

It’s that time again. Time for the patented three-part season in review, where I take a look at ten things each season that were bad, good, and somewhere in-between. Today, we start with the bad.

Now, before I get started, a reminder of the ground rules — if someone or something is in the “bad” column, all that means is that it/they was disappointing relative to our expectations at the beginning of the season. For example, if you asked Kieran Gibbs about his season, he would certainly tell you that it was a “bad” or “disappointing” season because he hardly got to play and was injured most of the year. If you told us at the beginning of the season, “Kieran Gibbs will only play 7 games this season and will suffer a severe, season-ending injury,” my (and yours, too, presumably) response would have been, “ooo, that’s bad.” That’s all it means. Doesn’t mean I don’t believe in Gibbs, doesn’t mean I’m saying it’s his fault. So try to keep in mind that I’m NOT ranking the 10 worst Arsenal players, just trying to measure their performance against what we thought we’d get from them at the outset of the year, and please refrain, if possible, from leaving comments, like “ZOMG!!! Gibbz wuz hurt all yere, how cin you sey he wuz bad!!!” His season was bad because he wasn’t able to contribute to the club what we (and he, and Wenger) expected he would at the beginning of the year. Okay, let’s get started:

1. Injuries/Medical Sigh. Again. Maybe we were a bit unlucky this year. After all, it would have been difficult to really account for three broken legs due to contact injuries (Nasri, Ramsey, Cesc), and severe joint injuries that probably couldn’t have been prevented (Gibbs, van Persie, Djourou). But still, even aside from that, our record was very poor. We didn’t have a single player stay healthy from the beginning of the year until the end, and on numerous occasions we brought a player back only to have them reaggravate an existing injury (Cesc (twice), Gallas, Clichy, and quite a few others). Plus there was the endless parade of hamstring, groin, and calf injuries. I’m not an expert, but I do know that other clubs don’t have this many injuries, and are better about holding their players out until they’re actually fit before allowing them back on the pitch. This is the second season in a row that injuries/poor medical treatment has cost the club dearly, and unless serious changes are made, it won’t be the last.

2. Flaps (Appearances: 10; Goals Conceded Per Game: 1.50; Average Rating: 5.60; Man of the Match: 0) Ah, Flaps. Catastrophic season for the young Pole. Only made 10 appearances for the club this season, including 2 Champions League losses, one of them the disastrous Porto game. Seemed to take a substantial step backward from last season, where he showed a lot of promise in the domestic cup matches. But there has seldom been a more clear example of a keeper who is not ready for prime-time than Flaps. He has turned in high-profile disastrous performances in the FA Cup last season and in the Champions League this season, and is, simply put, not ready to be a # 1 keeper at this level. He still has the physical tools to succeed — he’s big, with long arms and quick reflexes, and has the required physique and psyche to command his area. And he must have done something spectacular in training for Wenger to keep trotting him out there. But psychologically he’s certainly not there yet. Wenger has big questions to answer for his goalkeeping situation generally, but with Flaps in particular. For what it’s worth, I think it would be worth trying to find a team willing to start Flaps between the sticks in either the Championship or Bundesliga, because I think once he settles in he could very well turn out to be an excellent keeper, but he needs action every week to put this bad season behind him. I know it’s not a widely held notion, but I still believe his career isn’t over.

3. Almunia (Appearances: 34; Goals Conceded Per Game: 1.12; Average Rating: 6.38; Man of the Match: 1)And speaking of keepers who may need new surroundings next season, let’s deal with Manuel. He had a great first half in the first leg against Barcelona just to keep Arsenal in the tie, and he put in some other solid performances, too. And it’s hard, because I genuinely like Almunia — I think he’s a good dude, and a good teammate, and I like rooting for him. But the bottom line is that he’s not good enough to play for a team of Arsenal’s caliber. He makes too many mistakes, he doesn’t command his area well enough, he doesn’t stop shots well enough, and his distribution isn’t good enough. How many times this season did we say at the end of the match, “If only the keepers had been reversed, Arsenal would have won that game?” It sure felt like a lot to me.

At this point in his career, Almunia probably wouldn’t be happy with a back-up role, and Arsenal will not win a major trophy with Almunia as the keeper. Add the two together, and I think the conclusion has to be that if Arsenal want to win a trophy, we need to ship Manuel elsewhere. He just didn’t get it done this season, and, as he’s about to turn 33, I see no reason for hoping that he’ll improve next season. My vote is to send him to Spain, where I have to think he could find a starting spot on a mid-table side, and to wish him well.

4. Eduardo (Appearances: 31; Goals: 5; Assists: 6; Average Rating: 6.15; Man of the Match: .5) On the plus side, probably stayed healthier than we had any right to expect from him given his catastrophic injury in February 2008 and the resulting layoff and residual injuries. But on the minus side, um . . . everything else?

He’s lost a LOT of pace, which was never really a strength of his to begin with, and now he just seems completely bereft of the quickness needed to create scoring chances at this level. His passing remains fairly poor, he’s not really physical enough to hold up the ball and wait for support, and he’s not physical or athletic enough to pose much of a threat in the air. To top it all off, Eddie, who was once one of the top pure finishers in the world, now seems barely able to put the ball on net. Add it up, and you’ve got a striker who can’t run, pass, hold up, head, or score. The utility of such a player is, well, limited, to put it kindly.

Eduardo’s been good for the club in the past, and he just signed a new contract extension this year. But he’s 27, hardly young, and his form appears to be getting worse and worse with every game. When van Persie and Bendtner were out injured, Eduardo was given the opportunity to lead the line, and he was an abject failure in that role. After being moved to the bench as an “impact sub,” he was never able to come off the bench and provide any spark at all. I like Eddie, and will always respect him and wish his Arsenal career had turned out better, but honestly, at this point, I think we’re probably better off letting him go someplace else to play the remainder of his prime years.

5. Carlos Vela (Appearances: 20; Goals: 2; Assists: 2; Average Rating: 6.08; Man of the Match: 0) I covered Vela’s difficulties in more detail here, but this was a season many of us thought Carlos Vela was really going to break out and make his presence felt in the first team. Or not, as it turns out. He played less, and looked much less effective, than he did last season.

The troubling thing is that we’re talking about a guy who’s 21, and seeing most of the guys at Arsenal in his age group (Bendtner, Fabregas, Clichy, Ramsey, Song, Gibbs, Diaby, Nasri) play important roles in important games. He’s still not able to make his presence felt at that level, and it seems to be at least partly due to attitude. The fact that he missed being able to play at Camp Nou, one of Europe’s great venues, in a crucial Champions League tie, with the eyes of the world on him, because he forgot his stinking passport is emblematic of his lack of focus.

I still hope he turns into a good player, and his great finish in the final match of the season against Fulham reminded us of what eh’s capable of, but at this point, I think there are serious doubts whether he’s capable of performing at an Arsenal level. And he may need a loan spell for a season, to get some regular playing time and to see whether he can actually play well if given a regular chance. But his career at the highest level is certainly hanging by a thread — another poor season like the past one and he seems destined to be a second or third striker on a mid-table side somewhere.

6. Johan Djourou (Appearances: 1; Goals: 0; Assists: 0; Average Rating: n/a; Man of the Match; n/a) Obviously, Johan is here solely due to a severe knee injury suffered over a year ago which kept him out for all of this season. He’ll be very disappointed to not have been able to contribute this season at all.

I still hold out hope that Djourou has a place at the club in the seasons to come. I’m not sure he’ll ever be starting XI material, but he showed some real signs of being a quality defender last season before the injury, and if he can get back to that form, I wouldn’t mind having him as our 3rd or 4th center half. He also offers us something a bit different in that he gives us some height (6′4) and physicality that we don’t get from most of our other players. Of course, when a player faces that long of a layoff, there’s no telling what they’ll be like when they come back, but with a summer of conditioning (and possible inclusion in the Swiss World Cup squad) in front of him, hopefully he’ll be back in shape and ready to contribute to the team again come August.

Also, a side note — you guys know this is a specific hobby horse of mine, but I love Djourou for seemingly always being there and sitting behind the substitutes at home matches. He could have taken the van Persie route and just stayed home all season, but I like that he still wanted to be a part of the team and wanted to support his teammates. Speaks volumes about his attitude and professionalism, I think.

7. Denilson (Appearances: 26; Goals: 6; Assists: 1; Average Rating: 6.44; Man of the Match: 0.5) After leading the club in appearances and serving a number of different roles in midfield last season (leading . . . *ahem* some overly optimistic bloggers to say he should be playing for Brazil in the World Cup), this season was a great opportunity for Denilson to take that next step forward and solidify his hold as a starting midfielder for the club. Alas, it didn’t happen.

Instead, Denilson seemed to take a huge step backward this season and got passed by his peers, including a couple of truly awful performances in big matches against our Big 4 rivals. At this point, I think you’d have to put Cesc, Song, Diaby, and Ramsey ahead of him, at the very least. If Nasri plays in midfield and not on the wing, he’s certainly preferable to Denilson, and assuming Wilshere comes back, I think I’d rather see him there, too. You could possibly make a case that Eastmond is a better holding midfielder, or at least one with greater potential.

The crux of the problem, for me, is that it’s not really clear what Denilson is for — in other words, what kind of player is he supposed to be? While he’s good for the occasional long shot, and his goalscoring return this season was actually very good for a midfielder, I don’t really think he’s a good enough passer or has the creativity to be a real pivot/playmaker type; he doesn’t have the dribbling ability, the mentality, or the effort to be a true box-to-box type; and he’s not physical enough or good enough at anticipating to break up the attack to really be a good holding/defensive midfielder. So what are we left with? Based on what we saw this season, it seems like we have a midfielder who’s okay at just about everything, but not really good at anything — and you don’t win trophies with players like that playing important roles.

8. Mikael Silvestre (Appearances: 20; Goals: 1; Assists: 0; Average Rating: 5.88; Man of the Match: 0) Look. I think he’s a nice guy. I know he’s done a lot of charity work and stuff. And he seems like a good teammate, and he’s a good locker room influence on the younger players. He took on the unheralded task of captaining the Carling Cup squad in quite a few matches. So despite his history with Manchester United, this isn’t personal.

But my god, he sucks. He’s slower than slow (or, for that matter, Slo), not physical, seems to get caught out of position, and is clearly not capable of playing football at this level any more. Like I said, I don’t think it was because he wasn’t trying, it’s just because he’s old and slow now. I wish him well, but I’ll be ecstatic to see the back of his weird-shaped head as he leaves London for (presumably) France, and that move may go down as the worst £750,000 Wenger ever spent — I’m sure that every so often, Fergie still laughs about it so hard he swallows his huge wad of gum to this day.

9. Kieran Gibbs (Appearances: 7; Goals: 0; Assists: 0; Average Rating: 6.88; Man of the Match: 0) Another guy on here due to injury — in his case, a broken foot. Poor kid. Kieran only got to participate in 7 games this season — all of which he started, all of which we won. And he played generally very well in those matches. I’ve made no secret that I think he’s Ashley Cole’s eventual replacement in the England squad, and this season will be doubly disappointing for him because, between Ashley Cole’s injury and the Wayne Bridge affair, with a decent run of games I think he could have been in with a shout to make the plane to South Africa this summer.

But I still have a lot of faith in the young man, and think he’s going to be a very good player. Here’s hoping he uses this summer to keep his fitness up, and is 100% healthy and ready to go by August — if rumors are to believed (and they’re probably not, but let’s play along for a second), a lot of teams are sniffing around Clichy, Sagna, and Eboue this summer. If one or more of those guys go, then all of a sudden Kieran (who’s played some at right-back in the past) becomes a much more important player for us. I still think he’d be up for it, but I’d feel a lot more confident if he’d been able to get some more experience this season.

10. Theo Walcott (Appearances: 29; Goals: 4; Assists: 2; Average Rating: 6.28; Man of the Match: 2) Sigh. I know some of you will disagree with this one, and he was the last player included on this list, but the bottom line is I think Theo’s had a disappointing season. Some of it was definitely down to a series of injuries which kept him sidelined for a bit. But bar a couple of performances, Theo just really hasn’t done very much this season.

He was fantastic in the Burnley game. And he saved our bacon in the first leg of the Barca tie, no doubt. But watching, he still seems like a fundamentally very limited player. He’s fast, to be sure, and that can give a lot of teams problems and can be useful for pinning back the other team’s fullback on his side of the field. But it seems like other teams have basically realized that as long as they keep Theo in front of them, he doesn’t really offer much of a threat. And since the vast majority of the teams we play against (domestically, at least) seem to just keep men behind the ball and invite us on, Theo never really makes much of an impact against those sides.

He’s still useful. I’m not saying he isn’t. And he’s an incredibly likeable young man with a great attitude, especially considering how much hype and pressure he’s had to deal with already in his career. But if his dribbling, passing, and finishing don’t improve, we may be looking at a guy who’s always going to be best used in a super-sub role. But if anyone can unlock the Walcott conundrum and turn him into a world-beater, you’d have to think it would be Arsene Wenger. And, lest we forget, Theo is still just 21. I still have hope, but certainly expected a bit more development out of Theo this season.

Part II (the in-between) coming up tomorrow.

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Category: Arsenal News, Carlos Vela, Denilson, Eduardo, Johan Djourou, Kieran Gibbs, Lukasz Fabianski, Manuel Almunia, Mikael Silvestre, Theo Walcott