“Since I left if I am not wrong
Arsenal didn’t have a player to fill that role until him. They had other
players in that position like Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas.
But not this type of player, the guy who holds the piano to let the others
play.”- Gilberto Silva on Francis Coquelin.
That Arsenal have accrued a nearly complete XI of injured
players is no longer news, and despite Arsene Wenger revealing that Laurent
Koscielny and Theo Walcott could make the squad for our game against Sunderland
on Saturday, one name we will not be seeing on the team sheet for an awefully
long time to come is that of Francis Coquelin. Arguably the club’s break-out
star of 2015, the French defensive midfielder will be sidelined for at least
three months with knee ligament damage, and as soon as my brother heard this he
said:
“Our season is now over. Gone, done,
finished, thank you for coming.”
I mention this because those very words echoed the sentiments
of Emirates faithful around the globe. It’s been an incredible journey and
steep gradient for the young Frenchman from the obscurity of Arsenal’s
perennial loanees to the dependent spine of the side, and alongside Santi
Cazorla formed one of the most efficient central midfield pairings in the
league this calendar year. That Arsene Wenger is now being asked to make do
without not one but both players is nothing short of devastating, as rumours
are now abound that Santi has succumbed to a similar injury and will thus miss
three months of action as well.
It has been an absolute joy to watch the evolution of the
pair over the last 11 months, especially so because initially pundits all spoke
of Coquelin as the “midfield enforcer” or “Colombo, the police detective” as Thierry
Henry famously nick-named him; and Cazorla as the “metronomic playmaker” or
“Pirlo-esque”. Which is all true of course, but I believe that Coquelin has
gradually learned to sharpen skills that he was less known for while playing
alongside Santi. Whenever people pull up stats on Coquelin it’s always on
tackles, interceptions, aerial duels won and other defensive stats. What we
sometimes overlook is the fact that as a defensive midfielder one’s ability on
the ball is always tested. You have to recover possession, recycle possession,
initiate counter-attacks, beat the high press of the opposition players and
generally keep the ball moving.
This piece will, therefore, not be about Coquelin’s defensive
abilities but his ability on the ball, and how this has improved from last
season to this. For instance, while the average number of passes he attempts
per game has only improved marginally from 45.5 to 46.9, his passing accuracy
has gone from 86% to 91%, making him the most accurate passer at Arsenal so far
this season. Coquelin also attempts more long balls per game, 3.5 up from 2.5,
and with 31/42 long passes has an accuracy of 74%, second only to Mesut Ozil
(without counting Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini who’ve barely played this
season). He also has the least unsuccessful touches (bad ball control) of all
outfield players at Arsenal, at least according to WhoScored, with a negligible
0.3 bad touches per game, and is dispossessed 0.9 times per game, a ratio lower
than all our midfielders except Arteta and Flamini once again. Of course
Coquelin doesn’t get on the ball as often as the likes of Santi and Ozil, but
it still shows how accomplished he is in possession. But by far the most
astonishing stat you’ll see is that Coquelin is actually a much better dribbler
than you thought! He’s gone 22/25 on attempted dribbles, meaning a success rate
of 88% which is the best of all Arsenal players. Lastly, Coquelin has amassed
97 ball recoveries in 894 minutes of Premier League action, which works out at
Coquelin recovering possession once every nine minutes. How does all this
compare to his break-out season?
2014/2015
|
2015/2016
|
|
45.5
|
Total passes per game
|
46.9
|
86%
|
Passing accuracy (%)
|
91%
|
2.5
|
Long balls attempted
per game
|
3.5
|
59%
|
Long balls accuracy (%)
|
74%
|
5.5
|
Misplaced short
passes per game
|
3.1
|
1
|
Successful dribbles per game
|
1.8
|
85% (22/26)
|
Successful dribbles
(%)
|
88% (22/25)
|
So an improvement in all parametres
highlighted above. Another word on his dribbles per game though; despite the
fact that his success rate hasn’t improved significantly, it is worth noting
that he has already matched his successful dribbles tally from 22 games last
season in only 12 games this season. In particular games such as Chelsea (4/5)
and Watford (4/6) his successful take-ons helped navigate around opposition
pressure and retain possession in the transition from defence to attack, or to
draw fouls hence relieving pressure on the defence. Perhaps, therefore, it’s
about time we recognize Coquelin’s ability on the ball as much as we do his
defensive capabilities. And were it not for his untimely injury (are injuries
ever timely? Anyway.) I’m pretty sure
we’d have seen his gradient growing steeper still. We can only hope that he
comes back and picks up where he left off.
Lastly, let’s take a look at how Le Coq fares on in
comparison with a selection of other defensive midfielders from rival clubs:
Fernandinho
|
Matic
|
Lucas
|
Schneiderlin
|
Coquelin
|
|
Passes
|
60.6
|
48.8
|
61.5
|
59.5
|
46.9
|
Passing
Acc.
|
88.7%
|
88.8%
|
85.5%
|
90.7%
|
91%
|
Long
balls/game
|
4.3
|
3.4
|
4
|
5.8
|
3.5
|
Long
ball Acc.
|
67% (41/61)
|
65% (28/43)
|
80% (35/44)
|
80% (51/64)
|
74% (31/42)
|
Misplaced
Short Passes/game
|
5.4
|
4.3
|
8.1
|
4.4
|
3.1
|
Successful
Dribbles
|
43% (3/7)
|
75% (15/20)
|
88% (7/8)
|
67% (4/6)
|
88% (22/25)
|
Right, here’s hoping three months actually turns out to be
three months for once, and that we shall not hear words like “setback” ever
again!
*Quote from the Guardian*
*Image from the Independent*
*Quote from the Guardian*
*Image from the Independent*
