Joe Willock is going to be a star. He didn’t score last night. He didn’t assist on a goal either. What he did do was all of the little things that you need a holding midfielder to do to make the rest of the side’s jobs easier. He was in the right places. He got in the way of Real Madrid attacks. In intercepted. He tackled. He was calm when he won or received the ball. He knew what to do with it. He executed on those passes. Now, I’m not talking about Gerrard-esque diagonal bombs. I’m talking about the 5 to 10 yard pass that gets the ball out of the defense and to a player who can start the attack without risk of immediately losing the ball back. I know others will have been more excited about Eddie Nketiah or Reiss Nelson after Arsenal’s entertaining pre-season and I’m not down on either of those players but Willock is the one who looked like he could not only fit into but excel in a Premier League starting line-up when the season kicks off.
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Now, the problem with the above is one of overcrowding. Remember the close of the Wenger era when Arsenal supporters annually cried out for a holding midfielder? Well, whatever else you might think of the recruiting policy/results in recent years, Unai Emery and the “new guard” has certainly addressed the base of midfield. Arsenal looked strong against a star-studded Real Madrid line-up with Xhaka and Willock partnering in midfield to start the match. Due to summer tournament participation we haven’t seen any of Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi. That’s the big issue for my Willock hype train right now is that he’s likely fourth choice in a holding midfield role which probably means he won’t even make the bench most matches. With Dani Ceballos (presumably) joining Alex Iwobi, Mesut Ozil, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan there aren’t really and spots farther up the midfield for Willock to break into immediately either. Throw in Nketiah and Nelson who have also been very good and are more like-for-like replacements for Ceballos/Iwobi/Ozil/Mkhitaryan and there’s a crowding issue that isn’t working in Willock’s favor at all.
Perhaps an injury will give Willock a chance to be something more than part of the “cup team”. Maybe he’ll get a loan to pile up minutes and build confidence. Maybe Unai Emery will see what I saw and jump Willock in the queue ahead of Torreira and/or Guendouzi. I don’t know what will happen but what I can tell you is that at some point that kid is going to be a good player. I hope it is sooner rather than later.
Other Notes:
- Carl Jenkinson vs Marcelo just wasn’t fair on the right side of the Arsenal defense. I’ve never seen an outside back control a match the way Marcelo can when he’s on his game and last night was one of those times.
- After Arsenal lost Sokratis to a red card late in the first half (evening out an early Real Madrid red card), Unai Emery took Willock off at the half and moved Mkhitaryan infield to partner Xhaka. All I can say is that I hope we never have to see Mkhitaryan at the base of midfield again, even in Sunday league when he’s retired from the pro game. He was abject. He didn’t know where to be. He didn’t seem to have a concept of what to do when he got the ball with Madrid bearing down on him. It was 30 minutes or so of misery with Real battering the Arsenal defense because the Gunners couldn’t get the ball out of the back through their holding midfield. It was so bad that the insertion of Robbie Burton along with the young Arsenal attackers (Nketiah, Nelson, and Saka) saw a marked improvement in results despite Real still having a bunch of multi-time Champions League winners in the match.
- Emiliano Martinez was solid in goal throughout making a number of good saves.
- Arsenal lost Sokratis to a red card in the 40th minute. Koscielny is still on strike. Rob Holding is still regaining fitness. Konstantinos Mavrapanos is nowhere to be seen. Still, Unai Emery went with Nacho Monreal to partner Calum Chambers at center back in the second half rather than Shkodran Mustafi. Ouch.
- One of the guys I was with asked me where Emile Smith-Rowe was among all the rising kids on tour and I had to admit that I had no good answer to that but this morning comes news that he’s off on loan with Wolfsburg joining Leipzig and unnamed Premier League and Championship clubs vying for a deal. Like the Beatles (and Sancho, Ademola, Nelson, etc) before him, maybe some time in Germany (and not getting injured this time around as he did last season with Leipzig) honing his skills is the next step in Smith-Rowe’s development. Maybe Wolfsburg will come back for Willock and the two can learn together.
I’ll be back later today with some more “Where the Points Come From” editions as well as posting some initial Draft Rankings.
