Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny Likable To Amorphous Blob
When Arsenal purchased Mohamed Elneny, he looked to be a holding solution, but now it’s clear that he can fit just about anywhere.
Arsenal‘s midfield has five incredibly solid options. It’s even at the point where the top four options are all on equal footing.
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As it stands, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin are holding down the top honor of being the go-to first-choice partnership. But that’s not to say that the two men behind them, Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey, are that far off, if you could even say that they are ‘off’ at all.
Ramsey lost the job because he got hurt and Xhaka lost the job because he never had it. But if Xhaka keeps playing the way he does and when Ramsey comes back healthy, all of a sudden all four of these midfielders can be interchanged with little to no adverse effect. It just depends on the tactics of the day.
This all excludes one man though – the Egyptian international Mohamed Elneny.
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At first, I was going to write about how Elneny is the ‘dreaded fifth wheel’ of this midfield, but then I wised up. He isn’t the fifth wheel. He’s the utility man. The universal remote. The amorphous blob.
Elneny can fit into any holding role in any situation. He has a little bit of each of the four ahead of him within his own abilities. I like to think of the attribute pentagon (is it a hexagon?) on FIFA, where the shape alters based on a players individual skill sets. While the four competitors all have direct specialties, Elneny is more rounded. Which means that while he doesn’t exude any specific ability, he is simply good all around rather than great at anything in particular.
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For example, he is faster than Xhaka, a better offensive presence than Coquelin, stronger than Cazorla and more consistent than Ramsey. But in each category not compared to that one man, he is lesser.
It’s really not a bad position to be in and it’s such a luxury that Arsenal has this. Their midfield is essentially injury proof. They have two highly functioning and incredibly powerful partnerships with that fifth swing man in Elneny to plug in any time something gets in the way, like Ramsey’s injury for instance.
Not only that, but Elneny has room to grow as well. He is only 24 years old, fitting into this golden generation of the Gunner’s midfield. There is nothing to say he can’t improve upon any individual area and work his way into one of these partnerships in the future.
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Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how rich our midfield depth is? Thank you. That is all.
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