From : Tom Wright
Date : 26 Feb 2007
Subject : Rosicky, Henry for Eto’o ?
Myles,
A sound review of the Carling Cup Final and some typically observant points. Not least your comment towards the end about giving Rosicky a bigger role. Hear, hear ! The guy is getting better by the month but needs to become even more involved. How do we do this?! Fabregas and Diaby still doesn’t allow us room for him in the middle.
Would love to know your thoughts on this. Also Eto’o for Henry – sensationalist rubbish or some truth here? I would do it tomorrow !
Myles replies : Two difficult questions ! Coaches have an ongoing conundrum : How do I make one part of my team stronger without making another part weaker ?
With Rosicky, that’s not easy. He needs to play with a centre forward. With Henrik Larsson or Drogba or Berbatov, Rosicky would be fantastic. My disappointment with the Arsenal team is that they have a bunch of short-legged, short-passing players in midfield, so they’re not as dynamic as when they had Vieira, Bergkamp, Anelka, Overmars. So they only score one goal a game.
Rosicky would have fitted in the 1998 Double team. He puts his foot in, sees things early. He can make a quick pass, but also dribble and accelerate. He should be having four or six shots per match, not two, as he does when he spends 30% of his time on the left touchline.
As I’ve said many times, players don’t duplicate each other. Rosicky isn’t Pires, who was very good at playing with Henry and with Cole.
Since Clichy attacks so much, I might use two holding players behind three inside forwards, in a more Spanish formation : Hoyte Toure Gallas, Clichy ; Diaby Gilberto; Hleb Fabregas Rosicky ; Adebayor. If that was working, and Walcott was coming on as a sub and scoring, I would then think about starting Walcott in the middle in certain games.
As you know, I like Robin van Persie but regard him as a bang ! bang ! player. Give him the ball, let him shoot, like Batistuta or Clive Allen. So I might NOT play RVP in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
It’s very unusual for me to be drawn into a discussion like this, picking Arsene Wenger’s team for him. Fans do that a lot, talk about that a lot. Everyone talks about stuff like that but I tend to avoid it as much as I can.
The owner of an Italian restaurant near Totteridge once asked Arsene if he’d ever play Bergkamp just behind Kanu and Suker. No, said Arsene. He never went back to that restaurant !
This kind of thinking can take you into daft areas, where you are thinking aloud.
In one of my silliest moments, in front of 20 other journalists, I once asked Bruce Rioch if he’d ever play Merson in a Jamie Redknapp-type position. And Bruce said, “No, because he’s not a Jamie Redknapp-type player.” Which was a polite answer to a stupid question.
Yes, you could play Eto’o in a 4-2-3-1 but not Henry. He won’t make the runs. He wants it to feet.
Should Eto’s and Henry swap clubs? Well, if I was Barcelona, and Rijkaard was going to Milan, I would not let Ronadinho go with him.
I’d keep the Brazilian and sell the African. The present Eto’o troubles started last season and stayed in the dressing room., What we have seen recently in public is just the tail-end of aggro that has been going on for a long time.
The problem with Barca isn’t Ronaldinho’s fitness. It’s the defence, it’s that Motta and Edmilson are not good enough to play for Barcelona. I’ve said repeatedly that Giuly isn’t good enough either, but in the two and a half years I’ve been saying that, Barcelona have won two titles and the European Cup !
Eto’o for Henry may be sensationalist rubbish but it makes sense because I believe in having a centre forward. I would not be trying to re-invent a sport that doesn’t need re-inventing. Berbatov wins games, van Nastelrooy wins games. Drogba wins games. Klinsmann won games, so does Kevin Kuranyi. Miroslav Klose wins games. Papin won games. Ian Wright won games – and Eto’o is the Ian Wright of Cameroon. But Eto’o is far better than Ian Wright ever was.
The trouble with Arsene Wenger is that he will always be looking for a 15-year old Shevchenko, a 17-year old Ronaldo, an 18-year old Vieira, so his team will never contain enough adults to win the European Cup.
And if he keeps on signing kids and finishing fourth every year, Arsenal FC will be sold. As sure as God made little green apples, the club will be sold.