Is Denilson really to blame for the above faults? If you analyse his form this season, he currently has the best pass completion in the squad (89% according to Opta Stats)

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR VISION ARTICLES ARE SENT IN BY READERS AND ARE NOT WRITTEN BY ARSENAL VISION WRITERS.

I am going to write an article in support for one of our central midfielders, Denilson Pereira Neves, otherwise known as Denilson.

When Wenger signed him on 31st August 2006, I remember Wenger describing him as the new Gilberto. I was very excited when Wenger made that statement because despite having Flamini (although his primary position was a central midfielder, Wenger played him at left back during the lead up to the Champions League final), Diaby and Gilberto (who was 30 years old at the time, I felt we needed an proper understudy to Gilberto.

However after watching his progress since August 2006, I have struggled to see how Wenger viewed Denilson as a defensive midfielder. If anything, I felt his style of play was very similar to the likes of Xabi Alonso (Liverpool) and Ruben Baraja (Valencia). Someone who had dual abilities of carrying out defensive and attacking styles in his game.

Since Vieira left at the end of the 2004/05 season, Wenger has tried the following midfield partnerships:

Cesc/Gilberto – Gilberto playing as the main holding player.

Cesc/Flamini – Flamini playing in the holding/pressing role, which allowed Cesc to concentrate solely on attacking.

Cesc/Denilson – Each player being given the dual responsibilities of defending & attacking together.

I am more used to seeing the first two types of partnerships in our central midfield, however if you have a look at Man United, who have been playing without Owen Hargreaves (the club’s only recognised defensive midfielder) for a while now. It hasn’t affected their style of play has it?

Here are a few examples of some of their central midfield line-ups, since Hargreaves has been out injured:

Carrick & Giggs, Scholes & Anderson and Giggs & Fletcher. None of these partnerships contain a defensive midfielder.

Because of the lack of protection being carried out by our midfield and the fact that Cesc’s goal ratio is not as good as it was last season, people are instantly putting the blame on Denilson (me included in the past) for these faults.

Is Denilson really to blame for the above faults? If you analyse his form this season, he currently has the best pass completion in the squad (89% according to Opta Stats), he has improved the attacking element of our play (he currently has 3 league goals this season) and he has appeared in 31 games for the team in all competitions (on par with Almunia). He has also made crucial interceptions, but because most people don’t view Denilson as a defensive midfielder, this area hasn’t been seen to a greater scale.

I personally think that Wenger has been playing the Cesc/Denilson partnership in order to add a new dimension to our midfield, which would result in more opportunities being created for the team, however I think Wenger also instructed the midfield to protect the back four at all times, when they are without the ball, which to be fair hasn’t been happening in some of our games this season (home games against Spurs, Hull, Villa and away games at Fulham, Stoke and Villa instantly spring to mind).

So I think that some of you who think Denilson is to be blamed for our lack of protection to the defence should lay off his back. I am going to from now on. There are three other midfielders alongside him who also should be shouldering the blame as well.