Nonetheless, assists aren’t the only way to create chances; in most cases (excluding stoke city) it takes more than a pass and a shot to score. In this respect, Rosicky is excellent. Firstly, he has an excellent awareness of space in the final third. His uncanny ability to spot gaps between the opposition defense and midfield means he often assists the assist (similar to Hleb few years back). These ‘pre-assists’ are not statistics often mentioned, but the fact is, these passes are often just as important as the assists. He has made 5 ‘key passes’ this season (a key pass is a pass that is instrumental in creating the goal but not the assist itself), joint highest at arsenal along with Ramsey (note that Ramsey had 3 times the amount of starts). A great example of this is in the video below against West Brom (jump to 0.40), where he gives the pass to van

Tomas Rosicky isn’t called ‘Little Mozart’ for nothing. However, recently, when I talk to Arsenal fans, the general consensus is that Rosicky is over-the-hill, a fringe player who should be sold. Judging by Wenger’s preference for Ramsey (although this may be due to Rosicky’s current injury), it seems Rosicky doesn’t have the manager’s backing either. Yet it seems that Rosicky is being largely underrated ever since his return from injury. I would argue, however, that Rosicky is currently the most accomplished playmaker we have at Arsenal, and should be a starter when fit.

I vividly remember the Carling cup final last season (which Arsenal fan doesn’t), and almost everyone I talked to, whether fans of Arsenal, or just any football watchers, seemed to think that Rosicky had a horrible game. Same thing with the media. For example, goal.com rated his performance as a measly 4.5 (out of 10), despite creating good chances for teammates, aswell as having 3 good attempts on goal aswell. For comparison, Nasri, who was overly selfish, in addition to missing good chances to score, was rated 7.5. Even Song, who was incredibly sluggish that match, got rated 5. It wasn’t that his performance was majestic, far from it, but it definitely wasn’t poor either. Personally, I would say he was one of the top 3 Arsenal players that day.

Some may point to his statistics column, pointing out that he has not had many assists (5 last season, 1 this season), but the truth is, had his teammates been able to finish, he would have had more. For instance, against bolton, Rosicky gave a sublime, outside foot through ball, setting up Arshavin for a simple 1 on 1, yet Arshavin missed. In the 6-0 demolition of Blackpool, Rosicky gave two great through balls to Walcott, with Walcott messing up both gift-wrapped chances. And did I mention that both through balls came within the first half? To compare, Arshavin, who had 17 assists last season, got one in the Carling cup final with a cross that 9 times out of 10 would have been cleared by defenders, where it not for the brilliance of RVP. Rosicky, meanwhile, hasn’t had such assists.

Nonetheless, assists aren’t the only way to create chances; in most cases (excluding stoke city) it takes more than a pass and a shot to score. In this respect, Rosicky is excellent. Firstly, he has an excellent awareness of space in the final third. His uncanny ability to spot gaps between the opposition defense and midfield means he often assists the assist (similar to Hleb few years back). These ‘pre-assists’ are not statistics often mentioned, but the fact is, these passes are often just as important as the assists. He has made 5 ‘key passes’ this season (a key pass is a pass that is instrumental in creating the goal but not the assist itself), joint highest at arsenal along with Ramsey (note that Ramsey had 3 times the amount of starts). A great example of this is in the video below against West Brom (jump to 0.40), where he gives the pass to van persie who lays it off to Arteta to score.

Furthermore, his ability to keep the ball is impressive, with a 88% average pass completion rate last season, higher than both Fabregas and Nasri. One may point to the fact that Denilson also had an excellent pass completion rate, but the nature of their passes are different; whereas denilson mainly plays short backward passes that slow the game down, Rosicky constantly picks out precise passes to attacking teammates in the final third, hence his high count for ‘key passes’.

In addition to his technical ability, his physical attributes have not declined as much as some are lead to believe (one of which is Ea sports, who has ridiculously rated his speed in the 60’s, and strength in his 40’s I believe). Many seem to believe that his mysterious eighteen month injury has robbed him of his pace; this simply is not true. Many times this season, he turns past opponents before bursting away, something that Arteta can’t do. This isn’t to say arteta is a poor player, but just goes to show that Rosicky is much faster that what many seem to believe. On the other hand, it does seem that he reacts slower nowadays, particularly defensively. In addition, his stamina seems to be poorer these days. These problems, however, could be down to his lack of playing time; a longer run in the team would help get back to the pace of the game.

Lastly, his defensive side of the game is fairly strong, especially for a defensive midfielder; last season, he had an aerial success rate of 63%. This is higher than a considerable number of center backs, let alone midfielders. Add to the fact that he is a 5ft 10 offensive playmaker only makes this all the more impressive (Song, our primary defensive midfielder, had an aerial success of 48% last season). Apart from his aerial prowess, he also has an excellent sliding tackle technique. Whereas many where praising Wilshere for his committed tackling, Rosicky’s slide tackling has always been sublime, yet overlooked by most. Standing tackles require a strong build, which neither Wilshere and Rosicky have, but the slide tackle, however, is more about timing and accuracy, therefore it is sensible that players such as Wilshere and Rosicky use it. However, Wilshere’s slide tacking is not a great as Rosicky’s, as shown by Wilshere’s red card against Zigic. Rosicky, meanwhile has never gotten a red card (to my knowledge). To demonstrate my point, this excellent video shows it.

Hopefully, these points have shown that Rosicky has been vastly underrated, by media and fans alike, and it is my hope that he gets the recognition he deserves, instead of the bashing he gets. It would be to Arsenal’s benefit, and my own happiness, that he is used more often this season, as a starter, rather than backup. Whilst he does have his faults in his play, such as a lack of goals (which hopefully gets rectified if he plays more), as well as his injury proneness, the benefits of playing him – brilliant close control and passing technique, excellent awareness of where the space is in the final third, quick one touch passing, powerful long range shooting, as well as fine leadership skills (he is a well respected figure in the dressing room) and bags of experience will certainly help us in ending that damning trophy drought.

Rosicky Vs. West Brom

Mean Lean’s Response

Ever since the little floppy haired genius signed for us, I have been a big fan and nothing has changed today. Tomas Rosicky receives plenty of unfair stick in my opinion and I don’t think he has had the game time that his ability deserves, mainly due to his inability to play too many games in a row.

At the start of the season he was in far better form than Aaron Ramsey but Arsene stuck with Ramsey which is working out for us now because Aaron has games under his belt. Personally I think that Rosicky makes those around him play better. His movement off the ball to make space to receive a pass is great.

There was one combination between Rosicky and van Persie late against Everton and it got me thinking. They are on the same wave length and I think he could also play well with Arteta and Yossi Benayoun. All great possession players but perhaps Arsene is moving away from that and trying to produce a more direct version.

There are rumours today that Wolfsburg may well be interested in signing Rosicky and you can see why. Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere are both injured, both haven’t played all season yet Rosicky has started only three league games.

Personally he would be higher in the pecking order than his team mate Andrey Arshavin, even if he hasn’t got the goals, he makes others around him look better because his build up play is quality. I hope he gets some more chances, not with squad players but with the first team, if he had a run of games in our best side then he would be valuable but I fear that his time has passed and it is a matter of time before he is pointed in the direction of pastures new.