Why wasn’t Mohamed Elneny in the Arsenal squad to face Barcelona?
|Mohamed Elneny was absent from the Arsenal squad against Barcelona on Tuesday night, prompting fans to ask one question and one question only — why?
The Egyptian defensive midfielder, who arrived from Basel for a fee in excess of £5m in January, was eligible to face the Catalan giants at Emirates Stadium but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger opted for Mathieu Flamini instead.
[WENGER: WE WERE TECHNICALLY AVERAGE AND NAIVE]
Flamini’s dismal cameo saw the Frenchman come off the substitutes bench to concede a penalty in a matter of 45 seconds, sparking mass debate on social media as to why he was picked over Elneny in the first place.
[‘FLAMINI IS ONE OF THE WORST MIDFIELDERS I’VE EVER SEEN’ – TWITTER REACTION]
Arsenal’s defensive midfield duo played the full 90 minutes in the goalless draw with Hull City in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Saturday.
Gooner Talk understands that Elneny, who was given two games off to spend with his pregnant wife earlier in the month, was fully fit for the 2-0 Champions League last-16 defeat and didn’t make the squad due to Flamini’s ‘European experience’.
The 31-year-old came to prominence as an emergency left-back as the Gunners reached the 2006 final, but a decade on it appears as if his Arsenal career is coming to an underwhelming end.
I hope dnever to see Flamini play for Arsenal team again when Coquelin recovered.
No we have seen Flamini beeing prefered by Wenger a couple of times. That must stop.
Everybody with some small insgiht can see that Elneny is much better. He is quicker, better visions, better placing etc.
Just how can a normal start to rely on a player who just came like a visitor to the club. Flamini get crashed into Arsenal training groundings during some off season and found himself a sit for the party at the club. Just how good is such a player and for how long?
Good enough to score against the spuds
Actually Elneny should have started in Ramsey’s place. That would have relieved the pressure on Coquelin, allowing him to last the entire game. Rambo has no discipline to play in the central midfield. He is constantly “bound for glory” while abandoning his position.
El-Neny deserves to be in the team. If you considered the passes wronly exhibited by Ramsey, you will realise why El-Neney needed to be in the team last night. El-Neny is always very good in rebounds and you can watch all his video and comments. Lots of ball flip of and up to six were within the goal mouth struggle. He could have scored one of those goals.
One thing that should be observed is that El-Neny is presently and pretty in form to play and to play such a match like Bacerlona because of his strenght and his accuracy in passes.
I will not be surprised if Arsene Wenger kept El-Neny on the bench until he become match rusty before he begin to use him and the fans will be complaining of his match fitness. Same was done for Maroun Chamak after Van Pierse returned from injury. Wenger began to play Van Pierse until Chamack become match rusty and not clicking again. Same approach await El-Neny the way Wenger is going.
I am a great fan of Arsenal Fc and a fan of Arsene Wenger. Wenger needs to realise that there are lots of players in Arsenal like Arteta, Flamini, Campbel, Thomas Rosisky, Theo Walcot, Segy Gnary, Jack Wilshere etc that should be sold to bring in players from South America and Africa to fortify Arsenal FC.
Well i wish Arsene well but El-Neny needs to start his career fast in Arsenal Fc and not only to used to prosecute FA only. He is a player by current form to play Premier leauge and Champions league.
I would rather have seen Elneny on and I have already said on Gunnerstown that I dont understand what Wenger saw in Flamini when he brought him on. We were 1-0 down against the best team in the world so we needed an attacker. As well as that Flamini is reckless so he is the last player you would want when the referee is sympathetic to the other side. The result was inevitable. The red mist descended on Flamini and his first touch was to give away a penalty.