Downtime retrospective: How good is Diaby?
By Cape Gooner, with some additional material by Tony
I was watching the Wolves game on Arsenal TV and was thinking how good a game Diaby was having before he went off.
Is he doing a Denilson? Taking his chance and playing really well, only for the “fans” to pick on every misplaced pass. His goal against AZ was wonderful. He won the ball deep in our half, good pass, long run and then good control and shot.
Then I saw this table at http://desigunner.wordpress.com/. I cannot vouch for the accuracy, but if correct, the stats paint a picture of Diaby that is quite different from the one we normally hear.
Basically his ability at making a successful tackle is the highest out of all the players who are analysed and his number of tackles lost is the lowest. In tackles won he is right up there near the top, and he has scored three goals.
You can study all the details (and there are lots of them) on that site, but it looks from this analysis that like Denilson before him he is being criticised by people who seem to have an overall vision of a game without taking in much of the detailed interplay that goes on as opposition moves are broken down and our moves are built up.
I know that many people say that you can prove anything with stats, and if that is your opinion then obviously this sort of article is not for you.
But if you are interested in way in which the Denilson was maligned and came good this could be a good guide to the future.
Of course it doesn’t resolve the problem of who plays when Denilson, Song, Diaby, Nasri, Ramsey and Cesc are all fit at once. Of course Ramsey is not yet ready to run the show so we can can’t him down for the moment, but for the rest – how would we fit them all in?
MAKING THE ARSENAL: The novel that describes the foundation of the modern Arsenal 100 years ago is available through www.emiratesstadium.info and via Amazon.
WOOLWICH ARSENAL: The day to day activities – and the fight for survival – of our club 100 years ago, recorded on the daily blog: www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk Today: Whatever happened to Football Fiction?
(c) Hamilton House Mailings plc 2009. This article may not be reprinted in whole or part without written permission of the copyright owners and full acknowledgment of the author and UNTOLD ARSENAL. All enquiries to Tony@Hamilton-House.com or call (during UK office hours) 01536 399 013.
“I don’t think you would find a single arsenal fan that would have him in the starting XI of a fully fit squad and not many would put him on the bench of 7.”
Speak for yourself. Just because you cannot see the worth of a player it doesn’t mean others don’t.
Arsenal fans seem to just need to have a boo boy, someone to blame for their favourite players failure to win a game, if we lose or draw, heaven forbid that Arshavin, Cesc, Van Persie, Nasri etc played poorly or missed chances or made a mistake that gave away a goal, so its easier to blame Diaby, Eboue, Bendtner, even Walcott no matter how they actually played.
Bendtner is getting less stick this season not because he is playing any better than last season cos he played well last season most of the time, but this season the Adebadwhore fans of last season do not now he is gone feel the need to lambast Nik cos if NB is in the team this season its not at the expence of their favourite, so now this season Diaby is getting more stick cos someone has to get. This is not a new phenomanon at Arsenal, way back in the early 70’s a fine home grown player Jon Sammels was hounded out of the club cos boo boys decided he was keeping Charlie George or some other favourite out of the side, then in the early 80’s a young lee chapman was destroyed by Arsenal fans, don’t forget big Niall Quinn in the late 80’s and early 90’s, for some he could do no right, there have been many more too but these 3 went on to other clubs and have fine careers at clubs where the fans supported them. I fear that some will not be happy till they have done the same to Diaby
eduardo – got to disagree on walcott.
Hes one of the favourites. Rewarded with a 60K pw contract WAY before his time. Is able to simply walk back into the 1st team after injury despite never actually proving himself on a consistent basis, as though hes one of our big stars like cesc or van persie. He plays well probably one game in 6 or 7, and when he doesnt play well, hes really awful. His signing has also held back imo better young players like vela, bendtner & merida.
@don’t believe the hype
I think you misunderstood my point. I like Diaby and in certain games he’s definitely useful but would he really get into anyone’s first eleven given the choice of three from Cesc, Song, Denilson, Nasri, Rosicky. At the present time he would not but that’s not to say that he won’t someday, given the chances that particularly Song and Denilson had last season.
My point was that at present he is just a squad player and given the current injuries he’s getting in a good run of games. Some fans do however seem to expect that he should jump straight into the team and perform just as well as Song or Denilson. I think he’s a great utility player with some fantastic attributes but needs much more of a run in the team to be considered for many fan’s first eleven. It is very unrealistic and unfair to expect this of him. If he was at the level that these fans seem to expect, he’d be starting every game.
Cesc[Ramsey],song[Denilson],Diaby [nasri] with the other three deputising for them
Dont belive the hype ;in response to your query ,I now realise I was the first to use the R word.In my defense ,when I was going thru the article
[a very fine one at that],I felt some of the follow up comments posted were implying that people who critised Diaby were prejudiced and had blinkers on.If I have offended anyone -my sincere apologies.I love this club and its players and want only the entire squad to play to their undeniable potential and be world beaters.
Diaby is a great player, he playes for the Arsenal with the blessing of our greatest ever manager NUFF SAID!!!!
mannone,
clichy, gallas, vermarlin, eboue
arshavin,fabregas,nasri,song, diaby
van persie
allumina,gibbs,denilson,bentner,rosisky,vela,(silvester-by unfortunate defult)