Arsenal's five most important/crucial players

[jc8gooner]

Who do you think Arsenal's five most important players are? Who makes up the backbone of our team and squad? Who have we missed most when they have been injured/suspended?

Here are my five:
1) Henry
2) Campbell
3) Vieira
4) Pires
5) Parlour

 

[lodi]

Nice list but swap Parlour with Toure and it will be complete.

 

[Adam]

When on form?

Bergkamp (needed to keep Ljungberg scoring important goals and the right hand side active with balanced spread of play)
Henry (need his pace, goals and assists)
Vieira (50 percent of midfield - engine)
Pires (Midfield and oil - 45 percent of goals and assists when on pitch in 01/02)
Ljungberg (important goals in 01/02 and an influence in the box)
Campbell (helped the defence to only concede one goal (Sherringham penalty) in 12 games in the 01/02 run in)

Okay, there is six and they aren't in any order - they are the ones who have proved in the past to be most important.

Kolo Toure could join them soon - who knows?

 

[reggiepaul]

I think this would be grossly unfair to some members of the team because I'd say a full eleven makes up a team - but I think the older more experienced Arsenal members are more of a backbone for the newer fresher players. Also I can't put "back bone of our team and squad" with "important players" and "missed most when injured or suspended".

Back bone of squad

1) Ray Parlour
2) Martin Keown
3) Dennis Bergkamp
4) Patrik Vieira
5) Thierry Henry

"important players" and "missed most when injured or suspended"

1) Thierry Henry
2) Sol Campbell
3) Ashley Cole
4) Robert Pires
5) Gilberto Silva

closely left out : Patrik Vieira (survived well without him) Kolo Toure (still new so lot to be seen yet - undoubtedly important very soon) Freddie Ljungberg (far too versatile and just edged by Gilberto in my list) Lehmann (don't know yet but I can sure as hell say he would be missed at this point!)

 

[Rupert]

1) Henry
2) Viera
3) Pires
4) Campbell
5) Ljungberg

 

[goonerlove]

1) Henry (everyone should have Henry #1 or have their head examined)
2) Pires
3) Viera
4) Campbell
5) Ljungberg

In my mind, these 5 guys make up the heart of the Arsenal team right now.

You could argue that Cole or Toure belong on the list as well (maybe in place of Ljungberg and/or Campbell)...

The fact that we did so well with Viera out during his injury is surprising to me so I decided to rate Pires above him (I think his scoring ability has really helped support Henry). Campbell is the rock in the center of our defense and Ljungberg works so hard at both ends and makes so many good runs, he is a great role-player.

Goonerlove

 

[Gunnsie]

Not trying to hi-jack the thread, but i thought our reserves didnt play too badly last night.. i was in the North bank lower and i thought clichy, edu and smith, bentley was completely in the wrong position. All showed signs of playing well. I dont know why we play Cygan because he just never looks comfortable on the ball in defense.. if i can see it then strikers of the opposite team can see.

Top 5 players

Henry
Pires
Campbell
Cole
viera

 

[The Mini]

We can survive without all of JC's top 5, as long as we have Ali fit then we're cool

 

[Anonymous]

1Henry..............I think Henry is is our engine
1Pires................I think Pires is the oil in our engine,with out either of these two on there game we dont turn over as well.
3Vieira................We can still win without as proved by our unbeaten run while he was injured,but still intrumental,
4Campbell...........Rock
5Lehmen.............because now we can see how the defence improves when they have confidence in there gk,

 

[The Mini]

Stacky has been beaten only once in Cups

 

[GoonerGurjit]

Henry, Pires, Campbell, Vieira and maybe Ljungberg.

 

[laolu]

Henry
Pires
Campbell
Vieira
Ljungberg

in THAT order

 

[Anonymous]

Our most important player by a country mile is Henry.

Players like Vieira, Campbell, Pires etc are vital players aswell, but we have players who can come in and do a job, maybe not as well as them, but can still do some of the things they can do.

Henry on the other hand can not be replaced. We have no one who can come in and bring to the team what Henry does.

 

[AFCG7]

Henry Campbell Cole Parlour Pires

 

[GoonerLuke]

1. Henry

2. Sol

3. Pires

4. Kolo

5. Vieira

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Stacky has been beaten only once in Cups

Eh? Rotherham and Wolves scored a goal each before last night.

At the moment, I would say
Thierry
Rob
Kolo
Patrick
Ash

 

[quattro]

henry
pires
campbell
vieira
cole

 

[Mark]

Henry
Pires
Vieira
Campbell
Toure

 

[thierrys_girl]

henry
campbell
vieira
toure
pires

 

[KoLo28]

i dont think parlour should be in the top 5, simply because he is not first choice.

1. Henry
2. Pires
3. Sol
4. Lehmann
5. Toure

Vieira is one of our most important players although we did fine with out him