Riou
In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over
Country: Northern Ireland
Player:Gabriel
Wilshere's main problems are obviously his injury issues, but also it's very difficult to nail him down to one position. He's not exactly tactical astute enough to be a 6, and if you're playing him as a 6 you need 2 hard working box-to-box players alongside him like England did with Delph and Milner (I think it was those two can't quite remember) when he played there briefly. As a box-to-box midfielder he isn't really well rounded enough to do that effectively. He doesn't work very well in double pivots, still have nightmares about the Wilshere-Arteta pivot which got ripped apart at Anfield that time. And he isn't really a 10 either. He's a player who's pretty much only effective on the ball, which in the modern game is a bit of an issue. It's no surprise West Ham see him as surplus to requirements. It's also a damning indictment of how far he's fallen that a side fighting relegation doesn't see much use for him. It was similar at Bournemouth, after accommodating him for a while Howe pretty much dropped him and switched their shape as they had been playing a 4-2-3-1 with Wilshere as 10.
It's pretty sad considering how he burst onto the seen 10 years ago, became a starter here, an important player for England and then it just went up in smoke. Like I'm not 100% sure I can really say this, but I always got the impression he didn't look after himself as well as he could have, maybe it wouldn't have changed a lot in regards to his injuries I don't really know.
I liked him on the right side of midfield, though at this point in his career he looks done unfortunately.