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You’d be forgiven for thinking that Francis Coquelin’s newfound fame at the base of Arsenal’s midfield has gone straight to his head.
The Frenchman, who has surprisingly shot to fame as Arsenal’s answer to the mystical defensive-midfielder, has said he wants to replicate former Arsenal flop (probably a bit too harsh), Lassana Diarra, he said:
“As a French person, you look at other French people. But there is one you haven’t mentioned who I looked up to – even if he didn’t play much for Arsenal. Lassana Diarra is a player I really liked. I think he was quite similar to the way I play, his aggression quite similar what I’m trying to do. He is a player I really like.”
Diarra was a somewhat surprising acquisition from Chelsea at the end of the 2007 summer transfer window. I actually thought he’d end up being a shrewd purchase, especially given his versatility to play at full-back – I envisaged something like Mathieu Flamini’s heroic full-back performances during our run to the Champions League final in 2006.
Whatever the opinion on the former Real Madrid(!) man, I found it refreshing that Coquelin didn’t spin out the usual line of replacing Patrick Vieira and all that cliched nonsense – truth is, Coquelin should be looking to replace Gilberto Silva.
Hi. I totaly agree on that G.Silva point. Even if Coq has been very very good for us sinc coming back he will never be nothing like Vieira. But let´s hope I am wrong this time that would please me very much.
If you look at what Le Coq does well he should be focusing on purely defensive minded midfielders to be his example. He will never be the box-2-box player we need. We have that in Ramsey and hopefully Wilshere.