Edu

[windyhill]

Gunners fans please discuss. I`m a big fan of the boy , that left foot is superb. Takes a good free kick, gets up and down the pitch . Only used sparingly by Wenger, not sure why, can he play with Paddy . V. ?
Gun footballer. Can see why Wenger went to great lengths to get this fella, took alot of patience to get him to Highbury (work permits, etc etc)

 

[Dan26]

Never saw what all the fuss was about personally. He has improved, but I didn't rate him that highly when he first started playing for us. Last year or so has been good. Notice you've always liked him.

 

[GoalsFrom50Out]

Improving, still wouldn't be first string with a completely fit Arsenal side. Yet.

 

[Bulldog1954]

He's a gun

 

[The_Flying_Egg]

He tore Liverpool a new arseh*le. He should start even when Viera's back

 

[Dipper]

When we bought him I was pretty excited from what I'd read & we went to a lot of trouble to get him after the dodgy passport fiasco.

I don't think he's ever totally lived up to our hopes though but I still like him & still have hopes for him.

His main strength is his passing, he gives the ball away a fair bit but the point is that he regularly looks for the killer ball through to the front men(usually Henry) rather than playing it safe.
Considering he's there as a central midfield passing option he's not at all afraid to get stuck in it was his tenacity that gave Pires the chance to score the winner on Saturday.

Compare him with that waste of space Gilberto who is meant to be a holding midfielder & his stock rises even furthur, the main thing is that Gilberto doesn't tackle which for the role he is meant to be play is a bit like having a striker who doesn't shoot.

As well as that all Gilberto's passing is either backwards or 5 yards sideways, it remains a mystery to me why he gets in ahead of Edu but there are a couple of things that Wenger does that I never fully understand, but you can't complain too much because he makes up for it with the regular minor miracles that he performs, such as how good has Toure been at the back this season?

The thing with Edu as well is that he's about our most likely player to score with a header which is a good option for us but I have to disagree with you windyhill about Edu's free kicks being good, often they're pathetic, the game in Moscow the other day was a perfect example, he hit some shockers.

Wenger obviously doesn't fully trust him as 2 seasons ago he often used to pick Gilles Grimandi (essentially a central defender) as Vieira's partner ahead of Edu, who cost about £5m compared with about £1m for Grimandi.

I think Wenger is very conservative when it comes to the central midfield 2, we score few goals from the players that play there & they obviously aren't given licence to get ahead of the strikers very often, I think this is because he let the fullbacks rampage up the pitch & our wide midfielders roam around as well so I think he feels that he needs the 2 CMs to stay back & cover the gaps.
Compare this with sat Man U who have Scholes breaking forward all the time, it's just a different approach I suppose & he must feel that Edu is a touch too offensive for what he wants.