Is Robin too afraid to get injured?

[Reverend Gooner]

Robin is off form and a shadow of his former self at the moment. We can all see it on the pitch and by this forums votes in our player of the season project i think we all feel it too as he came 9th in the player of the month awards.

The most obvious thing is his lack of goals and good chances missed but i have noticed more than that, his spark is almost repressed within himself. Robin is a genius when he hits that top gear and he was neck in neck with Ronaldo for player of the season up until the Man Utd game 2007 when he got injured, that is the quality of the man.

However he has not been close to hitting that top gear for a long time and he does not do what he does best which is his close quarters dribbling. Robin used to love nothing more than getting in close to defenders both at speed and slowly and use his deking and jinking skills to fashion himself space and also shooting chances from those crazy angles we knows he excels in. "Give him a crowd of players, he will jink his way out" i used to say but not recently. His role in the team has not changed that much in the last year or so, certainly to have this effect, he still plays in his widish role with the impetus to getting into good goal scoring opportunities, so what is causing it?


One thing i have noted is that every time he hits this top form and is at the top of his game he gets injured, either for Arsenal or Holland he always ends up crocked. This just seems to be a natural consequence of his natural game, he loves to get in close to defenders and often fast, also how often have we seen him stretch for shots or for a ball? He uses all of his body and he does so extremely well. He entices tackles and his game frustrates defenders into putting in the particularly hard ones.


So i ask is he now so fed up of being injured that he has toned his game down to stop this from happening again? I would not blame him one little bit if he did as it must have been so frustrating for him over the last 4 years with the amount of injuries he has had, especially amongst the form he has been on. So is he now making sure he plays more by not involving himself in those daring jinking runs, not running and stretching for everything at all costs and is moving into a more orthodox playing style to prevent another frustrating injury?


What do we all think? Think i may be onto something or chatting complete waffle? Maybe other ideas as to why Robins form in many areas of his game has dropped so significantly?

[Fordy]

blog mate

[CynicalGooner]

I think you're chatting waffle mate

He hasn't been injured in nearly a year and was our best player in the second half of last season by a long way. His form hasn't been great this season so far if you're talking in terms of goals. But he's come close a bunch of times, has some assists and is looking very sharp IMO.

I blame WENGER for playing him out of position. RVP isn't Fernando Torres or Drogba and shouldn't be played as such, he's naturally a CF/SS and plays far better on the wing of a front 3 than he ever could in the middle.

[niko197]

maybe it's because he didn't rape anyone recently...



on the serious side, that could be the problem, but then again, he played last season without injuries, can't belive that he is afraid of that.
i think that he is just big potential which haven't become world class. he had ability to become one, at the moments he looked like the best player in the world, but that's all.

[Rockin' Robin]

Now that you mention it, he does always manage to get injured when he's on top form. Although back in February I think it was last season, he practically carried us through that month, and I don't recall him being injured, but yeah everytime he suddenly clicks after coming back from injury, something else breaks or whatever.

[Popey]

maybe it's because he didn't rape anyone recently...



on the serious side, that could be the problem, but then again, he played last season without injuries, can't belive that he is afraid of that.
i think that he is just big potential which haven't become world class. he had ability to become one, at the moments he looked like the best player in the world, but that's all.

agree. that's exactly how you can describe rvp.

[Fordy]

he's naturally a CF/SS and plays far better on the wing of a front 3 than he ever could in the middle.

Correct me if im wrong but doesnt CF mean center forward and doesnt center forward suggest they play in the center ?

[Rockin' Robin]

In games like Fifa, supporting strikers are known as CFs so that's probably what he meant

[Andreys_Does_Simples]

He's a poof imo. Great player but a poof.

[CynicalGooner]

he's naturally a CF/SS and plays far better on the wing of a front 3 than he ever could in the middle.

Correct me if im wrong but doesnt CF mean center forward and doesnt center forward suggest they play in the center ?

Centre forwards usually play behind another striker, whereas a Torres / Drogba plays much higher up in the lone striker role, which obviously RVP can't do very well

Edit - nvm I see what you mean, some places & people call target men CFs and some call second strikers CFs

[Reverend Gooner]

I think you're chatting waffle mate

He hasn't been injured in nearly a year and was our best player in the second half of last season by a long way. His form hasn't been great this season so far if you're talking in terms of goals. But he's come close a bunch of times, has some assists and is looking very sharp IMO.

I blame WENGER for playing him out of position. RVP isn't Fernando Torres or Drogba and shouldn't be played as such, he's naturally a CF/SS and plays far better on the wing of a front 3 than he ever could in the middle.

Maybe i am well off but something is repressing his top gear, we are not seeing what we used to. Plus despite being played up front we have still seen him out wide plenty of times on the right backing up his team mates and he just doesn't seem the same Robin, even the RVP on good form from last season was not like the RVP's of before his injury spell.

on the serious side, that could be the problem, but then again, he played last season without injuries, can't belive that he is afraid of that.

Last season he was injury free (thankfully) but he also was not on top form (despite being very very good at times). I am suggesting that is what is stopping him being the RVP of 2005-2007/8, that supreme flair he does not utilise as much now.

There were many times (and for good spells too) in the past were RVP has looked like the best player in the prem hands down, i just hope he can look like that again soon.

[IMF]

He's a poof imo. Great player but a poof.

He does indeed run like a pansy.

He's just been paid a big wage on a new contract. What are we used to seeing happen with strikers that get the biggest contracts of their life? Henry... Adebayor...

[Irish Gunner 7]

Had to come in on this topic as Robin was interviewed on Arsenal TV A few months back, he said he had a meeting with Arsene, pat rice and our physios about how he could slightly change his style of play as not to get injured so much as he was rightly pissed off missing loads of games so maybe he is hanging back a little more than he used to but he is still a fantastic player and he will score goals starting against city this saturday

[Reverend Gooner]

That is interesting, you wouldn't happen to have a link to the video or interview?

It wouldn't suprise me as he is definately playing with less flair than before. He is still a fantastic player as you say, i would just love to see full steam ahead RVP again.

[IMF]

Slowest player in the squad. Maybe they told him not to run and to take 48 seconds to get up off the floor like a pensioner.