What is everyone's current opinion of Denilson then? How do we feel his season has started?
Personally I see a lot of Gooners on here slating him and I know a lot of other Gooners personally, who also think he’s missed the boat and isn’t Arsenal standard.
Me and my old man think he’s quality though. Both rate him very highly – seemingly in contrast to the masses!
Personally, I think Denilson’s biggest problem is the fact that he’s neither an out and out holding midfielder; neither is he a full blown ACM, with the range of passing Fabregas can boast. He’s more of a classic CM, can do a bit of everything – would have been rated more highly in the days where a set DCM wasn’t seen as necessary.
But this season, I find it hard to understand why fellow Gooners aren’t praising him more. We all know the stats in regard to the number of appearances he made last year – many people would say this is why Arsenal failed miserably because he was our ever present in the middle of the park. But for me, within the new 4-3-3 formation, he’s really starting to look the business. He doesn’t have to worry about being the last line of support for the back 4 – Song takes care of that. Neither does he have to worry about providing creativity for the attacking trio – leave that to Fabregas. What he does do though is provide excellent support in both of these roles.
He has fantastic stamina and seems to run all day long, provides assistance to Song in breaking up play and hassling the opposition – something which I expect Wenger to make use of in tougher matches, particularly away from home. But at the same time, while his passing isn’t world class, he can be an effective component of an attack, occasionally pulling out some Brazilian magic as he did last night with the little back heel through ball against Celtic.
I really believe 4-3-3 could lead to the making of Denilson, for the simple reason given above that he isn’t left to be the sole defensive or creative unit in the centre of the park. There seems to be an incessant pressure a team to have a partnership of one attacking and defensive central midfielder and off course it would be nice for him to excel in one of the above aspects of the game. But an even balance of defensive skill and creativity is something which is sometimes overlooked in the modern game, a crevice Denilson seems to fall into.