Jack Wilshere and the number 10 shirt

This article is a lot of things, but it is not a usual rumour piece which has become ever-so-common around this time of the year. This is an encomium and a critical analysis, and that’s all.

THE WONDERKID

It all began with a Frenchman’s smile. Sitting on the bench in an Arsenal reserves match against West Ham reserves, Arsene Wenger just smiled. A British teenager who had shot up the ranks at the club had just scored a belter of a goal. Arsene knew.

Two years later, the boy going by the name of Jack Wilshere is being hailed as the future of English football. Having endeared himself to the Arsenal faithful over the last couple of years with fantastic displays in the midfield, the ankle injury was a rude awakening. One that said he was still just a boy.

But with Jack Wilshere, it’s easy to assume otherwise. Arsenal fans, Barcelona fans and even neutrals who remember Feb 17th at the Emirates two seasons ago, would remember how Wilshere played that day.

Although a slight exaggeration, they would talk of how he toyed with Xavi and Iniesta.

The truth is that Jack Wilshere exudes a sense of responsibility belying his age. He is willing and capable of carrying Arsenal and England on his shoulders. Post his season-and-a-half long layoff, he was given the biggest number in the football world. The number 19 had gone to Santi Cazorla. Jack Wilshere was Arsenal’s new number 10.

Undoubtedly, it was and is an added responsibility. Arsenal’s previous number 10 ravaged through defenses last year to take the club to third place in the table. When he did eventually leave for ‘redder’ pastures, signings were made to plug the Dutchman-sized hole, but the number was given to Wilshere. Does he deserve it?

I would cry ‘yes’ to anyone who is willing to listen. Talent aside, I have never seen a player so passionate about Arsenal, a club where players leaving is too common an affair. While most will remember the above mentioned Barcelona match, I will only think back to the Carling Cup final against Birmingham City. While Wilshere has undoubtedly played better, in that match he embodied a hope which Gooners worldwide carry even today. That day he wanted a trophy. Arsenal lost and Wilshere cried along with many others and those others love him for that.

I did set talent aside, but I will return to it because there is too much of it for it to not be spoken about. It is not surprising that he is regarded as the best English midfielder of his generation. He has speed, technique, passing shooting, tackling all amalgamated into his 5 foot 8 inch frame. I will not join a packed bandwagon by claiming if he had been there for his country at the Euros, they would have been a real force. He is good, no doubt, but England could have still won if they had played with intent. It is this intent though that Jack Wilshere brings out of the tunnel and on to the pitch. Losing the ball drives him crazy; he will run back to the other end of the pitch to pursue the man who had dispossessed him and when he has the ball, his creativity is tremendous, even by Arsenal’s own lofty standards.

He is back from his injury and has begun to show his ability once more. With the five year extension signed, I look forward to seeing him emerge into the force he promises to be.

IS HE A NUMBER 10?

A number 10 is different in different countries. For some, it indicates the second striker or the center forward who operates behind the team’s main front man. In others, it would be the trequartista or the playmaker, and in some cases it is simply the best player on the pitch.

Arsenal’s number 10 fits none of the above categories. He does things a trequartista would normally do but he is not exactly one. In his defence, England has produced nobody who can fit into that mould, but Wilshere is as close as anyone could get. I personally think Wilshere is more of a Fantasisti. I must admit I read the term off of Wikipedia, but he seems to fit the description. A Fantasisti is a creative midfielder who can operate where the trequartista and regista operate, between them and on the wings. On different occasions, Wilshere has admirably performed in each one of these roles and hence I label him so. Cazorla is more number 10 material than Wilshere is, as he plays in the role one would expect a number 10 to play in. In Arsenal terms, there has been no better number 10 than Dennis Bergkamp who epitomized everything the number stood for, both in class and respect. I admit I preferred JW19 to JW10 but seeing a number 10 who will not leave the club next year is a nice change.

HE IS THE PROBLEM!

You read that right; his return has unceremoniously coincided with the club reverting to its goal-shipping ways. In all fairness, it is not Wilshere’s fault. The mouth-watering prospective midfield combination of Arteta, Cazorla and Wilshere is the reason for Steve Bould’s defensive planning being taken apart at times. A lot has changed with Arsenal’s defense; most importantly, the team now is able to maintain a proper defensive line, unlike before when Song’s perpetual creative instinct left them more open than the defenders wanted. While Song did have this major fault, it was made up for partially by his physicality. Mikel Arteta does not play that role in that way. He has reinvented the club’s defensive midfielder as a man who can read the game and make vital interceptions and use his creativeness with restraint. Abou Diaby was his perfect foil, with the Frenchman’s long legs and imposing stature providing most of Arsenal’s defensive cover in the beginning of the season when they let in so few goals.

With Wilshere having taken the injured Diaby’s place, you have a different type of player in that position. Wilshere runs everywhere. His position is unclear to me even today. Sometimes, defending the gap Wilshere leaves has become too much for Arsenal to handle alone. This is also forcing Cazorla to defend and it must be said that his talents lie elsewhere. Replacing Arteta with a new defensive midfielder is not the option. He would have the same problems. The answer lies solely in shifting Cazorla to the right wing and Wilshere being the single spearhead in attack. Arteta can take Wilshere’s vacant role while a defensive midfielder would complete the midfield.

Wilshere and Cazorla would still thrive while the team’s defending would get more solid. This does open up problems about where Walcott would go and what happens to Giroud and Chamberlain. Ideally, I’d say change the formation a bit, but then I know Arsene Wenger and the fact that that’s not going to happen, so I rest my case.