Like a streak of lightnin’ flashin’ cross the sky,
Like the swiftest arrow whizzin’ from a bow,
Like a mighty cannonball he seems to fly,
You’ll hear about him ev’rywhere you go,
The time’ll come when ev’ryone will know the name of,
… erm, Big Al? We might need to work on this one….
If you look at the number of starts he’s made, his scoring record is very good – one goal from one league game. Problem is it’s 2012, and, in case you don’t notice, Marouane Chamakh is about to leave for the ACN after less than two matches worth of playing time in the league. If everything goes well for him he’ll find some form in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and return to us a more confident player. It’s just as possible that we’ll never see him in an Arsenal shirt again.
How did this happen?
Back in the 2009-10 season Chamakh was incredibly exotic to us because he had everything we needed at that time. We’d already lost van Persie and Bendtner for much of the season, and with them our last attackers taller than 6ft. With half the squad missing the season was taking it out of the remaining players and you could see the fatigue in their performances. We weren’t winning the ball back fast enough – we were yearning the right to play our game.
So at Bordeaux they had this bloke we’d already tried to sign. On the technical side of things he wasn’t perfect, but he was certainly dynamic, tall and hardworking. He never had a great scoring record, but his lack of goals could be forgiven when he was linking up with his teammates, winning headers and harassing defenders with such endeavour. How we needed him in spring 2010.
Anyway, without knowing anything about Chamakh’s relationship with the manager, or having an idea what happens in the dressing room or on the training ground, here’s my thinking on what’s gone wrong for him. I hope it’s not too different from yours.
He’s a victim of both our system and the singular talent of Robin van Persie. These days plenty of clubs are now fielding their most potent forwards right in the middle of attack so they get involved in the build up as well as score goals. We had already started doing this as early as August 2009, when Robin van Persie first started matches as the team’s sole striker. It was working beautifully for us – we were breaking all kinds of scoring records – until he got injured in November. Although van Persie wouldn’t be fit enough to play regular football for another year, the blueprint had been drawn up. It would just be tucked into the drawer until he recovered. Only by then it was more of a yellowprint.
As the most talented attacking player, if he’s fit he plays, which leaves little space for any other centre-forwards, as Bendtner and Chamakh have since found out.
If all the pieces are in place this 4-3-3 is so deadly that it’s worth building the attack around that one genius in the centre. Chamakh could never hope to join van Persie in the current lineup – it would never work. The only chance he’ll ever have of getting into this side is when RvP is rested. So far this has happened once this season, against Stoke. I thought Chamakh did well that day, and earned what looked to me a clear penalty. But it was clear he didn’t have the same awareness and technique – after all, who does?
And with the team now so accustomed to playing in van Persie’s orbit, every time Chamakh has started this season he’s looked a little less convincing because his style and talents, though undoubtedly useful in the right setup, are becoming more foreign to his teammates the longer he spends outside the team.
You can sympathise with him. He knows that when everyone’s fit he can never hope to get regular football. It must be even harder when you look at the start he made. By late November 2010, just before van Persie reclaimed his place, Chamakh’s record was about one in two. He’d settled into the side in record time and it looked like we had made a valuable addition to our attack.
But he enjoyed that run at a time when the tactical mould was not quite set. We were just flexible enough to accommodate him into our system. But when van Persie returned the team fixed in place around a more gifted player. Now Chamakh’s the odd one out, and it doesn’t look like that’s about to change.
So why did we sign him?
It’s probably not worth speculating on that, but I suppose the main reason might be that we did need a player like him when we sold Adebayor. I think that’s whom he was meant to replace, but in the year between our first approach and signing him on a free transfer our system changed considerably. Still, why turn down the chance to capture an international striker for next to nothing? It’s all pretty understandable.
And what now for him?
That’s hard to say. He’s good enough to play at a high level. So right now I’ll be surprised if he’s still here after the summer. Strangely though, we could come to rely on him at some point between February and May.
I think Henry’s return might give us an idea about how Wenger sees things panning out for this system. Henry will be able to play in two of the front three positions. He’s still quick enough to play on the left side of the attack, and the central role isn’t beyond his physical strength and technique. He’ll alleviate our van Persie dependency, but will still be able to fill another position in the side when the captain’s playing. If we chase a forward in the summer, I have a feeling he’ll be similarly versatile.
For all the talk of rotation systems after we slumped against Fulham, I don’t think they apply to Chamakh. Calling on my years of top-flight management experience, I imagine a rotated player would expect to play at least two-thirds of all games, but a centre-forward at Arsenal could never aspire to that as long as the captain and best attacker is fit. Even if we did rest van Persie more often Chamakh would only be playing a handful of matches a season.
