Written by Dennis Wong on Monday, 12 December 2011 08:34

Tomas Rosicky isn't called 'Little Mozart' for nothing. However, recently, when I talk to Arsenal fans, the general consensus is that Rosicky is over-the-hill, a fringe player who should be sold. Judging by Wenger's preference for Ramsey (although this may be due to Rosicky's current injury), it seems Rosicky doesn't have the manager's backing either. Yet it seems that Rosicky is being largely underrated ever since his return from injury. I would argue, however, that Rosicky is currently the most accomplished playmaker we have at Arsenal, and should be a starter when fit.

I vividly remember the Carling cup final last season (which Arsenal fan doesn't), and almost everyone I talked to, whether fans of Arsenal, or just any football watchers, seemed to think that Rosicky had a horrible game. Same thing with the media. For example, goal.com rated his performance as a measly 4.5 (out of 10), despite creating good chances for teammates, aswell as having 3 good attempts on goal aswell. For comparison, Nasri, who was overly selfish, in addition to missing good chances to score, was rated 7.5. Even Song, who was incredibly sluggish that match, got rated 5. It wasn't that his performance was majestic, far from it, but it definitely wasn't poor either. Personally, I would say he was one of the top 3 Arsenal players that day.

Some may point to his statistics column, pointing out that he has not had many assists (5 last season, 1 this season), but the truth is, had his teammates been able to finish, he would have had more. For instance, against bolton, Rosicky gave a sublime, outside foot through ball, setting up Arshavin for a simple 1 on 1, yet Arshavin missed. In the 6-0 demolition of Blackpool, Rosicky gave two great through balls to Walcott, with Walcott messing up both gift-wrapped chances. And did I mention that both through balls came within the first half? To compare, Arshavin, who had 17 assists last season, got one in the Carling cup final with a cross that 9 times out of 10 would have been cleared by defenders, where it not for the brilliance of RVP. Rosicky, meanwhile, hasn't had such assists.

Nonetheless, assists aren't the only way to create chances; in most cases (excluding stoke city) it takes more than a pass and a shot to score. In this respect, Rosicky is excellent. Firstly, he has an excellent awareness of space in the final third. His uncanny ability to spot gaps between the opposition defense and midfield means he often assists the assist (similar to Hleb few years back). These 'pre-assists' are not statistics often mentioned, but the fact is, these passes are often just as important as the assists. He has made 5 'key passes' this season (a key pass is a pass that is instrumental in creating the goal but not the assist itself), joint highest at arsenal along with Ramsey (note that Ramsey had 3 times the amount of starts). A great example of this is in the video below against West Brom (jump to 0.40), where he gives the pass to van persie who lays it off to Arteta to score.

Furthermore, his ability to keep the ball is impressive, with a 88% average pass completion rate last season, higher than both Fabregas and Nasri. One may point to the fact that Denilson also had an excellent pass completion rate, but the nature of their passes are different; whereas denilson mainly plays short backward passes that slow the game down, Rosicky constantly picks out precise passes to attacking teammates in the final third, hence his high count for 'key passes'.

In addition to his technical ability, his physical attributes have not declined as much as some are lead to believe (one of which is Ea sports, who has ridiculously rated his speed in the 60's, and strength in his 40's I believe). Many seem to believe that his mysterious eighteen month injury has robbed him of his pace; this simply is not true. Many times this season, he turns past opponents before bursting away, something that Arteta can't do. This isn't to say arteta is a poor player, but just goes to show that Rosicky is much faster that what many seem to believe. On the other hand, it does seem that he reacts slower nowadays, particularly defensively. In addition, his stamina seems to be poorer these days. These problems, however, could be down to his lack of playing time; a longer run in the team would help get back to the pace of the game.

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Lastly, his defensive side of the game is fairly strong, especially for a defensive midfielder; last season, he had an aerial success rate of 63%. This is higher than a considerable number of center backs, let alone midfielders. Add to the fact that he is a 5ft 10 offensive playmaker only makes this all the more impressive (Song, our primary defensive midfielder, had an aerial success of 48% last season). Apart from his aerial prowess, he also has an excellent sliding tackle technique. Whereas many where praising Wilshere for his committed tackling, Rosicky's slide tackling has always been sublime, yet overlooked by most. Standing tackles require a strong build, which neither Wilshere and Rosicky have, but the slide tackle, however, is more about timing and accuracy, therefore it is sensible that players such as Wilshere and Rosicky use it. However, Wilshere's slide tacking is not a great as Rosicky's, as shown by Wilshere's red card against Zigic. Rosicky, meanwhile has never gotten a red card (to my knowledge). To demonstrate my point, this excellent video shows it.

Hopefully, these points have shown that Rosicky has been vastly underrated, by media and fans alike, and it is my hope that he gets the recognition he deserves, instead of the bashing he gets. It would be to Arsenal's benefit, and my own happiness, that he is used more often this season, as a starter, rather than backup. Whilst he does have his faults in his play, such as a lack of goals (which hopefully gets rectified if he plays more), as well as his injury proneness, the benefits of playing him - brilliant close control and passing technique, excellent awareness of where the space is in the final third, quick one touch passing, powerful long range shooting, as well as fine leadership skills (he is a well respected figure in the dressing room) and bags of experience will certainly help us in ending that damning trophy drought.

Rosicky Vs. West Brom

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Mean Lean's Response

Ever since the little floppy haired genius signed for us, I have been a big fan and nothing has changed today. Tomas Rosicky receives plenty of unfair stick in my opinion and I don't think he has had the game time that his ability deserves, mainly due to his inability to play too many games in a row.

At the start of the season he was in far better form than Aaron Ramsey but Arsene stuck with Ramsey which is working out for us now because Aaron has games under his belt. Personally I think that Rosicky makes those around him play better. His movement off the ball to make space to receive a pass is great.

There was one combination between Rosicky and van Persie late against Everton and it got me thinking. They are on the same wave length and I think he could also play well with Arteta and Yossi Benayoun. All great possession players but perhaps Arsene is moving away from that and trying to produce a more direct version.

There are rumours today that Wolfsburg may well be interested in signing Rosicky and you can see why. Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere are both injured, both haven't played all season yet Rosicky has started only three league games.

Personally he would be higher in the pecking order than his team mate Andrey Arshavin, even if he hasn't got the goals, he makes others around him look better because his build up play is quality. I hope he gets some more chances, not with squad players but with the first team, if he had a run of games in our best side then he would be valuable but I fear that his time has passed and it is a matter of time before he is pointed in the direction of pastures new.

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Comments (11)

• 14-Dec-2011 13:05 | | Eric
  

  Iagree
  
  Rosicky is a safer pair of hands for me...his experience and ball retention provides security and as pointed out above his work ethic in defensive is good too...i would hope that he gets more games in the second half of the season as I dont think Ramsey should take the brunt of role...
  
  IN that sense he is truly underrated...

• 14-Dec-2011 13:38 | | hazzaboy21
  

  Good post. I for one hope we keep him. He's a good, experienced player to have in the squad. Good in possession and, as you mention, is a lot better defensively than the likes of Arshavin. As we've seen in a few games this season he's a great option to bring on late on in games when we've been able to close out games more effectively through ball retention. He's not the player he used to be but definitely still fulfils a useful role in my opinion.
  
  Also, thanks for the tackling vid. I had noticed it was a skill of his but not quite realised how often he uses it to great effect.

• 14-Dec-2011 13:45 | | Unknown  - Underrated
  

  You got the correct club but wrong player. For me Yossi Benayoun is the most underrated player in Arsenal, maybe the league. Once he gets to play more he will prove it.

• 14-Dec-2011 14:22 | | Declan
  

  No one ever doubted his ability, anyone who did knows little. It's fitness and stamina that seems to be the problem. He never looks like the player that can thread passes from the first minute to the 90th, therefore he is used for impact. His shooting has let him down since his return from injury, although he has made up for it in tackles and interceptions. All in all, id like to see him stay. He's experienced, snappy passer and energetic when introduced late on in games. As long as he's happy, hold on to him.

• 14-Dec-2011 22:12 | | Geo  - keep him
  

  he´s clearly a player that I have always admired. the year that he was injured was decisive because that opened space for other players, and now he´s 31 and more used to be a late substitute... a big shame but if I were Wenger, i would love to keep him until he retires.

• 15-Dec-2011 12:42 | | pika
  

  ahh little mozart ...as a dortmund fan of the 90s with paolo souza and chapuisat i remember when he first arrived as a17 wonderkid and he was phenomenal....too bad he didnt have the career we all expected but yes i agree.....whoever thinks rosicky doesnt know football is clueless...one of the last proper "tens" in europe together with totti imo.

• 15-Dec-2011 15:07 | | richie
  

  As with Shava so with Rosicky! In the right setting they are both great players. In the current side I think Tomas would fit into the midfield with Arteta because his one touch play is of great quality and they would probably feed off one another. Also I think a lot of the criticism he gets is unfair, he's a very good player who has been blighted with injury. I think Rosicky has been very unlucky since he came to us. Someone remind me if I'm wrong about his mysterious injury but wasn't it a very bad hamstring problem that might've finished off his career? (Or am I mixing things thinking of Cesc)?
  
  Unfortunately for both us and Rosicky, he's never fulfilled his potential, and his potential was massive. As is meant by his little motzart nick name he is fully capable of conducting the game from the middle of the park. At times he really is a great play-maker, but those times have arrived less and less since he burst on to our stage in 06. Very obviously his almost 18 months out injured didn't help, he didn't play in 09 at all. Remember he only came back last year and even then he'd missed the first 3 months of the season. Given the chance I'd expect him to shine with us now. It would be a shame if he goes.
  
  However Arsene has a policy of instructing the club to offer only 1 year contract extentions to any player over 30 Rosicky is already 31. Arsene didn't even bend that rule for Vieira and Henry so if another club is prepared to put good money on the table.................

• 19-Dec-2011 00:40 | | TL Gooner  - Agree
  

  Have to agree about Rosicky. I don't think he's as good as he was in 07/08 but I do think he's under- rated and think it would be silly to sell him. I don't think he should be a regular starter necessarily as the midfielders atm are doing very well, but he is great to have incase one of those 3 gets injured/ suspended.
  
  It's nice to see a positive article written about a player who we don't often hear about.
  
  Nice one

• 26-Dec-2011 08:46 | | arvinkumar
  

  ..
  AGREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WITH HIM !!!!!

• 26-Dec-2011 19:28 | | TheTunisianGunner
  

  Brilliant analysis. I agree with most of it. I can only argue one point. Thomas Rosicky proved over the last 3 seasons that he is injury prone player that's why AW is not relying on him as a starter. He doesn't have the physical ability to play as Ramsey. I don't know if it's due to bad luck over the past and whatever he can go back to good physical shape to play every 3 days. I doubt that. If he can stay injury free game in game out he is far better than Ramsey. Ramsey is an excellent player but not even close to top class player, he has so much progression to make to be a more complete player. Besides Ramsey is a box-to-box midfielder wich Ramsey can't do even in top form. They are different profiles after all. Add to that the age fact, AW clearly wants to build the future that's relying mainly in Ramsey is his preference. In my opinion AW can use both Ramsey/Rosicky by using both of the them, sometimes Ramsey starts sometimes Rosicky

• 26-Dec-2011 19:32 | | TheTunisianGunner
  

  **Besides Ramsey is a box-to-box midfielder wich Rosicky can't do even in top form.

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