Coq was honestly garbage, I actually hated watching him play, sure he could make the odd tackle but he barely looked like a footballer with the ball at his feet. He was absolutely as big of weakness as Giroud.
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I definitely donāt agree. When paired with Santi having the ball at his feet wasnt an issue cos he just moved it on quickly. Without Santi he was asked to do the things you identified him as being poo at. It didnāt work well.
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Yeh thatās what I meant by original point though, Santi was such an exceptional talent he could make a shit player look average. You put him beside Xhaka and people would probably be happy enough with Xhaka- itās just a case of a genius pulling a scrub up.
I remember at the time people were gossiping about Vidal because of the Alexis link, had we brought a real player like him in I genuinely think we would have been a different animal.
I still remember that Bayern game where Coq couldnāt complete a single pass the entire half. Thatās woeful.
Yup, thatās what we needed from Coquelin anyway. When you have Santi, Ozil in your team, why do you even need Coquelin to be a great passer?
That partnership was good enough for the title challenge. It just need a backup and the other pieces needed augmentation which Wenger failed to do that season 
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Coq was pretty shit but he would occasionally do tidy shit like that which would make me think he was kinda good until it was well obvious he wasnāt. Main problem wasnāt his technique but the fact he was just another one of those Flamini midfielders who hides in the build up and when they get it donāt have an idea what to do with it.
Yeah, that can be helped a bit by a manager like Marcelino that gave a defined structure, but still never good enough for Arsenal.
@trion that thinking is flawed. At a top club everyone needs to be capable on the ball. Especially a central midfielder.
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Nah, Coquelin didnāt hide.
Coquelin was very good defensively and had great dribbling ability for a DM but his long passing did let him down. The amount of times he would get the ball, pull a great move in a tight space and then try to ping a somewhat ānot that hardā ball to fucking nowhere became a commonality after a while.
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Le Coq had great stats for us. Him and Santi was our last successful double pivot.
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The problem with this is thatā¦Arsenal bought Xhaka.
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Settling for mediocrity is one of the main reasons we are where we are watching shit football on a Thursday night.
If you want to be a big club you should always be looking to improve, Coq was a passenger and he wasnāt the only one. This was around the time Bayern was beating us 5-2 every year so Iām not sure why people seem to think things were grand. Players like Coquelin just werenāt CL quality.
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I did like Coq at times but whenever I think about him I canāt help but remember him bouncing off Hazard like heād collided with an SUV at Stamford Bridge
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Coquelin was not mediocre for the job he was meant to do.
He was ace at his defensive duties and thatās what was needed and was evident with the chemistry he had with Santi.
Ofcourse you should improve if you can but we havenāt, have we?
I would gladly have Coquelin play for us than Xhaka. Even Torreira who is of similar ilk have not yet replicate the form Coquelin showed.
Itās also a myth that Coquelin is poor with the ball.
I know itās 5 minutes long, but this video is absolutely worth watching as it shows just how good his tackling was and also (last half of the video) how decent his passing and dribbling was as well.
He gets way too much grief.
Imagine if we had a player who could tackle like Le Coq in our team 
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I donāt think the point is that people think Coquelin was grand. Rather that he wasnāt one of the biggest problems at the time. In my opinion Giroud, Walcott and Mertesacker needed replacing before Coquelin. Never been convinced of Bellerin either.
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Couldnāt have predicted the Bellerin decline imo.
Giroud needed support. Upgrade on Mertesacker definitely. At the very least Coquelin should have gotten support, instead he got Elneny who barely found himself after Coquelin left and Xhaka who wasnāt even sure what he was. I would also add GK as an issue. Ospina never found his feet at Arsenal and Cech late on was inconsistent af.
His tackling precision was amazing and one of the reason I donāt agree with the Flamingo comparison.
It was a joy to watch him harass the midfield.
To think we kept Xhaka and let him go 
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People really get upset over players like coq, Kosc and Walcott.
Itās not getting upset itās just not glorifying average players that held us back more than they pushed us forward. I hate Koz but Iāll take him out of that list because he was absolutely good enough for arsenal he just needed better discipline and coaching.
Your Theoās, Coqās, Giroudās, Elnenyās of this world are all Everton level players and now weāre an Everton level club who tried for years to coast by with Europa level players in the CL. You get what you pay for, reap what you sow etc etc.
But who am I to stop people remembering those players-wrongly- fondly. However Iāll be damned if I see it as a anything other than our obvious descent into mediocrity and I pray for the days where your Cesc/Santi types is the base standard, not Coqās, Xhakaās, Elnenys.
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Shit guys, Coquelin was never really that good.
Heās a high level pro footballer, so of course he can do amazing shit in videos lol heās way better than any average person.
But in the football world, he was always just an average and pretty limited DM that wasnāt good enough but had to try his best and did okay.
He was young and athletic and could get stuck in, itās usually a decent if not ideal fit alongside a bunch of technicians (particular back then when teams didnāt all play like that).
Coquelin is one of those guys who epitomises our averageness during that period; always that one or two quality pieces away from being actually good.
Now heās a regular for Valencia at age 28. You get the picture.
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I think ppl miss his attitude and fighting spirit on the pitch more then his obvious lack of technique. I think we should have kept him. Who would you rather have playing when defending a lead, Coq or Xhaka?
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Competent midfielder and formed a very good partnership with Cazorla at one point, but nothing special (and Cazorla made everybody look good because he was Cazorla).
Itās a hallmark of our mediocrity over the past ten years that some people are giving him praise now, or remembering him fondly.
In the first half of the Wenger era, Coquelin would have been a nobody. And heās a player that no top 4/6 team would have had the slightest bit of interest in buying even at his best for us.
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