Excite Me Gervais!
I don’t really do match reviews, it’s not my thing but I do have a few thoughts on today’s match but mostly surrounding one player. Gervinho.
Now before we get started I want to tell you that I DO NOT HATE Gervinho, far from it. I wasn’t even going to blog my thoughts on this as I’m pressed for time (as I said in my last blog due to impending nuptials) but I’m annoyed. Not with the result because I think we generally played well, a bit of a boring match but overall we weren’t too bad for the first game back. No I’m annoyed with twitter and I’m annoyed with how easily people jump on each other for expressing opinions without even ascertaining what the actually opinion they are attacking is.
I had a lot of backlash for some tweets I made about Gervinho not exciting me and how I thought he was pretty average today so I want to share my entire view rather than my character limited one and if people want to disagree or abuse me for it then that’s okay because at least they’ll know the entire opinion they are attacking ;).
Frustrating because he’s better than he shows
Gervinho frustrates me at times. His performance today demonstrated everything about him that frustrates me. His final ball can be weak, he can run into “walls” too easily, the ball gets caught under his feet because he often moves faster than the ball is travelling, he knocks it out of play too much with a heavy touch when he tries to use his speed to go past a player, he sometimes doesn’t pass when he should and doesn’t shoot when he should and when he does shoot it’s far too often with a leg made of limp lettuce.
In short when he has the ball he doesn’t excite me. They say the ones you love are the ones that hurt you the most and my feelings on Gervinho are kind of like that. I love the player but he frustrates me. I’m sure those of you in relationships or who have had relationships in the past will understand me when I say that.
A player in Gervinho’s position should be exciting and I should be keen to see what they do with the ball but more often than not I see Gervinho has the ball and I kind of switch off because I don’t see anything happening. He gets into great spaces, he runs at defenders, he pushes the lines back but ultimately one of his frustrating habits end the move.
Some would argue that Gervinho was excellent today, indeed some have, and some would say he was our most dangerous player but I disagree. Cazorla was our most dangerous player in my opinion but back to Gervais.
Some will call me harsh, indeed some have, but that’s just the way I feel.
I give Gervinho a hard time (not the kind of hard time some gave Rambo last year) and I do criticise him a lot but that is because I know he can do so much better.
Gervinho has so much talent and so much ability and he would be absolutely devastating in the premier league. He’s no Bobby Pires but he can have the same impression on the league.
I was so excited when we signed him because I saw him at Lille and he completely outshone Hazard and was probably the best player in the league.
He has the ability to go past his man, dribble, cross, shoot, thread a pass, scare fullbacks, scare centrebacks, make goalkeepers look stupid and generally tear it up. And it is because of this that I criticise him because I don’t know why he has been and is a poor imitation of the player he truly is. Maybe his confidence is shaken. Maybe he never really recovered from being sent off in his first game and then missing out on winning the AFCON. Maybe he never stepped out of Van Persie’s shadow. Maybe he suffered from first season syndrome. Maybe he’ll have second season syndrome too. I don’t know what it is but I do know that he isn’t showing us anything like what he is capable of.
Eventually Gervinho will truly show the Arsenal faithful who he really is and when he does you’ll all agree with me that the “old” Gervinho really was a poor imitation of the “old old” Gervinho and I can’t wait for that day to come. I really thought he would show us more of himself toward the end of last season but we only caught glimpses. He showed more of it in preseason, especially against Köln and I thought he was on his way but today for me was last season all over again and it frustrated me.
This is the quality of the player we signed:
Gervinho has the ability to be one of the most dangerous and effective players in the league and that’s why I like him so much but he’s not doing it now and that’s why I get frustrated with him.
I’m tired of being bored by a player I know can send shivers of delight down my spine, so come on Gervais… excite me. You know you can.
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I do agree with you…. I believe in him but now have not seen glimpse of what have known him to be… We need his real self ASAP
you dont know what ur talking about he was one of our best players. Ramsey should be sold no way near good enuf to play for us
On one hand you tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about and that he was one of our best players and on the other you say Ramsey should be sold. Dear me.
I’ll agree with you. I think he can be a beast of a scorer, but his absolute main downfall is his hesitancy, he takes one too many touches way too often. He needs to develop a quicker shot and decide what to do faster.
He played in France where the defending was not as good as the EPL, so that ‘one extra touch’ was OK, but it won’t fly in the EPL and Champions’ League.
Once he learns to decide more quickly, take shots earlier, and quit banging a crap shot into two defenders mere feet away from him – he will light it up!
I agree that there’s so much more to come from gervinho, and I feel like he rushes himself a bit. I don’t know how to explain it but when I see him with the ball sometimes, I imagine those twisty duststorm cartoon animations of spinning legs (a bit like roadrunner lets say). I feel like he’s going to lose the ball and sometimes he does, and sometimes he works magic to get passed three defenders. The potential is obviously there, but I think he’s putting too much pressure on himself. He also really likes to corner himself, and while he does sometimes riggle out, he mostly gets caught. Just feel like he gets so worked up when he has the ball but maybe that’s just how I see it because he’s blessed with quick feet. What I’m trying to get at is the guy seems to get panicky, and coupled with his speed, he either puts himself in difficult positions or trips himself up. He needs to have some fun, just look at the koln game (as you alluded to). He was smiling and looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself. But come matchday he suddenly starts to panic again. I don’t think it’s confidence he needs, though that would help. He just needs to relax and have some fun, ease the pressure off himself. Then again this was also the first game of the season and playing against a park bus isn’t the easiest of tasks on opening day. Anyway, keep up the good articles and here’s to a great season
Will you all stop criticizing Gervinho!!!! Is he the one that will be picked on this season? Why don’t you wait a few matches before jumping into the lad? Btw I think he was one of our best players today.
You entirely miss the point. No one is picking on Gervinho and this site doesn’t choose players to pick on for a season. When everyone was giving Theo and Ramsey a hard time I defended them.
My issue with Gervinho and what the blog is about is that he can do so much better.
He wasn’t one of our better players yesterday at all. He was at the same level as everyone else, average. That’s not a bad thing as average on the first day back is okay but what he was doing with the ball were the same things he was doing last year and that is why he has been criticised.
Criticism is not picking on a player. If we were picking on him it would be because we don’t like him or think he’s not good enough to play for the club. That’s not the case.
What I’ve said is that I knowhe can do better and that he isn’t playing how the REALGervinho can play. It’s encouragement mate.
I suggest you read the post again.
I still think he was one of our best player on the day. We may be arguing semantics here (especially at a time when Arsenal fans are a bit depressed with some idiots leaving) but when an article is loaded upfront with negatives, sweeteners at the end may placate but doesn’t remove the bad taste.
Yes I read your article through in the first place and read it again today and still feel you are jumping into the lad. For the third time I think he was one of our best players yesterday and will get better. I’ll wait a few more games before critisizing.
You may feel I’m laying into him but that’s completely not what I was doing. My criticism of him is fair. If I was saying he doesn’t deserve his place in the team or that we should sell him then that would be unfair however what I am doing is saying I expect better from him. I expect better because I know he is a far better player than he displays sometimes. It’s not a negative thing it’s a plea. It’s a plea to a man who could tear it up to do exactly that.
If you feel that is laying into a player then I suggest you steer away from 90% of blogs out there because mine is one of my most positive as supportive there is and those aren’t my words, they are the words of my readers.
OK, ok, ok. I get you. Lets not waste more energy over this and I agree with you there are some virulent comments out there and yours is not near them. We can both see and say things in different ways. We can disagree and agree to disagree. Peace?
Always 🙂
Spot on. At the moment I dread it when he gets the ball as I know he’s going to run into another blind alley and give the ball away.
It’s a shame because I know he can do better and has it in him to terrorise defenders like Pires did (although not the same style player).
Gervinho is dangerous!! Unstopabble. He can waltz his way to the line whenever he likes. He can leave the defenders legs in a knot. Amazing dribbler. Yes, the final ball is where he gets stuck but i wont completely blame him for that.
I think part of the problem is we dont have any runners close to him to pass the ball to. Because of his unpredictability on the dribble, our strikers and mids are too late in arriving to finish the move. I think with better movement and less ball watching, a lot of good things can come from our frustrating dribbling wizard.
Great comment. Yes I probably left out that the cause of my frustration with him is not entirely his fault but I believe that as a team we are developing and those connections will come. I really do love Gervinho, I just get frustrated with him sometimes.
I didn’t see any of Gervinho at Lille so will take your word on how good he was there but his time at Arsenal is a big disappointment so far.
He has to mix his game up more and play some more one and two touch stuff if only to keep defenders guessing about what he is going to do but he shows no sign of adapting his play.. At the moment he is far far too readable, his dribbling ability can get him past one or even two players but by that time the cavalry has arrived and all the angles have been shut down and this is part of the reason why he doesn’t get many clean passes or shots away.
He gives off the illusion of being dangerous but ultimately gets very little done.
I think that is a very fair and very succinct way to sum him up.
He was fantastic at Lille and truly outshone Hazard who we all know cost Chelsea £32m. Gervais has the ability to have a positive impact in every game with either a goal, an assist or a pre-assist and can cause trouble for any full-back in the world IF he plays to his true potential. I don’t see the “true Gervinho” in Arsenal colours and that’s probably why I criticise him. I don’t criticise him in the way Ramsey is criticised by some supporters but to some fans any form of criticism, warranted or not, constructive or not is completely out of line and I don’t accept that view. Sometimes criticism is good but it depends how it’s delivered.