Nicklas Bendtner, eh? one week he’s lashing the ball confidently into the Dynamo Kyiv net and exposing his chilly Viking torso to the winter night, the next he’s tapping the ball pitifully into the expansive midriff of Burnley’s gargantuan goalkeeper Brian Jensen. The next one after that he’s doing the pitiful tapping thing again. And the one after that. What happened to confident lashing, Nicklas?
Wenger’s post-match assessment of all this miss-ery was unusually unsympathetic to Nicklas and his striking chums:
We had plenty of chances but when you do not score, you really have to ask yourself why. You can praise their keeper but also question our strikers. We had six one-on-ones with their keeper and did not score with any of them. In front of goal, you have to be much more clinical than we were. We just did not have the right focus in front of goal. We lost a game we should never have lost.
Which sounds about as close as you’ll get with Arsene to him placing the blame at the whiffy adolescent feet of Nicklas Bendtner, or at least putting a big mental question mark over those “berry”-coloured boots.
I think that question mark has been sitting in the minds of most Goons for most of the time that Bendtner’s been in the first team squad. He’s a player that has frustrated us Goons for a long time now – scoring important goals with apparent ease one day, then looking absolutely useless (and in extreme cases such as the Liverpool tie last season, worse than useless) for the next three or four games.
Bendtnerphiles take a long view. He’s still only 20 years old and has scored 14 goals in 28 starts. That’s good going for any striker, especially at his age. Sure, they say, he shouldn’t be in the first team every week and he’s still very raw but he’s going to be an important player in the future.
Bendtnerphobes (in my experience outnumbering the philes about 25 to 1 – it’s always easier to criticise) point out that his goals record needs to include his 34 substitute appearances, in which he is often at his most infuriating. They object that he looks silly and apparently lacks basic footballing ability at crucial moments.
From these two camps, only the more extreme Bendtnerphobes will claim that he the lad hasn’t got talent. Similarly, there is broad agreement that he does look a bit silly.
Finally there’s Bendtner himself, and it is his own view which counts. You see, Nicklas has been Denmark’s main striker for about 2 years now, and in his eyes that makes him a fairly major European footballer. Everyone else might point out that that’s a bit like being Norwich City’s main striker, but not so Nicklas, whose agent-father has muttered about interest from the likes of Milan and Juventus whenever it looked like Nicklas might be spending the season in a tracksuit.
So on the one hand he’s a thrusting Gunnerling with bags of potential and on the other he thinks he’s a bit good. He should probably watch last night’s tape and see how that stands up.
Anyway, I’d be interested to know your thoughts on Naughty Nicklas.
The good thing about crashing out of the Carling Cup is that it means we’ll almost definitely win this weekend, in contrast to past weekends where our kids had flattened their Premiership opposition only for our main men to feel so bad about it that they allowed themselves to be flattened in turn (Hull etc). None of that on Saturday, thanks.
And don’t forget UpForGrabsNow’s SUPER SAGNA COMPETITION. Pen the top new Gooner chant and you could get your hairy mits on a photograph of His Majesty The Right Back signed by none other than His Majesty The Right Back himself. SAGNATASTIC! Just post them on the comments section and we’ll announce the winner at the end of the week.
Tags: Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Bacary Sagna, Nicklas Bendtner, saint nicholas
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:31 am
his misses were poor but i could have forgiven that if he looked like he gave a shit.
i have always stuck up for niklas but the fact is yesterday he looked like he thought he was too good to be playing with the kids even though he is one himself.
to be honest he’s becoming a clone of ade. in most games he has a few great touches but for very large periods of the game he doesn’t do much, has a poor first touch, passes half of his chances to the keeper and generally looks arrogant.
we already have that in ade, we don’t need bentdner to become the same. basically the only differences right now are that ade rarely acknowledges the assister, gets payed 80k a week and is offside for 95% of the game. on the other hand he scores a few more tap-ins.
to be honest on balance both are crap at the moment. give me vela or eduardo with rvp ANY day. not that wenger will dare drop ade for any more than one game…
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 am
He looks better as a sub
Though the young kids seem to replicate the 1st team in many ways
Good ability on the ball but dodgy keeper dodgy defence no steel in midfield and a striker who needs 10 chances to convert one
Teams are built from the back (this is something that arsen has overlooked and needs addressing now we need the following
1. a decent keeper who commands his box
2. a old fashioned centre back (i would go for Upson)
3.a ball winning midfielder (Veirra on loan for now would do
4.a decent striker (Huntaular) who i am sure would have same inpact as torres
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:53 am
Good post.
I agree with a lot of what Ryan said, I was giving Nikclas a chance.
However, whether I got to the Emirates, or make the most of my broadband and watch the matches online (as I did last night).
I can’t help but agree with those who think Nicklas thinks more of himself and his abilities than he should.
He’s an OK player, good at times.. but not consistently good enough to be an Arsenal first team player.
In my opinion when we get Eduardo back, it should be a case of, who will partner Eduardo?.
We should offload Nicklas at the end of the season and give Jay a chance to compete for that spot with Carlos, RVP and EA.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:38 am
I would put Vela ahead of Bendtner now, but even Vela i think had two chances and also poked at the keeper when I excepted a chip. Nik should have learnt by the second time that the keeper comes flying at feet, how hard would it have been to on the 3rd time, chip the keeper. I agree with what others have said, and it looked to me that although he was doing a lot of running around, Nik was just not focused on the game at hand, Simpson should have been brought on a lot sooner as well as Bishoff as Randall was kak!
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
I agree as well, it is frustrating to watch Bendtner! he should know better by now!! he plays better as substitute!! Jay should have started last night!!
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
He’s a good player, on the whole. And indeed a good player in the hole.
I tend to think that Arsenal look pretty blunt when he plays with Van Persie. He plays best as a second striker, rather than the big, strapping target-man centre-forward type he could be. The best partner for him we have is his dear friend Emmanuel Adebayor, funnil enough.
He’ll improve as well.
I like him, on the whole.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Bendtner`s display against Burnley was underscores his inconsistency in terms of lack of pace, technical ability and finishing in front of goal. The potential of Carlos Vela of becomming a world class striker is far greater, and Simpson is faster and better with the ball than Bendtner. (Another player who lacks pace and technical ability is Alex Song). Last season we had Senderos (please stay in Milan!). There is little arguing that Wenger has been brilliant in spotting and developing talent and showing confidence in his youngsters. However, for several seasons now, there has been weak links within the team and lack of depth within the squad. The end result, inconsistency and costly mistakes.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
This Bendtner guy has got more than enough chances to impress.. It’s ok if he fails to make an impression against the likes of Chelsea, Villa or Manutd. But against the likes of Burnleys and Wigans (though I’m not under estimating them.. I stopped doing that now), he should set himself up and show that he is worth the hype. He is terribly short of confidence and poor at decision making. Simpson is a better asset to the club than Nick. Simple thing to do.. offload him in Jan to Birmingham or any other European league and hand Simpson a chance. Spartak Moscow might be interested in him (as they have a Danish coach: Laudrup). I hope they will snap up our pink booty.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
He has had far too many chances now, and if he can’t cut the mustard against championship opposition then i think it’s time to offload him for as much as poss (5m from Moscow seems a good return). No world class striker misses 4 one on one’s against a Championship club. Arsenal are world class, I’m afraid he is not!
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I’m not sure that we’ve seen enough of Jay Simpson at senior level yet to make any sort of comparison with Bendtner. It’s also easy after games like yesterday’s to say – get rid of that bloke! keep the bloke he was playing instead of! – when in fact Simpson might well have missed those chances too.
I think Bendtner’s a good player who could become a very good one for us. The problem is that Bendtner’s opinion of himself is so high that he’s not going to have anything like the patience required to stick it out as a squad player until he’s got his game together properly.
Interesting point Phil makes about Eduardo returning as first choice striker. I’m not sure about that, though it will be interesting to see the pecking order if/when Eduardo gets back to top fitness (which may take until next season in my opinion). I suspect RvP and Ade will still be his top 2.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Thats the most arrogant perfromance I have ever seen from that boy, I wish to God he has some injury that would rule him out for the rest of his football CAREER. He is still young enough to learn another trade or go back to school or some trade where his kind of arrogance is welcomed. I guess he thinks he is too big to play with Jack, or Ramsey, People more talented than him. I just hope Arsene ships him out to Dynamo Moscow, very far way from N5.Gosh!
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Nic is crap, and not arsenal material. i thought Wenger only left him there as a face saving measure, imagine substituting a senior player in the eyes of kids, i think arsene put Nic first and the team last. Nic ruined the hardwork of the kids, he was meant to strengthen them but become a weak link. the guy cant, run, cant control the ball, cant dribble and truns like a caterpillar. His only strength is heading but thats not enough. I am usually slow to critisise players, but it hard hard to defend bentner in the arsenal team. we all thought he needed a run of games but wow! he gets worse with every game instead of better.
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
bent has no buisiness with the gunners, arsenal is just to big for him
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
People call our players “inconsistent”,if the rest are inconsistent in which category does Nic place in?Perhaps the reserves untill he finds the correct boots,cuz now he just looks like playing with two “right-footed shoes”.but then again,we dont have much option untill january, with carlitos not showing great results,and simpson lacking first team experience.But im sure we’ll do great.
December 4th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Norwegian Gooner, you are way wide of the mark about Alex Song! Yes, he lacks the pace, but his technical ability is very good, and still getting better. For his position, maybe pace is not such a necessity, and I do not expect to see him sprinting across the pitch to put Walcott’s cross into the net, but his positioning is superb that he will not need to run to cover the defense. Watch this guy again, you will agree with me.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:58 pm
i love uk football and i love this site!