http://arsenal-mania.com/articles/3104980/Alex-Song-roaring-in-Ghana.html
Cameroon has made it to the final of the African Nations where
they are expected to play Côte D'Ivoire or Egypt after beating
hosts Ghana 0-1 in the semi-finals.
Alex Song predictably was on the bench for Cameroon's first game
against Egypt in the group stages being a young player who is not
in the first team at his club. However, Cameroon leaked 4 goals
against Egypt in that game. Most notably in that game was the fire
counter-attacking by Egypt that led to swift goals.
Cameroon's midfield was incapable of stopping the flow of Egypt
in that game. Being a proud footballing nation, there was a lot of
discontent in the Cameroon media leading to some changes in the
second game.
Alex was promoted and has played a defensive midfield role for
Cameroon for the last 4 games. He has been widely seen in Cameroon
as their best performer in the tournament. Alex is a conservative
player like Gilberto and Marc Vivien Foe whose position he has
taken in Cameroon. He mops up and rarely gets involved in anything
else.
However, during the quarter-finals against Tunisia he had
clearly gained enough confidence in himself and from the team to
start going forward a little. He also seemed the only person in the
Cameroon midfield that could combine well with Eto'o. He set-up a
goal with a cross for his second assist in the tournament against
Tunisia and has grown in confidence since.
In today's game against Ghana I was looking forward to seeing
how he would cope against Essien to assess his level.
Unfortunately, Essien had to play in centre-back for Ghana but Alex
stood out in his maturity, tackling, understanding and one-touch
passing.
Cameroon played with dreadfully boring long balls so the
Cameroon midfield was rarely involved in creative play but were
constantly required for defensive situations and Alex was very
impressive.
I was kind of hoping Cameroon would lose so he could come back
and support Arsenal's depleted midfield but it will be a good test
for him against either the Ivorian or Egyptian midfield.
As I said before, Alex is much more like Gilberto than Flamini.
Arsenal's style is better adapted for Flamini at the moment because
the team defends as a whole and attacks together. Flamini is as
involved in attack as he is with closing down defensively. In
addition, Arsène Wenger has been trying Alex at centre-back so
maybe Wenger believes his long term-future is at centre-back.
He has good qualities for a defensive midfielder and a
centre-back. He has very good positional sense; he rarely goes to
ground when tackling and he closes players out to stop opposition
momentum rather than tackle them and tackles them only if he thinks
he will be beaten.
So he is very much like Gilberto – he gives fouls away without
getting a yellow card and usually not in dangerous positions. He
makes sure the tackle or closing down happens before it gets to a
dangerous position – I must say he has to improve this part of his
game.
It may yet happen that he plays at centre-back in the final
since Andre Bikey of Reading who plays centre-back for Cameroon was
sent off during the Ghana game. I also noticed that Alex was
limping at the final whistle so we have to wait and see.
I look forward to him coming back. This may be one case where
the African Nations Cup has helped Arsenal give a player good
playing time.
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unlikely hero sia!
wondering he is mature enough to be in the 1st team after ANC
tournament.