What on earth is wrong with Marouane Chamakh?

by silverace99 on Aug 17, 2011 10:59 PM EDT

I just finished watching the replay of the Udinese game and am starting to get fed up. What in the blazes is going on with Chamakh?

When Wenger signed him last year I was thinking, "incredible steal!" He was winning aerial balls up high, he was pressuring the opponents' backline with energetic pressing, and his flank-to-flank drifting was doing wonders for ball retention and offensive flow. He even contributed on defense.

So who is this guy and what happened to the real Chamakh? All of the above skills of his seemed to have disappeared into thin air. At the end of last season we all attributed it to fatigue in his first EPL season. But he's had a full summer to rest. Even in the preseason friendlies against the likes of east asian slapped-together teams he looked invisible. There's no fire, no energy, no sense of competitiveness from him anymore.

I've vaguely heard whispers of personal problems, and I hope that's all it is....otherwise losing Bendtner is going to start looking like a disaster.

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I think holding on to Bendtner, at least for now, would be the smart thing to do. Perhaps his presence in the CL squad was an indication he will be around. Assuming the right deal isn’t in place now, why not hang on to him until January — and play him as a striker now & then — and then re-evaluate. There is often a sense of desperation in the January market due to injuries or unexpected circumstances, so it might work out better for all parties.

by King Oskar on Aug 18, 2011 2:57 PM EDT reply actions

He's a strange player

Very big and strong, but he doesn’t seem to like playing in the box or in front of goal. He like to drop deep, but he lacks the technique and vision to play effectively there. We needed a goalscorer when we signed him and he’s definitely not suited for that role.

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by LouisMurphy'sLaw on Aug 19, 2011 4:59 PM EDT reply actions

He must've caught whatever Arshavin had (or still has)

Just looks slow, lost, and un-confident. The thing I’ll never understand about professional athletes is when they get into a funk and then they just show no energy. If I was struggling, I run around, chasing the ball like a rabid dog chasing a rabbit.

by Loose Seal on Aug 19, 2011 5:48 PM EDT reply actions

same here, BUT that isn't necessarily a smart thing to do in pro ball.

On top of that, I have NO experience with playing in a huge stadium with 60,000 people staring down at you, so it’s not like I can pretend to underestand.

I just PRAY that he gets out of this funk or he’ll be worse than useless. As it stands now, our only usable dedicated forward is RVP, a dangerously low amount of depth. Even if Walcott and Gervinho can play striker, they don’t have the size to play a holding roll like Chamakh can, so we lose versatility.

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by silverace99 on Aug 19, 2011 5:55 PM EDT up reply actions

That's not how human nature works

Confidence is a very fragile thing, and there are very few people on the planet that can will their way to being more confident when they’re in a slump – in sports or in any other walk of life.

I have NO experience with playing in a huge stadium with 60,000 people staring down at you

This is what people forget – athletes are human beings. Pressure gets to them. It’s easy to say “they’re paid enough, they’re athletes, they should be able to deal with it”, but at the end of the day, being an athlete is their job. Think of it in terms of your job – when you’re under ridiculous amounts of pressure, do you always rise to the occasion, or work so hard that you end up rising to the occasion, or do you sometimes struggle a bit before you find your groove? Athletes are no different.

I don’t know what Chamakh’s problem is, but as silverace99 does, I hope he sorts it out soon enough.

by pdb on Aug 19, 2011 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions

Realistically, Chamakh, like Bendtner, will never fit in well at Arsenal

And that’s because they are all tall, slower moving forwards like van Persie. Basically we have three of the same player, RVP’s skill set puts him a level up on the others. In our formation and strategy, where if RVP is doing badly in a game and we need a boost, we need somebody smaller and faster, not the same build of person like Chamakh and Bendtner. Walcott is more than willing to fit into that role, Gervinho can also play there, but he’s probably better suited out on the wing. We’re also linked to Lazio’s Zarate, who appears to be pretty close to coming here because he’s not featuring for Lazio anymore (thank you Miroslav Klose), his profiles states him at 5’7" and 165 lbs, he scored 9 goals and 7 assists on 114 shots, so he’s pretty decent.

by UMDfutbol11 on Aug 19, 2011 7:42 PM EDT reply actions

are you all insane??

what are you talking about?chamak being inneffective didnt have any fire…itd..well dont you think you need to give him a game to play maybehe didnt get a start all season logn..i mean comonfirst part of sesaon best scorer in team every game and then when selfish van persie comes back he is kicked out of team..what the fuck?after that half season for a player not to get any more chance at all is more then frustrating..tal about personal problems,no this is the problem.give him a chance now and you will see..

by markos90 on Aug 20, 2011 12:04 PM EDT reply actions

Take a deep breath. Count to five. Try again.

by pdb on Aug 20, 2011 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

I don't think there has been a more appropriate comment

by Scrupio on Aug 20, 2011 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions

what, are you a fanboy or something?

And by the way Chamakh had a couple of easy preseason games to get warmed up and he flubbed them. This isn’t a “one game” thing. He’s been doing this for half a year now. Except now he doesn’t have the excuse of being tired after a summer of rest.

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by silverace99 on Aug 20, 2011 1:00 PM EDT up reply actions