There is a thin line between being candid and gratuitous in
punditry. Being asked to critique the performance and psychology of players
every week invites flirtation with that dividing line, and it was one that
former Liverpool player and manager, Graeme Souness,
teetered on the edge of during the weekend.
Souness made headlines when mounting a very pointed
criticism of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on a day when the midfielder scored the second goal in an important 2-0 win at Bournemouth.
An eruption of quality, Oxlade-Chamberlain stroking home a wonderful shot from
Aaron Ramsey's pass, only provoked searching enquiries as to why he does not
produce such moments more consistently.
The question is unquestionably a legitimate one, but the way
Souness attempted to answer it made for stark viewing. It even brought to mindChris Waddle's famously acerbic observation of Theo Walcott:
"He just doesn't understand the game. I just don't think he has a football
brain."
But it is not Oxlade-Chamberlain's intelligence which
Souness doubts, rather the seriousness with which he treats the game and the
desire he exhibits.
"Does he [Oxlade-Chamberlain] take it seriously enough?
He always seems to be a bit of a joker," Souness said on Sky Sports.
"There is a player in there. It's stand up and be
counted time. He's 22, he should not be accepting, with the quality he has,
sitting on the bench and being a bit-part player. You've got to be banging down
the manager's door and saying 'I'm ready for this.' Is he prepared to do that?
I see him laughing and giggling a lot [in interviews]. I'd want him to be a bit
more serious and angry and upset with me, if I was the manager leaving him out."
It is becoming a consistent stick with which to beat the
22-year-old, who was also on the receiving end of criticism from Arsenal fans
recently when he was filmed dancing and mucking around ahead of the 0-0 draw
against Southampton.
The clip, tweeted by Arsenal, was described as "the
evidence the Ox will never make it," by one disgruntled supporter, with
another observing that "Tony Adams would have killed him if he saw that as
captain."
The instinctive reaction is to write these comments off, and
those of Souness, as frivolous and unjustified criticism. After all, football
teams have always had practical jokers. In that sense, Oxlade-Chamberlain is
merely playing a very well-established role, and an important one in terms of
the dressing room dynamic. Where once the banter of the team's court jester
would be performed in private, though, it is now being transformed into
"content" for club TV channels and ammunition for the likes of Souness
and those fans who won't tolerate enjoyment in the wake of a disappointing home
draw.
But if Souness picking on Oxlade-Chamberlain's gregarious
nature as evidence that the midfielder doesn't take football seriously seems a
touch unfair, his complementary line of attack arguably has some worth -- that
is, the suggestion Oxlade-Chamberlain does not get angry enough when he is not
playing for Arsenal.
After all, the clip of him dancing in the tunnel came before
a match in which he failed to even get off the bench, despite Arsene Wenger
being desperate for a breakthrough at the Emirates. Looking at the season as a
whole, it is not unreasonable to suggest that Oxlade-Chamberlain has acquiesced
all too easily after being nudged off the ball when Mauro Zarate scored in a 2-0
win for West Ham on the opening weekend of the campaign and immediately losing
the first-team spot he seemed to have earned with his goal against Chelsea in
the Community Shield.
After all, Paul Gascoigne spent his career "laughing
and giggling" in interviews, but he also
trashed Glenn Hoddle's hotel room after being told he would not
be in the squad for the 1998 World Cup.
Being outwardly jovial is not in itself a problem. But it
takes on an unflattering hue if it is not backed up with the burning desire to
convince your manager he is wrong to leave you out; if you just accept your
fate. From a distance it is impossible to say for certain what motivations burn
within Oxlade-Chamberlain, but some of what Souness had to say during the
weekend had the ring of truth to it.
It may also have struck a nerve. There was an interesting piece in The Sun this week, carrying
no quotes from the player but confidently asserting that "Arsenal star
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is fed up being Arsene Wenger's fall guy."
The headline described him as "sick and tired,"
with Oxlade-Chamberlain said to be "running out of patience on the
Emirates periphery."
Coming in the wake of Souness' comments, it painted a rather
different picture than that of the man dancing in the tunnel. It was certainly
a conveniently timed reminder that Oxlade-Chamberlain is a serious man with
serious ambitions; a player who doesn't just want to sit on the bench.
But the best way to prove it beyond doubt, and shut the
pundits up, is to show that kind of fire on the pitch and make it so he can't
be dropped.
Source:
www.espnfc.com
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