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Why Arsenal should stick with Bendtner

Thursday, 26 March 09, 08:02 AM

Nicklas Bendtner, lately he has become the laughing-stock of Ashburton.  I have been laughing the hardest of all, however, it will be no laughing matter when one of his gilt-edged chances goes wide, and we lose 1-0.  'But Goonbagger' I hear you cry, 'I thought you were defending Bendtner'.  Oh indeed tortured reader, I am.  Let me explain, while you read on incredulously at how much of a futile and ultimately fruitless life I am due to have.  I was out last night, I was exceedingly bored.  So to pass the time I imagined that the table was a football pitch.  There were three drinks on the table, two schooners at the end, and a coke and burbs in the middle.  So soon enough I started thinking, to myself of course.  'Ok, the schooners are defenders, the coke and burbs is an attacker, my elbow is the ball and the feeder' what line should the attacker run, for the coke and burbs to outwit the schooner and get the elbow/ball and be through on goal.  Each time the drinkers took a swig of their drinks the position changed, and I was again faced with another algorithm to find the best line to run, best place to change angle and how to try to make the coke and burbs get free with an avenue for the ball to get to them.  I found it very difficult.

I have always considered myself to be a football thinker, rather than football doer.  I have been known to process a play before I play the ball out, I can see plays.  Can I shoot? No.  Can I beat a man? No.  Can I pass a ball? Yes.

But as I sat, and stared at the table, trying to see a play where the burbs and coke could get away from those schooners, I was puzzled, granted, I am not a striker.  But I thought, finishing can be taught.  Scoring goals can be taught, often it is a mindset, or just down to form.  Finding so many chances, like Nicklas Bendtner, cannot be taught, it is not form.

Bendtner has so many chances per game, this does not mean that it is ok that he misses them, it’s not, and he should be finishing them.  But you do not get so many chances if you do not understand the game, are able to read it, then the goals will come.  Goals often come with maturity, getting in the right position, outwitting markers, finding yourself with a chance in the box.  This is not maturity.  This is footballing skill, and Mr Bendtner has in buckets.

So do not hate Bendtner, yes, he may miss goals that your grandmother could have scored, but could your grandmother read the game, and get into the right position to have a shot like Bendtner.  This is why he deserves to stay, and have the chances at Arsenal.

So I am starting the Society for the Appreciation of Nicklas Bendtner's Crap Finishing but Great Build-up Play.  Or the SACNBCFGBP.  Join Now.

 

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Posted by Gregoir | Comments (4)