MOHAMED ELNENY
Every month the Arsenal Magazine brings you the complete Gunners guide to members of our first team squad.
This time it's the turn of Egypt international Mohamed Elneny.
FROM EVERY ANGLE
Name: Mohamed Elneny
Position: Midfield
Squad number: 35
Nationality: Egyptian
Born: El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Egypt, July 11, 1992
Joined Arsenal: from Basel on January 14, 2016
Previous clubs: Joined Arsenal: from FC Basel on January 14, 2016
Arsenal debut: v Burnley (h) FA Cup, January 30, 2016 (won 2-1)
First Arsenal goal: v Barcelona (a) Champions League, March 16, 2016 (lost 3-1)
Arsenal honours: Community Shield 2015
Egypt caps: 40 (3 goals)
Twitter: @ElNennyM
Not every player has the luxury of playing behind someone like Mesut Ozil, so the ones who do will be quick to tell you how easy those stars make the game for everyone else. For David Hillier, that star was Anders Limpar.
A diminutive playmaker for Arsenal between 1990 and 1994, Anders was the first face David looked for as soon as he had won the ball back in midfield. Within moments of passing the ball, he knew the Super Swede would find Alan Smith and Smudger would, inevitably, find the net. It was as simple as that, but that statement is not meant to undersell David’s talents – far from it. Although the former England Under-21 international’s performances in that shielding role may have gone under the radar at the time, he was an important part of the Arsenal side that won the 1991 First Division title with only a single defeat.
Fast-forward 25 years and, even though modern teams have moved on from using an orthodox 4-4-2 with two central midfielders, the shielding role remains the same at Arsenal. While Mesut Ozil and Alexis have been given licence to cause chaos up front, Arse?ne Wenger has entrusted a quartet of central midfielders to provide cover and launch attacks from deep. The obvious current candidate for David’s role back in day might be Francis Coquelin but, even though the former Gunner can see a lot of his own qualities in the tough-tackling Frenchman, he believes his game has more in common with Mohamed Elneny’s.
“I was probably a bit more of a deeper player than him but, like me, he probably turns himself off a little bit when he gets into the final third,” David explains. “He doesn’t make those forward runs because he knows his role is to stay back. It’s a disciplined job and he’s a good passer too. “In that sense, we’re quite similar because I always thought that I could pass a little bit. He probably intercepts more than I did as I was much more of a tackler, but that’s the nature of the game now. Elneny, Coquelin, Mustafi and Koscielny would all rather try to intercept than make the tackle but that’s also because the rules have changed.”
It’s not just Mohamed’s interceptions that have caught David’s eye. Just four months into his Arsenal career,
the Egypt international broke Santi Cazorla’s Premier League record for most successful passes in a single game during 2015/16 with 122
against Watford. Couple that with the fact that Mohamed averaged 12km a game – more than any other Gunner last season – and you’ve got a player following the same football philosophy as David.
“Stefan Schwarz always used to tell me, ‘Do what you can do, not what you want you to do’,” he laughs. “It’s good advice because football’s a simple game and there’s no need to complicate it. That’s where we’ve seen players get into trouble this season but Mohamed’s never had that problem because he keeps his game so simple. “He knows it’s down to the players in front of him to try to be creative. Arse?ne Wenger makes sure that players don’t get into the wrong areas because he knows that trying to attack quickly can leave his side exposed.
“They’ve got to do everything from a safe base and Mohamed provides that. It’s important that he’s disciplined enough to pass the ball to others. Now
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