VA Young Player Of The Year - Samir Nasri

I'd be tempted to side with Bendtner ... though will not argue with either Nasri or Denilson. It's Sami's first season in England and he really looks the part, as LD says, not the greatest return but he's worked hard to be an integral part of the squad. Denilson has done a great job of filling a void left by Flamini, he played the most minutes and played them well. But Nicky wins it for me simply because of his goal scoring, and he did so under the most adverse conditions, he wasn't just battling with oppo defenders, but (when playing at home) his own fans. The guy is mentally tough and has done brilliantly.

So what do we think given your comments about Denilson? Should he be our first choice midfielder alongside Cesc next season? In other words, we shouldn't therefore buy another more experienced central midfielder?

I'm quoting a comment on another site i stumbled across : http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/?p=790#comments It a pretty balanced site comparable to this one for the good sense of the articles/comments: 2007/8 Flamini (Full EPL season) Tackles won 104 (lost 61) success rate 63% Pass Interceptions 57 Passes 1,501 (successful 90%) Assists 2 Goals 1 2008/9 Denilson (Full EPL season) Tackles won 103 (lost 28) success rate 79% (5th in the league for won total) Pass interceptions 155 (best in the League) Passes 2,533 (successful 87%) best in the league Assists 7 (7th) Goals 3 Fouls won 78 (4th in League - Ronaldo had 79) Champions league he was 2nd in Passing and 2nd in tackling across all of Europe. Vieira and Gilberto have described him (this year) as an amazing player. Even Arshavin said he was MOM against Portsmouth in leading such a young team to dominance. So the question must be raised that as a young man that has just turned 21 what more should he have done this year? Yet still some fans fail to give him any credit. I would be utterly amazed if AW dropped him in favour of some mythical “monster” CDM that some are baying for. There is simply no one out there that comes close to what he does in tackling and especially intercepts (some are good at one or the other but few at both). And he chips in well as a DCM with goals and assists to boot. Song has had a good year playing in a variety of roles and is better than Denilson in the air and brings a more physical presence that so many fans want. But he does not have the same positioning and all round game as Denilson, hence he is more likely to be used as no 2 DCM and also backup CD. AW will also use him with Denilson when he wants to DCM’s (tried on a few occasions this year) Lastly Denilson has only once been called up to the full Brazil squad - when Gilberto was ill. So this is in many ways a positive (fewer games and less travel). He is the only first team player that is not (yet) in his national squad. But it is interesting that at the beginning of this season AW told Gilberto that he would be no 2 to Denilson, hence Gilberto moved to Greece, to ensure he would still have a regular first team football. When will Dunga of Brazil also wake up to fact of who is the better player? and oh..Happy Bday LD

Check this out: http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/?p=758#comments..LMAO

As for Denilson his stats are very impressive and id have him over Flamini anyday the problem most people fail to recognise is we fell apart at the tail end of last season and "monster" Flamini was playing. Neither him or Denilson can defend the aerial ball like Gilberto, Vieira or Petit and we have missed that incredibly especially given that our 1st choice centre back pairing is pretty small.

I can't wait to see Cesc and Nasri in a middle three again. They look immense together, but we need to sort out the defensive balance.

He played when we lost to Birmingham, drew with Villa, Wigan and Middlesbrough, the loss to Chelsea and the two 1-1 draws with Liverpool.