Aaron Ramsey has been thriving since his return to central midfield, and received plenty of praise from Chelsea and Liverpool legends Frank Lampard and Jamie Carragher following his performance against Aston Villa. Carragher even went as far as to suggest Ramsey was set to become the new Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard, but there were a few areas of his game that were still lacking.
Whether Gerrard is an accurate comparison or not is questionable, but you can certainly see the similarities in Ramsey and Lampard’s games. The former Chelsea and Manchester City star loved to start his runs from deep, arriving late in the box for a tap in. We regularly see this kind of thing from Aaron Ramsey too, especially when he’s deployed in central midfield as opposed to on the flanks.
Lampard was full of praise for the Welshman, and backed him to continue improving as his career progressed (via The Telegraph).
Speaking on Monday night football ahead of the Leicester City vs Chelsea game, one thing the punditry pair suggested Ramsey was missing was defensive discipline.
His forward runs and desire to get into the box often see him neglecting his defensive duties, and when utilised as one half of a midfield pair this is something he just can’t afford to do.
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Against teams like Aston Villa this isn’t always an issue, as Petr Cech, our defence, and our defensive midfielder – even when it is Mathieu Flamini – are more than capable of snuffing out any attacks. When we’re up against the likes of Manchester City or Leicester however, who have a far more potent attack, we need our midfielders to be doing their defensive duties.
If we had someone like Francis Coquelin remaining disciplined in front of the defence things may change slightly, but with Flamini currently our only option, we need Ramsey to show his maturity.
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He would do well to replicate Lampard’s achievements, especially in the goalscoring department, but it would be better to see him realise his own potential rather than aspiring to be like a Chelsea or Liverpool legend.
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