Never understood this myth about Diarra tbh, he's always looked pretty ordinary to me
Diarra is incredibly good, just more expensive than Denilson/Song so Wenger though he could go. Was superb at Pompie and has been superb when played at Real. The main reasons he hasn't got enough games at Real are the owners buying "superstar" players, new expensive players end up getting played, or bought, no matter what the team actually needs, its Real's classic problem for a decade, owners going after whoever was most popular in the summer like Khedira, despite the fact he was rubbish.
People had a go at his passing, its because unlike Denilson, who people raved about his passing percentage, he tries to pass somewhere actually useful. 95% passing rate sideways, slowing attacks and leading to rubbish football, or 70-80% passing rate driving forwards, attacking, scoring goals and winning games, thats the problem, too many people have got into this Denilson/Song type footballer is great mindset. He also has a very wide range of passing, he'll ping it from the right wing inbehind the defence on the left wing, or a throughball into the box, or, whatever, Song/Denilson types rarely pass over 10 yards, and rarely anything unexpected or attempt anything to someone who isn't in a tonne of space.
Diarra appears less tidy, will give the ball away more, but is ultimately a massively massively more effective player, going forward and defending.
LEtting him go is the biggest mistake Wengers made at Arsenal so far, well letting him, Gilberto and Flamini go in favour of the two muppets is collectively his worst mistake.
Looks like Lucas might not be involved for us tonight because his wife is due to give birth
So that's Torres, Johnson, Poulsen and now possibly Lucas this season alone.
What are they putting in the water up there?
