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Gervinho isn’t exactly the most popular player at Arsenal right now – and with good reason. His decision making is poor, he is known for his poor or heavy touches and has missed the occasional sitter. And so when he left for the African Cup of Nations, Arsenal fans were relieved – however, his performances there have left Arsenal fans pondering – why is he so good for his country and so mediocre for club?
Well, as Jonathan Wilson pointed out in a recent article, “the Ivorians know that, for all his failings, he’s the best they’ve got and so it makes sense to try to get the best out of him; at club level, the attitude – among fans at least – seems to be to highlight his deficiencies so that he’s got rid of and replaced sooner rather than later.”
Gervinho is a confidence player which may be a bane – he’s not a Cristiano Ronaldo who thrives on being booed. He needs the love and support of his fans to do well. He’s not a bad player though – despite getting sent off in his Premier League debut, he went on to directly contribute to 9 goals in his next 11 games for Arsenal. He even had a good start this season directly contributing to 6 goals in his first 7 games with 5 of them being goals, which show that he can be a really good player when confident.
There is also the extra motivation which comes in playing for your nation, especially when your fans cheer you on. At this year’s cup, Gervinho has scored twice and assisted twice in 3 games leading to manager Arsene Wenger calling him the best player in Africa - “In the Africa Cup of Nations, the best player is Gervinho. It’s simple.” – which is true in a way. He was certainly the Ivory Coast’s best player. Gervinho had a good tournament last year too though he came back in low spirits having missed the crucial penalty in the final against Zambia, culminating in a poor end of season finish from the Ivorian.
Returning from Africa this season, however, he’ll be in much better condition both physically and mentally too and hopefully contribute to Arsenal’s push for a trophy – both the Champions League and the FA Cup – as well as a possible 3rd place finish. It would be wise to cheer him on rather than criticize or boo every move of his as a confidence player won’t benefit from constant jeering as we’ve seen with Marouane Chamakh, Andre Santos or even Emmanuel Eboue.
Gervinho is still in Wenger’s plans – if he is to succeed, he definitely needs the support of the fans to emulate the player who thrived in France two seasons ago.
