“Apart from Kieran Tierney, I’m looking to change three or four of them” Arsenal urged to revamp their defence

Paul Ince has singled out Kieran Tierney as the best of the bunch among Arsenal’s defenders in this campaign and says they need new players in that area of the team.

The Gunners have had a troubled season and their defence has been a problem spot for them.

With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struggling for form, goals have been hard to come by, but they have also conceded cheap goals throughout the campaign.

Tierney has continued to stand out at the back as the Scotsman goes about his defensive and attacking duties with minimal fuss.

His performance hasn’t gone unnoticed by Ince who said apart from him, Arsenal needs to revamp their defence.

He named Calum Chambers and Rob Holding as two players who are not of Champions League standard and need to be replaced if the Gunners are serious about a return to the top four.

The former Manchester United, Liverpool and England star told Premier League productions via the Metro: ‘I still think defensively they are poor. 

‘If you look at the defence, apart from Kieran Tierney, I’m looking to change three or four of them.

‘No disrespect to Holding or Chambers or Luiz but if you want to go forward… you see where they are in the table. 

‘This team should be competing for Champions League places so there’s four of five new players they need to bring in to that team.’

The Gunners added Gabriel Magalhaes and Pablo Mari in recent transfer windows and fans will expect more of the same type of transfers in the summer.

Tags Kieran Tierney Paul Ince

16 Comments

  1. Arsenal has 22 players on long term contracts including all the defenders bar Luiz.
    Holding and Chambers are on the lowest salaries are no fuss and are home grown so are the least likely to be moved on.
    Because no one will give up their fat salary we are stuck with our defense including Bellerin Cedic Mari Gabriel Saliba Torreira Mavropanos and Kolasinac.
    A 2nd LB and third LB cover is our greatest need.
    It depends on the EL.
    Win it and a spend can be justified by the needs of the CL campaign and because the club can be seen to be progressing
    If we don’t win the EL then a loan LB might be the sum total of our summer business.

  2. Only 3 or 4?

    I would change 3 or 4 goalkeepers
    Ryan, iliev, runarrson

    3 or 4 defenders
    Kolasinac, Bellerin, Luiz, Cedric

    3 or 4 midfielders
    Ceballos, xhaka, elneny

    And 3 or 4 forwards
    Willian, Nketiah, Aubameyang

  3. An upgrade in defence is there for Arsenal in the form of Mavropanos. He is certainly better than Luiz, Holding, and Gabriel. They also have Saliba and Ballard on loan. They dont need to spend millions on a new defender. I believe Mavropanos should be the long term addition to the Arsenal defence. The lad is a beast.

  4. Realistically our defensive situation is the least of my concerns…if things had been handled differently and we had chosen to start the rebuild this season with Gabe, Saliba, Mavro, Mari, Tierney, Chambers, Cedric and even Bellerin, we could have achieved similar results, especially with our defensive-centric tactics, while simultaneously beginning the much-needed developmental process…at least by season’s end we would have learned something about who we could roll with and who simply didn’t make the grade…either way, providing our younger defenders with significant minutes would have almost assuredly increased their respective values should we want to move on

    …on a side note, if we had kept Martinez, his commanding presence would have allowed us to pursue this course of action in a much more responsible manner

    of far greater concern is the state of our midfield and how our deficiencies in this area, combined with our naïve tactics, have negatively affected our ability to produce consistently in the final third….should we grow a pair and finally offload Xhaka, the only players left from this season would be ESR, Partey and Elneny…Ceballos isn’t worth the considerable investment and Ode is a longshot at best…as for our on-loan players, it appears that AMN is on his way out, Guendo is a coin toss proposition and an incredibly polarizing figure and Willock might have burned his bridges due to his comments since leaving the Emirates

    so besides Azeez, who hasn’t been given any real-world opportunities, and our likely financial constraints, it’s difficult to see a logical way forward…as such, I’m worried that we will not only have Xhaka, but both Elneny and Dani in the fold come the start of next season…if this is the case, mark my words, things will end horribly again

  5. Why doesn’t Paul Ince offer his advice to the clubs he used to play for?
    I don’t want to look as if I am shooting the messenger; however Arsenal has plenty of its own great players to offer advice.

    1. He will not take advice from anyone only PEP and he is our opposition so he will not listen to you

    2. ozzie, Though I instinctively think as you do on this one, the fairer side of my brain argues that anyone is entitled to give his/her opinion on anything.

      And Ince was at least a considerable and brave warrior type player. He is also best mate to Wrighty, so I propose to let him have his say with pleasure! After all, he is not wrong. Is he!

  6. Do we have defenders already? Yes but for next season apart from the left back which we’ll have to buy.
    We need Bisouma in the MF and I know ESR will revert back to AM because I doubt odegard will stay. A clear picture is emerging for the strike force.So, who is the problem we have? Leno, no disrespect will not man the post for my village team, he’s not my type, he’s not good enough forget the stats, it’s rubbish, his timing is poor and he has a way of not stressing for the ball while driving and if he does, he’s always on his knees even before the ball is played. He never covers his blind side of the post. Long live Matinez. Even MA knows he shot himself on the leg letting arsenal keeper live for 20 million.

    1. Didn’t he give himself the title of “The Governer” while at manure?
      Fergie soon put him in his place 😊😊😊

      I thought we had solved our defensive issues?
      We probably have, if VL’s comments on Saliba, Mavro, Chambers, Tierney… plus Holding, Bellerin, Mari and Suares…. all we need is cover for the LB position and this is where I disagree – Xhaka and Saka could both deputise for Tierney, while we work on midfield and attacking transfers.
      Leno has a more than adequate cover in Ryan, who I would like to see given an extended run, in order to assess him properly.

  7. We’ve have conceded one of the fewest goals in the premiere league this season.
    And if you consider that most of those goals have been self inflicting and needless. And not due to defensive collapse or frailties like it used to be in the past.
    So, what is ince talking about.

    Everyone just want to have something to say about Arsenal.

    We have performed most woefully in attack this season and that is where we have come short and placed where we are now.
    Defence is certainly not one of our problems, we can only get better in that department. Not necessarily change the whole personnel.

    He is certainly talking nonsense.

    1. G Peter, Have you ever considered, by contrast, how awful it would be when NO ONE wants to talk about Arsenal? Perhaps you might consider that and then rethink! After all, freedom of speech is a hard won and easily lost gift, Id say!

  8. So Ince (our new manager?) says “I’m looking to change 3 or 4 of them”. Since when did he have so much power at our club?
    In my opinion, our best back four is Chambers, Holding, Mari and Tierney. Cedric is decent cover for RB and Chaka is decent cover for LB.

  9. we certainly dont need to buy to CB’s. Have to work with what we have. The only defensive position I would buy is RB because Bellerin is the best we have and thats far from good enough.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors