Why Arsenal Have to Sign a DM this January! by AT
A lot of the blame for Arsenal’s dismal form so far this season has been focused on the lack of defensive depth and stability in the Gunners squad. While we could definitely do with a new centre-back or even two, there is another aspect of our defensive set up that needs more immediate attention considering our current situation. In my opinion, the Arsenal squad is in more desperate need of a defensive midfielder.
Jack Wilshere has recently had surgery and will be out for at least three months, and possibly more. Mikel Arteta needs to once again recuperate from a recurring calf problem and does not look likely to play a lot of games this season, leaving Arsenal with just two out-and-out central midfielders in Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini. With Abou Diaby continuing to be plagued by his injury curse and considering how Ramsey and Flamini aren’t the fittest of players themselves, I think Wenger has to definitely dip in to the market in January.
While the market may not have many options and although prices are likely to be inflated in January, I believe that we need another midfielder coming in to add more stability to the squad. If Wenger manages to get his hands on a world-class enforcer, it will go a long way in getting us set and steady for the new campaign next season. Now although that is unlikely, the North London side at least need to bring in a player on loan, like how Kim Kallstrom was broght in last season. But this time, the situation is even more desperate.
Looking at how the fixtures are going to come thick and fast in December and January, there are bound to be more casualties, especially in the middle of the park. With Flamini likely to play a lot of games this campaign, the Frenchman is likely to pick up a lot of suspensions as well. The most ideal solution is to sign a world-class defensive midfielder in January, but if that isn’t possible, Wenger has to at least make an emergency loan signing in January and then go in for a renowned midfield workhorse in the summer transfer window.
But who?
Anurag
Where is Diaby?
The eternal excuse for not bringing a DM…
I think it is nice and “cosy” to be an Arsenal player.
Arteta will get a new deal (if he did not already) when he is basically done as a footballer.
Mertesacker got a 2 years extension… A “dead” CB, but still good enough for Arsenal as we are an average team.
Rosicky still wonders why he is at the club, so is Campbell and Podolski.
Wislhere went on the table , again, after completing 90mins in 9 months.
That is Wenger Arsenal, just a load a crap and from a club on the verge of greatness in 2006 to being a silent participant in every competitions and challenging for nothing.
A huge stadium and fans spending like mad on merchandises and expensive seats… Fantastic investments for someone (Kroenke) who wants to make a buck and nothing else.
Our Arsenal director, Gazidis comes from the MLS… Just laughable !!!
Per is one of the better cb in this leauge so what does that say about the rest?
Arteta isn’t finish he is amodel pro and still a master in posession arguably the 2ndbest deep laying playmaker behind cesc in England
@ Lockay
You are the guy on this site who say the truth with the best words.keep on bro.
If Wenger is serious he should take 50mil and dump it at Southampton’s door for both Morgan and Wanyama we now need drastic measures for our team to move forward!
they would turn that down.
schneiderlin is pivotal now
I would take Morgan, but there’s always a risk, you saw what happened to Lallana at Liverpool, but we still need bodies we don’t have. But 50 million ? No, even for both of them its far too much. Prices in football seem to have blinded people. Not every decent player costs 30 million, just cause liverpool are willing to pay those money (Carroll, Lallana, Luke Shaw at United).
saying arsenal should get a dm is like saying…
i should eat at some point this week
i should inhale air
Haha. Yaa. The first thing i thought after seeing the title was DUHHH.
DM is a must for Arsenal
I don’t think Arteta is done as a footballer. He still contributes to the team maybe not that much but it still is significant. For Mert he is not suitable for the style of play off EPL. If he was in another league he can be helpfull to the team. The Epl style of fast game is really bad for him. Hopefully a new CB will arrive in january.
This is intended as a reply to LoCKAy
But the Mert/Koscielny pairing was fairly decent last season, we had the joint most cleansheets… We just need to change our tactics for the big teams and our defense should be alright… Although I still want another cb come january.
Not good against the big five, it was clearly that they were targeting Mert … and this season everybody knows the trick to penetrate our defense ..
Do yoy reckon that he is the same per who kept tge highest number of cleansheets in the EPL alongside kos? Can a person turn from veing owesome to be oweful in that short space of time?.
Mert would be excellent in Spain he is techniqualy very sound for a centre back it’s very rear he gives the ball away and I’ve seen him make clever movement. If anything he isn’t suited to arsenals high line without a fast dm to cover or a ivanozvic zabaleta type to his right we have very Attack minded full backs wich doesn’t help in chelsea formation he would look imperious
**facepalm
Please, as if Mert would ever start at Chelsea.
Per was amongst the best statistically in the prem last season him and kosc partnership was just as good as terry and Cahill give him some credit. I was talking stil of play when mentioning chelsea. How often do teams counter them? Why? Because they are organised you don’t need to be quick to play cb at chelsea
Wenger will re-sign Kallstrom (forgot spelling) or get someone like Grareth Barry on the cheap.
IKrychowiak
I firmly believe that Wenger signing Kallstrom was like when your dad caught you smoking and made you smoke until you were sick.
“Oh so you want transfers??? well have Kallstrom then!
Wenger mutters to self ‘that’ll shut em up…’
While I agree that we absolutely need a younger top-class DM, I do think the key to being defensively solid is: to create a system that will make the team press and defend as a unit.
We did something similar last season, didn’t we? We were absolutely solid defensively most of the time, not just in defense, but in the midfield also. Except we didn’t really press enough -especially in the big games.
The need for a DM is that certain!
I mean, no need for discussing it. Flamini, Arteta and Diaby are in the last years of their contracts. And Wenger isn’t offering a renewal, yet! Except if he turns around and pulls an ‘Arsene Wenger’ (see Kim Kallstrom).
Coquelin isn’t even trusted enough by Wenger!
But won’t KRYCHOWIAK affect Diaby’s development?
Is diaby a human that guy is not supose to be in Arsenal he like a west to me I don’t know why wenger is still keeping that dead body
It has been so many years of transfer rumours linking us with a DM. See the DMs we’ve passed by (in nearly chronological order)
M’vila
Capoue
Tiote
Diame
McCarthy
Wanyama
Bender
Martinez
Gustavo
Schneirdelin
…
Of those only gustavo would have made sense the last couple of season
Mills,Wanyama,schnederlin,McCarthy were still very raw in terms of ability
Capoue has hardly featured for Spurs
Tiote, Diame will hardly get any better
Bender has been shocking since 2012 season
Martinez we could never afford him 32m at the time he left
Time has moved on and now we should go all out for krychowiak
…… And if Arsenal loses 3-0 to 9 men man city with wanyama and schniederlin in the team you will start your song again of wenger out for buying deadwood. The fact that saints have the best defense is down to how they defend together as a team not defensive performances of wanyama and schniederlin. So do not go over the top about these players.
Actually, the performance of the centre (defensive) mids is crucial in the systems most top english teams play. Everton (McCarthy & Barry), City (Toure, Fernandinho), Chelsea (mostly Matic), So’ton (Wanyama, Schneiderlin) all make sure they cover the areas the fullbacks are leaving behind bombing forward and also link up very well with the more attacking-minded players. Ramsey was amongst the best centre mids last year, but him joining attack more and more, leaving Arteta and Flamini exposed in the defensive department have costed us various goals this season already.
Morgan Schneiderlin has delivered excellent stats in the past 2 seasons so I really don’t understand why you think anyone is going ‘over the top’ about him.
I say, get two CBs, and slot Chambers in DM posn., until summer, and go for a big name in summer.
Chambers very good defensively at CB, he has some experience at CDM, his passing is good, this would be perfect experiment to try. So we should rely on him until summer.
For CBs get Schar and Van Dijk.
Schneiderlin and Krychowiak are the perfect targets for Arsenal, though the first one is very unlikely. Good alternatives in my view are Tiote and Gustavo but I don’t really know if we should go for them.
Gustavo would be very interesting he plays dm lb cb these are all position we need to strengthen.
I don’t think Gustavo likes Arsenal very much.
Very good ain’t the word he is the best in euope at the moment
If you reread your comment you will notice that it is riddled with controversies. First you complain that Aserne did not sign Mvilla and the player ended up not getting into the team sheet of a Russian club! Should you not be thanking Wenger for not wasting money on an overhyped player. You complain that Wenger allowed Song to go who ended up at Westham. Afain arw you not supposed to be frateful that Arsene got15 million pounds for a player good enough to Westham?
Second you try to draw comparisons between Arteta and other players who play in his position for rival clubs without bringing stats to the fore. I believe you watch chelsea and man city games. How many times does the opposition break those teams’ defence lines? Before you jump to this and that answer go to opta stats first. You will not believe youraelf at the number of opportunities which the opposition create against these teams only to be undone by wayward finishing. Also check the number of opportunities given away by the socalled shit arsenal players then you will start to appreciate those players.
What Arsenal needs is for offensive players not to forget the defensive duties. The bulk of goals conceded is down to offensive players suddenly losing the ball in attack and do nothing to stop counter attacks. In the BVB game we kept a clean sheet and conceded the highest number of fouls. If you go and watch that game again you will notice that most fouls were committed by our offensive players as they tried to stop counter attacks once we lost the ball. You go back to games where we conceded and ask yourself what would have happened if our offensive players had committed fouls to stop counter attacks. We would have beaten everton 2-1, lost tto chelsea 1-0, won against man city 2-1, beaten hull and leicester. So committing offences to break up play by our offensive players will go a long way in helping the defensive performance of the team.
If you watched the man city you would have noticed how yaya lost the ball high up the field leading to mangala’s red card. If mangala had nor taken that card for the team it would have veen 1-1. Same was the case with man city’s equalizer against baryen. Alonso made a wayward pass and the whole team was unable to recover. Losig the ball in attack and do nothing to stop countee attacks is a recipe for disaster irrespective of who is playing dm or backline.
Thank you at least somone has sense on this site. Even when we played chelsea flamini was excellent but all u here was matic a55 ki55ing. And he had an average game. Even cesc was in his pocket for most of that game except the assist
Arteta was excellent against Man U but again Rooney got praised for marking him out the game
Spend 70mill in January DM a must and defenders a must. BFG has played a lot of games so he needs a rest. PLZ go to West Ham and get our boy back end of
This season is not over yet don’t no why but it’s kind of funny how no team is is banging at the door apart from the blues. They will drop points and now man city are just coming back it puts pressure in them. AW needs to spend or the pen pushers need to say AW who do u want we will get and we are selling theses players.
totally 40m for a DM and 30m on a Centreback…
Piss poor analysis comes to mind when reading that
Flamini is excellent in possession this season 92% accuracy he was also the best player on the pitch in the chelsea game.and he plays a very discipline game he is also a organiser and a leader on the pitch
Arteta who is physcically week shrugged of van pu55y in the Manu game and is well known for the tactical foul. He is also immaculate in possession amongst the best in Europe although he ain’t suited to every game we play he is an important piece of the arsenal possession game.
Who said anything about starting 11 I’m justifying why they are valuable squad members unlike you who shone down on them there are few dm out there who can pass the ball to arsenal standard hence making the search difficult it was wenger who last January bid for matic allowing chelsea to be notified and snapped him up So I’m confident wenger will go for the right guy if he intends to sign one in January.