Arsenal have suffered a glut of injuries to defenders in the first third of the season, but the one player that is yet to kick a ball is our captain Laurent Koscielny, who has had serious Achilles injuries over the last two seasons. There is a real possibility that he will never be able to take to the field again for the Gunners, according to sports physiotherapy expert Luke Anthony. He said on FootballLondon: “As you get older you recover less well,”
“Things just generally take a bit more time. So that is the biggest challenge he [Koscielny] will face from the injury.
“The second thing is the risk or re-rupture.
“There is a percentage of players who will re-rupture their repair at some stage.
“Generally they do it during the first six months and he must be coming through that now, so that risks reduced a little bit.
“Once you get through that the next challenge you have is to get back to your previous level and in his case this isn’t someone knocking it about in the lower leagues, this is a player playing top level Premier League football.
“So achieving that pre-injury level is very tough and it is a big challenge because you put stress on your body when it hasn’t been stressed like that for a long time.
“That’s when you see a lot of players pick up secondary injuries, whether it be a hamstring, groin or though injury.
“No matter how hard you try when you’re injured to keep your conditioning up, inevitably that will drop off and players will injure different body parts.”
It is a fact that we have many older defenders right now, so can we carry on hoping that we can patch together a back line in every game? Or should we make it a priority to buy another centre-back this January?
Let him go. We have 2 experienced center backs in sokratis and mustafi. 2 Very good young CB in holding and our other Greek CB. We also have a Callum chambers who at times looks very promising. 6 CBs and other young CBs who may also progress. No need to spend millions on another one. Unless it is a world beater
Needed to replace him before the season started, probably a season back we could’ve done with replacing him. Some say Sokratis replaced him, you could look at it that way, I don’t. Or some thought he might be a quick fix until Kos came back. And some see Mustafi as the one needing to be replaced. But allot thought Callum might be of use this season, myself included, but it’s Holding that’s being utilized. Sokratis was brought in to add some grit. Holding has grit, so that could tell us something. I don’t know, maybe Kos will have some use this season, but reading from that expert, it didn’t sound too promising. He (Kos) does need to be replaced though, because he’s not apart of our future.
What the expert said was all proven theories.But even he could not 100% say that Kos will not have a significant impact upon all his assessment knowing that there’s a possibility of that.We must sell him when the time is right and currently this is far far from the right time with our CB’s not being hood enough.His speed and vigour might be reduced but quality wise he’s still our best CB by far.Hence he must be given a chance to prove himself if he’s good enough or not.
He does need replacing, but unlikely in January. Over the next two transfer windows, the absolute priorities have to be: CB, RW, and a playmaker.
These are all theories which are true.However, he to me I’d still like him to be given a chance this season as we are in a defensive crisis.Its not like our CB’s are good enough.The next CB signing we make is going to be very crucial to our future.We cannot afford to sign an average or overrated CB.Kos imo given the opportunity can do better than Mustafi and even Holding.If he was at his at best the gap i quality between him and them wouldve been huge.Even not at his best I still know hes not our worst CB at all.Just because he had this injury it doesn’t mean he should lose his intelligence in defending.What this does is that it reduces the players speed and fitness level.Wishing him the best and hoping he makes a full recovery and starts for us.
likelihood is that Kos’ recovery will coincide with his sale in the not too distant future. He does have sell on value, right? However, i would like to see a serious bid put in for Harry Maguire (Leic) and abdoulaye doucouré (WAT) and this would bring us defensive stability and attacking-midfield promise…MUCH needed qualities if we’re to return to contesting the EPL and return to our position as champions league regulars.
We would probably get no money for any Kos sale at his age with chronic injury. Just PERHAPS a mere million or two but nowt to make much difference THAT IS CLEAR. Maguire will be well outside our price range too. He and Stones are now Englands clear two best and Maguires price will reflect that. Would love it but it won’t be happening
…regards Maguire i know its wishful thinking (from me) but when I see maguire i often think what if? same with the young french international i mentioned. On a real note we’re likely to see a return to the bargain basement – seemingly old habits die hard so far as afc recruitment model goes.
Maguire is very average and overrated
And look what basement as got us, the terrier and guendoza, 2 best signings in epl last window, holding also cost peanuts and again great player, why do ppl assume money buys better players
Except for maybe Sokratis, our CB’s are not good enough to play for a top team.
So we need to strengthen on that position, if we want to challenge for the title.
Holding and Mav are promising young centre backs who may make it at the top level.That said we do need a top quality centre half and upgrades at full back where we are equally weak.I very much doubt if any meaningful transfers will take place in January so we,’l just have to soldier on with our current squad until the summer window.
Sokratis n Holding will replace Koscielny… who need to replace is Mustafi
We need another RCB
Get Eric Bailly
I’m not writing off Arsenals defenders so easily, we have had to watch our defenders get let down time and time again by the CM that I feel it is unfair to judge their quality without protecting them…
Or we can look at the games Torreira has played in, the mins he has been on the pitch and see we do not let in bucketloads of goals.
Emery is getting our players to defend better as a team, the team looked tired last time they played (to me) but it is clear that Emery wants to get the team to press as soon as we lose the ball, this will have issues with it but we are getting better overall.
Who is to say Mustafi doesn’t cut out his silly mistakes after enough coaching from Emery? If he cuts out his mistakes then he is one of the better defenders in the EPL, he is a top quality player who is error prone… but lose the error side and he is a top player.
Holding has shown promise under Emery, who wants to say how well he will progress over the remainder of this season? I don’t want to say… He is proving many wrong already by being the man who stayed while Chambers went on loan.
Kos may not be able to play for long or at the highest level anymore, he might be able to play at the highest level but reduced gametime… He is quality in depth though.
Mavrop is an unknown under Emery, he looked good from the little we have seen so I will not say he isn’t good enough for next season, he might be. Not saying I am counting on him but I am not writing him off either, I want to know what Emery thinks and how well he can do in training/learning the def side.
Chambers shown promise last season, some was thinking Holding should go out on loan and Chambers to step into the starting lineup over Mustafi… If he is willing to fight for his spot when he comes back then this is yet another young CB…
I am happy to see how this season goes and for decisions to be made at a later date once we have more data.