Martin Keown advises Freddie Ljungberg to drop big-name star.
Martin Keown is urging his former teammate Freddie Ljungberg to drop David Luiz for tomorrows game against the Canaries.
Arsenal named Ljungberg as their interim manager yesterday after Unai Emery was given the chop and faces his first test in the Premier League away to Norwich City on Sunday afternoon.
The biggest problem this season has been the defence which keeps leaking all kinds of goals.
As they head to struggling Norwich, there are fears that Emery may not have been the club’s problems, and Keown believes the same problem could spoil Ljungberg’s reign if they are not addressed.
The former Arsenal star reckons that he would start David Luiz on the bench if he was Ljungberg and name a central defence partnership of Sokratis Papasthadopolous and Calum Chambers.
“Whoever they decide to bring in after Freddie Ljungberg will be inheriting the same problems that Emery failed to fix,” Keown wrote for the Daily Mail.
“Their lack of solidity at the back, for example. For Norwich on Sunday, I’d have David Luiz on the bench.
“Sokratis and Calum Chambers would be my centre backs and I’d have Lucas Torreira deep in that midfield, patrolling that area in front of them.
“Get that triangle right, then build the team from there.”
Luiz has not been the signing many thought he would be. He really is a liability that brings very little to the team. The defence is more woeful this season than last and it cannot be a coincidence that Luiz has been a consistent presence in that defence.
The Brazilian has his supporters but I am not one of them, though I would not have Sokratis in the defence either.
It really will be interesting to see who Ljungberg selects tomorrow.