Never give away stars halfway through the season!
As our defensive misery continues, the transfer window should have brought hope and positivity yet we have lost two out of two games, one the day after the transfer window and one a week or so later, yet we see that Tierney is injured and although Cedric is a good player at times, losing Luiz to a red card, Mari to injury, and Kolasinac and Saliba on loan, was it really clever for Arteta to also let Mustafi go permanently with just 6 months left on his contract?
I know Mustafi is a player that divides opinion and has made mistakes, but who hasn’t? He is human and he isn’t as much of a liability as Luiz is, if fans remember Luiz was awful before his shocker at Brighton and Manchester City and it was only once he was offered a contract extension and some words of advice that he changed his stance and became somewhat of a solid defender.
Yet people say Arteta had a good transfer window because he got rid of players and their wages, yet he failed to bring in any replacements for the three defenders he lost, that to me is poor management and business, because as we saw in the game after the deadline day, we immediately were put in trouble when we lost Leno and Luiz to red cards. Both for their stupidity although Luiz’s sending off was debatable.
So what I will say is you should never jump the gun and feel that you know what you are doing and that it is best for the club, because as karma comes back around you will be put into hard times and although Arteta thought he knew what he was doing I believe it would have been better to wait until the summer to let at least two of those defenders go, where it would have then given Arsenal a chance to scout and get some decent replacements in.
But yet again we struggle defensively and are left short, let’s just hope it doesn’t come at too much of a cost hey Gooners?
Shenel Osman
Better release a CB who doesn’t want to extend his contract, rather than keeping an unhappy/ unfocused player and he was on high salary as well
We’ve got good right-footed CBs in Holding, Luiz and Chambers. Luiz would likely be more consistent if he plays as the right CB or in three CB formation
How many games did he play?
Mari was on bench in our last game
We have so many CB’s. insane no. Of them
Articles this day’s is written just for writing sake
Holding, Gabriel,mari,luiz,chambers, How many CB’s should we have maybe 8 to 10 in a 25 man squad
Mustafi didn’t play much in this season, because of his injury and his decision to leave. Since Arteta chooses to play with two CBs, we just need maximum five CBs in the squad
We have at least 9 CBS on the books that I prefer to have over mustafi or Luiz.
Holding Gabriel Mari mavropanos saliba chambers Ballard McGuiness clarke.
Admittedly only 4 are currently available to us so Luiz has to make 5 and that is enough. But Let’s not forget we only have 15 league matches left this season and could easily go out of the Europa League by the end of February.
It was right to get musti off the payroll. We do have a cover. What we don’t have is quality cover up front. Need a young classy right back.
I will keep repeating that, at this moment in time, we have the second best defensive GA record in the PL.
So the “yet again we struggle defensively” is just feeding this false scenario.
The only area that we have failed to cover, is a natural left back for Tierney, which MA is capable for.
A very good goalkeeper, another right back and a new centre back have all been signed to compliment the players MA wanted to keep.
What we should be looking at, is why we aren’t scoring enough goals – imagine if they had the second best scoring stats!!!
Let’s not start another untrue campaign against our defence… instead just look at the evidence as it is at this time in the season.
i think our problem now is balancing it, we used to have good attack but bad defense, now we having good defense but bad offense, if MA could get the last piece to help balance the defense and offense, ill prefer 4th best defense, and 6th best attack , with that we can be 4th on the log or higher
Very true
I believe our defensive record is only that good because we are sacrificing upfront.
It’s an unhealthy imbalance that just looks good on defensive statistics and nowhere else as shown by our league position.
@ken1945.
True. We have plenty of CB’s, but only Tierney as a natural LB, and to make matters worse, he does have many injuries. Last couple of games, we were both vulnerable defensively at LB, and we were missing something going forward there as well.
Big mistake not to address this, I think.
Agreed 100%Anders and until our defensive statistics show a decline, we should be recognising their achievements not knocking them because Tierney is unfit and we haven’t got a proper cover for him.
Let’s not forget that Mari Gabriel, Tierney, Luiz, Leno, Bellerin and Soares have all been unavailable at one time or another, along with Tierney….our defence is not to blame for our current position, the attacking side of our game is though.
‘As our defensive misery continues’. how is that? despite being 10th on the log we have top 3 defense in the league. its obvoius our attack has been the issue all season. so with an organised defense, why keep a player who hasnt contributed to the beautiful achievement. its obvious he isnt needed and to avoid distraction, we took the best decision in the best of everyone
This is a really shocking article which either shows a lack of football knowledge or just Mustafi admiration which is baffling. Not to mention the fact that Mustafi would have been left out of the squad anyways because there wasn’t room for any more non home grown players.
Attack issues can stem from the defensive style of a team so you can’t say the issues are with attack.
The end result of the attack is a huge issue but you launch from a functioning base. In terms of defending great yes but our defensive system is terrible in terms of the base of our attack.
Did you just write this for the sake of writing something? Our issues aren’t defensive it’s scoring goals.
In a transfer window where business is hard to get done we did the right thing to let go of players who aren’t contributing. Free up our wage bill and focus on bringing in the right players in the summer when clubs will be more willing to let go of players. We managed to get a creative player who has huge potential and a back up goal keeper that can be relied on.
I for one have enjoyed our football over the last three games the only thing missing was goals. Let’s support the team and the players that do play and trust in the process. This season is a freak season where every team is having issues with injuries and bad results.
Be positive and let’s stop bashing the team and manager for the sake of it.
The author is clearly trolling, and cannot be serious, mustaphi was finished and didn’t have the right attributes for arsenal. The season is dead for arsenal it is better to blood rob holding and gabriel with the current players and get a new competent rb and deputy lb at the end of season, sell bellerin as he cannot cross a ball with pace, and continue the cull by getting rid of willian and replace aba or laca with a strong determined skillful young smstriker who will lead the line. As partey is injury prone arsenal will need another midfield general like ndidi or bisoma.
Better for the owners to sell too, as the broken promise of competing with barcelona Bayern’s munich still gives me lots of laughter followed by tears.
Shenel Osman, what u wrote here has no meaning, it means u have little or no idea about football. All the CB’s we have left at the club now are far better than Mustsphi. And it was a far better decision to let him go
If are depth is so poor, shouldn’t this post have substituted Saliba for Mustafi in its heading?
In addition to the posts by adajim and ken1945 pointing out the defense hasn’t been the big problem, it’s worth pointing out that they had to move one non homegrown player off the roster to add Odegaard. Mustafi ended up being that player.
Well done Mikel in getting rid of not just rubbish but bad stinking rotten rubbish – all three of them had negative or zero contribution on the pitch, blocked the entry of three decent players and enjoyed their wages and who knows what nuisance they were in the dressing room. None of them will be missed as one would vanish, second would leave the LB wide open and we seemed like playing with 9 men and Mustafi gifting penalties/free kicks would be like having the opposition playing with 12 men.
With these 2 or 3 defenders out (Mustafi/Kolasinac/Socrates) we have a top 3 GA.
When we rid ourselves of Xhaka/Elneny with MF scoring players and Laca / Eddie with better options, our attack will be restored to its former glory.
Without all the players released including Mustafi, Arsenal value has increased. Injured chambers is better than musti. What we need is cohesion in attack, dynamism in attack, nobody can nod well, and a good replacement for William, aubameyang, and lacazatte.
Mari
Holding
Gabriel
Luiz
Chambers
These 5 center backs are capable of holding our defense well enough. Mustafi will not be missed.
Our problem is coming from our attack and attacking midfield.
Hope the midfielders feed the attackers well and our attackers get their scoring boots back.
Correct.
Having 6 CBs is way too much.
Hopefully next year luiz goes and saliba joins in his place. For now we need to focus on the attack.
I still think maybe we need to upgrade lacca in the summer. He had a few good games but its not good enough really.
I also think elnany should be sold and willock should get more games when he returns. Absolute star for Newcastle atm
we do have players to cover position
Well covered above by correspondents in the comments. It’s a poor article. We have a much better defence and defensive resources ( certainly at CB) than most in the Premier League with loads of good prospects on loan. His release saves about £2 million
Mustaphi should have left even earlier.
I don’t understand why we didn’t get a Left back which is affecting our team balance and it may cost us seriously if Tieneys absence is prolonged.
Our problem is our out of form stickers. We depend so much on our young players who can’t get us off the mark,that’s why I believe we deserve the position we are in.
Nothing will change unless we address our forward line.
IMO, having one of the best in the league and defending very well is two different thing. I give credit to our defensive unit for having one of the best defense in the league but our defending generally is atrocious and comedic If anyone doesn’t agree with me please take a second look at all the go we conceded and how. On the issue of Mustafi, he, Sokratis Kola, Ozil are in our past now so Arteta has no excuse not to succeed from here on.
Look, mum, a 100% SEO-focused article!
I don’t think you had any other motives to write this , to be perfectly honest.
And to answer the question from the title – it was very sensible. The club has to meet the foreign player quota and Musti would either be frozen out or let go.
Simple as.
Mustafi’s a star?
With respect Shenel, I think you are way off the mark with your views on this occasion.We had a surplus of mediocre centre backs of which Mustafi was one.As his contract expires in the summer he was the one to go.Let’s be entirely honest, Mustafi at 35m was a very bad buy and one of the errors of judgement made by Wenger in the final years of his reign.While the stats suggest we are ok defensively,the absence of a natural deputy for Tierney is an area which Arteta will no doubt address in the next transfer window, and while our two right backs are decent, they are not of the quality needed for us to make an impression on the top sides.As for our centre backs Holding and Mari are capable but lack pace while the jury is still out on Gabriel as far as I am concerned.Luis and I’m afraid, Chambers should be released/sold at the end of the season and Saliba will hopefully return and make up with our Manager, and prove him wrong.What happens to Mavroponas, I know not.As I have never seen him play in Germany I don’t know if he is good enough.As for buying another CB, Ben White of Brighton would be ideal, as he is technically sound and very quick.His team mate Bissouma is another who appeals to me as a DM to back up Partey.
He is not playing, we have alternatives, high salary, terrible form.
I do not like both’s performance but I prefer Luiz to the end of the season.
Why not try Gabriel at left back or throw Lopez in?
Loose Canon, why would you refer to a human being as rubbish. Have you ever met Mustafi and had a conversation or encounter with him. The online abuse and insults hurled at players and people should be managed and stopped by Admin. Next thing players or Arsenal management will be racially abused on this site. Its absolutely unacceptable
You cannot win anything with second-rate mediocre players. Mustafi was/is mediocre. Waste of a journalistic article.
Mustafi was not good enough. Initially Arteta played him a lot but his inconsistent playing patterns proved that he was not good enough to take the club anywhere significant. In my humble opinion getting him off our wages was a brilliant idea…