Arsenal has extended the contract of Rob Holding, according to The Athletic.
The Englishman was expected to leave the club at the end of last season as Mikel Arteta rebuilt the team.
However, while the club waited for the likes of Gabriel Magalhaes to get ready to start playing, Holding took the chances he was given and impressed.
He has now emerged as one of the club’s key players and one seen as a potential leader.
Arteta has trusted him to play in 10 of Arsenal’s last 11 league games, impressing in most of them.
As the club looks to continue their upward trajectory under the Spaniard, they feel that Holding will be an important part of their plans.
He was close to joining Newcastle on loan for the whole of this season before his return to form, and he has had a remarkable turnaround.
This new deal will offer confidence to their other players that a good performance will get rewarded and Holding will be looking to continue impressing.
He knows that the likes of Gabriel and Pablo Mari are there to take his place if he slips up.
How can Gabriel and Mari take his place. The two are left sided CM while Rob is righted sided
Gabriel is the left foot, with Mari as his cover…Holding is a solid cover guy, so who is the starting right side CB?…I thought it was Saliba, boy was I wrong…I think Mavro has a much greater upside than Holding, but I’m not convinced our club thinks likewise…Holding is a little too robotic with his movement and an average at best passer, so not good enough as an everyday CB…I can only hope they didn’t give him too much so that we can’t move him should we properly address that position
Holding’s secure in his right sided spot until the club buy another central defender or bring in Saliba (if he’s any good) next season. I doubt if Chambers can dislodge him right now but he makes a pretty good back up along with Luiz.
Holding has improved a deal but lacks pace bigtime. That will always be weakness, as it was , though far more so, with the freakishly slow MERTESACKER. LACK OF PACE IS ALWAYS A WEAKNESS IN MOST POSITIONS AND DEFINITELY AT CB.
Ideally, we need Gabriel AND another new top class right footed CB. Mari and Holding are good enough only for second choice CB,s IF we REALLY want a top class team.
You need to aim higher than Holding I am afraid to say, even though I love his attitude, just not his lack of pace and at real top level, his lack of that vital extra quality.
So true Jon…sometimes when I watch him play I cringe a little remembering the last few years with Per at the back…I don’t care what the stats suggested, I never felt safe with him on the backline, especially against quality opposition…at least Holding can get both of his feet off the ground at the same time…Per was the only tall person I’ve ever witnessed with a negative vertical
I see Liuz and Gabriel as our top CB partnership at the moment but our future CB positions should be Saliba and Gabriel.
I agree with Jon, Holding and Mari are our second choice CBs
Good news and it will cement our regular CB pairing of Holding and Mari. I have been really impressed by their partnership and hope it carries on. Luiz and Gabriel can be on standby for now.
Solid player. May not be everyone’s favourite, but he does his job well. We need reliable guys like him in the squad who can always compete with the other centre backs.