Is This Why Arteta Wants Jerome Boateng? by Agboola Israel
Since Mikel Arteta resumed at Arsenal, David Luiz has had a new lease of life. The 8 million pound signing was previously headed towards the huge scrapheap of Arsenal defenders who, for one reason or the other, never quite made it. The sleek-haired Brazilian hadn’t reached Mustafi-level of comical errors yet but he wasn’t exactly the Messiah either. He had a blunder or two in him, a rashness, an inability to inspire confidence. His main strengths which included accurate ball distribution weren’t exactly working out well either. David Luiz so far had been just… bleh.
Come Arteta come a new player. The Brazilian seems to have regained focus under the Arsenal appointee. He looks so solid on and off the ball now. Against Chelsea, he was out in full aggressive force. Manchester United couldn’t get past him. And when he wants it, his long balls now find Kolasinac or Aubameyang high up the pitch and put the team on the front foot.
So why the links to Jerome Boateng?
In Arteta’s system that closely resembles Man City’s and Liverpool’s 2-3-5 when in possession, ball-playing defenders are very essential. A centreback who can, with the swing of a foot, find an attacker positioned high up on the pitch is a prized asset to teams that want to attack and score bucketloads of goals. Unfortunately, David Luiz seems to be the only one out of Arsenal’s current roster of defenders who can regularly find that pass to open up a game. And with Calum Chambers season-ending injury, Arteta’s options are going to be limited without David Luiz. Rob Holding can potentially play, but the 23-year-old is nevertheless not suitable for the David Luiz role.
Enter Jerome Boateng, celebrated but declining German centreback. One of the very few in the world who can operate in the David Luiz role with relish. Largely cast aside by his country and club, Boateng is easy pickings for a team that wants to shore up their defense. And Bayern Munich are reportedly ready not to accept a loan fee as long as the loaning club will pay the German’s wages for the duration of the loan.
Boateng would possibly make for a good backup signing. Make no mistake, he is not that terrible. And some of that Arteta magic can bring even more improvement. Just two to three seasons ago, he was still regarded as one of the finest centrebacks of his generation. Having lost some of his pace and defensive power, Boateng can still be a very good option for Arteta to bring up from the bench, at least.
If Arsenal think they can get him on loan for the remainder of this season, then it must explain why the links won’t stop creeping up.
Agboola Israel
Even Jesis Christ as a central defender cannot save Arsenal right now,so big the chaos is-at all levels.Until the club shows the door to Ozil and Xhaka,nothing good is going to happen…
Our main problems are the striker and the no 10 positions. Lacazette didn’t get clear chances at the last game and Ozil couldn’t produce anything either, nor was he able to link the DMs with the forwards
We will not be able to keep the lead, as long as the team can’t score at least two goals and if there is still a stroller in the starting line-up. Xhaka is essential because the team need a DM who can switch to left CB role seamlessly
Arteta’s honeymoon is over, so he has to remember what his ex-managers did when their teams were sick. Be ruthless to the underperformers because they have been given clean slate and be more pragmatic by using a proper target man
Jesus would do better as a striker – waiting for that perfect cross.
But would he nail them in??
Very good, QD 👍
No, he would be better off in goal, remember, Jesus saves!
A sticking plaster.
@antonioro
You have committed a blasphemy, just because of football opinion, repent
Usual get out of jail, cheap/freebie, over the hill old player. That’s how to become a good team? Are we trying to curse Arteta. Better to get rid of the rubbish owners than to give in.
Leicester seem to have done ok with Jonny Evans, so why not?
Same way they said Johny Evans was not good enough for Arsenal. Who is better than him our defenders?
Boateng is 32yo and he needs time to adapt to a new country, club and style of play….
fans do not have that kind of patience
No adapting to new country for Boateng. Is Man chester City where he played before not in England?
the league is not easy….clubs have improved
fans still think we can easily beat everything apart from the big 6
We need a good CM, a mobile when who can link defence to attack, can keep the ball n pass forward. Torreria n Xhaka r both DMs. Actually if you observe Xhaka plays more deep then torreria most of the time he plays next to CBs..that’s killing us because our midfielder are both defence minded n there first instinct is to pass the ball back hence we are struggling to connect n transition from defence to attack. Ozil is not dropping down either n stays up there in attack. We need a proper CM in mold of Xavi, carzola, viera, pirlo type player more then any thing else.
Just ditch that no 10 position and use the slot to have a proper midfielder
Xhaka/ Torreira were isolated in midfield and we didn’t have a box-to-box midfielder to carry the ball to the forwards, simply because the team had to accommodate the no 10. Fortunately Maitland-Niles was helping the DMs, otherwise the midfielders would have been outnumbered by Sheffield’s midfielders
We don’t need another CB. It’s the front spine that should be fixed
@Mohsan
Excellent observation bro. I noticed it as well, Xhaka dropping down to left back whenever Saka moves upfield. We have given Xhaka a DM beside him, but he does not seem to want to embrace the attacking side of the game at all. So it means he considers himself a DM too..which means we have 2 DMs..1 defends well but only passes backwards (Torreira) the other can spread the ball well and hit some sweet looping crosses but cannot be trusted to tackle or mark properly (Xhaka). It’s up to Arteta to select one to play..but not both.
You are correct, we are playing with a back give most of the time. It’s midfield where our biggest problems are with no mobility or quick transition between defence and attack.
Boateng is not a necessary addition because,we have 4 CBs already if mustafi is not leaving.
The last match had a problem with the transition but we gave in a good performance.
The biggest positive yesterday was we broke down one of the best(if not the best)organized teams in the EPL.Very unlucky not to get the 2nd goal.
Our performances are getting better.Everyone put in a good shift like MA said but ya one long ball or a superb cross and things will turn down.Thats not because our defence was bad,its because we were very unlucky.
Looking forward to the chelsea game.We stand with you MA unlike some.
Haven’t been an Ozil fan since his second season but he has been doing fine since Arteta arrival. Our strikers has been letting us Dow do far, Martinelli couldn’t understood Ozil style after 2 or 3 attempts, all those fine passes to him weren’t misplaced passes but accurate one but he (Martinelli) couldn’t connect, I hope that improves with more time together,
lacca… No comment he ought to have come back from his psychological drowsy
Pepe is not trying enough, the ball he gave to Nketia wasn’t follow up else he would have made good use of it and
VAR? What a cheat! Inconsistency, what’s the difference between Zaha penalty against us and Pepe penalty call
Boateng on loan sounds good to me… though at this point in time I am no longer sure where the problem lies in our team. The defence didn’t look bad yesterday.
“…what’s the difference …” Dodgy referees, that’s the difference. Cheats. Stop saying they are inconsistent. They are bent and biased. How was that not a penalty?
VAR is not human. It cannot speak for itself. It is humans that interprete and speak for VAR. There’s nothing wrong with it.
And it’s not lack of luck either. It’s people, refs and their faceless collaborators.
Excellent, Gunnerphilic 👍👍👍
Can’t wait to hear what Gallagher says about it on ref watch tomorrow!
Gunnerphilic and Sue, the issue from day 1 with VAR has been that Mike Riley as Head of referees convinced the FA to not implement VAR in the same system as the rest of Europe and as applied at the World Cup in France. There appears to be an undertaking that the on field referee’s decision will not be over turned.
No one will convince me that Dean was not in error in not awarding Pepe a penalty and Atkinson was not in error in not overturning Dean’s decision. The officials can take their choice; they are either incompetent or dishonest.
Nice one, Ozzie 👍
30 goals in 23 games! 😱 Poor!
I would like to know why it seems ok to publish comments from antonro,diogenes,quantic dream & gb who all make blasphemous comments about The Lord Jesus Christ.Yet my comments suggesting His Name should not be used as a swear word don’t ever seem to get published? No one would ever think about putting a post up speaking about Alla or any other god in such disrespectful manner.Admin be more balanced and fair when selecting what to put up on the site.
We do try to be fair and on occasions, we do miss some stuff but generally speaking there is to be no religion, any religion on this site.