Laurent Koscielny going on strike has done Arsenal a massive favour and forced the club to change its plans.
It really does appear that Unai Emery and the board had no intentions of bringing in a central defender. not going by the credible transfer reports we have been receiving.
It is fairly accepted that Dani Ceballos, Kieran Tierney, William Saliba, Everton Soares and Wilfried Zaha are the players the club are targeting.
Of those, only one is a central defender and he will not be available for a year.
Anyone watching the Arsenal mini-tour to the USA cannot fail to notice that the defence is still a shambles and that a central defender has to be the priority and it beggars belief that Arsenal has not clicked on to that.
Koscielny effectively going on strike leaves a huge gap at the back, he may not have played every game but he would have been significant throughout the season and he does need replacing.
If the club does not sign a central defender and goes with what we got then the consequences will be harsh and the fans will not forget, it would be negligence of the highest order.
Basically, the way I see it, if Koscielny would have stayed for another season the chances are no new central defender would have been brought in, that simply cannot be the case now.
So, in effect, the 33-year-old has done the club a massive favour even if they have not realised it yet.
Mart, I don’t think we will be getting a CB so I think Sok and Mustafi will start at the first two
Imo Mustafi is very average
He is one of the players who needs shipping out
Yes, I also don’t think Arsenal would buy a new CB, since they already have Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding, Mavropanos, Chambers and Medley
On top of that Emery was playing Monreal as a left CB against Fiorentina.
If we keep both Monreal and Kola and also buy Tierney, I think it’s clear Monreal will get some playing time as a CB, so no I don’t think we’ll be buying a CB.
While I don’t condone the way Kos has gone about getting his release, it seem a little odd that someone who has behaved impeccably in all his years would resort to such drastic tactics. Like admin said it appears Arsenal had no intention of bringing in another CD so they might have told him that he was to be the main CD given the situation with Salliba. Kos knows he is not at that level anymore which is probably why he has gone on strike. On another point of concern I cant believe a club with Steve Bould as defensive coach among others cannot at least improve a sieve like defense for the last 5 to 6 years, which is exactly why its criminal not to buy another CD.
I’m pretty confident that Holding will continue his improvement. Don’t have much confidence in the rest although if I had to choose I would probably go with Chambers. Still wouldn’t surprise me if a CB comes into play late in this window.
Let’s look at our defensive frailties logically.We started the season with a flat 4 and it was soon changed to a 3/5.The injuries to Bellerin and Holding meant we had little choice but to stick with Mustafi and Sokritis centrally with Montreal slotting in there when he came back and Kos added when he was fit.It forced Emery to use AMN and Kolasinac as Wing backs.This only allowed us two CM’s which was Torriera and Xhaka.Its here we lost that additional CM.
If Bellerin was fit then AMN would have had game time in a CM role.He did better than could be hoped for covering for Bellerin but it was the man short in midfield that allowed us to be overrun at times against teams we should have been dominating.
We must go back to a flat back 4.Very rarely did we defend consistently with a 3/5.Wenger resorted to it and it worked at the beginning but we simply do not have the players suited to a high line with full backs pressing high.
If Holding Chambers Mustafi and Mavo are to fight for a start next to Sokritis then we must get the Tierney deal completed and hope Bellerin is back quickly.
Completely agre. We need a back four. That’s why Tierney’s signing is crucial. Tierney, Bellerin and Holding will make a massive difference to what we are seeing right now in pre-season.
I think we need an experience defender to be added to our defence now that Kos us leaving to support our youthful defense
By the way kos has just done a favour to arsenal.
He doesn’t fit those ? at the moment.we need young swift and energetict blood look.in the academy we don’t need to be buying all the time.
We have very good young stars.
I don’t think another CB is on the cards regardless of what happens with Kos.
RB will be AMN until Bellerin is fit
CB will be a pairing of Sok and Chambers/Mustafi/Mavro/Bielik (if he stays) until Holding is fit then Sok and Holding will probably be the main pairing
LB will be whoever we buy with Monreal and Kolasinac as back up depending on formation…. If we get KT for this role then even better as both Bellerin and KT are capable as playing as wing backs too allowing us to use back 3 or back 4 and still be more secure than we are now in either set up
Medley and Thompson both had good showings last night so if they don’t go out on loan we could see them being used for some cup ties/early Europa league matches too
Buy a good central defender and drop Mustafa..
If we could sell mustafi then I think we would buy someone in…. From the sounds of it they do have a CB target they want but he is too expensive and they don’t want to go with the second choice
I find Arsenal very difficult to understand. You strengthen where you are weak. Last season The club had serious fire power up front but a weaker midfield and a really poor defence. In some ways you could compare it to Liverpool in Klopp’s first season in charge. Klopp made it his priority to improve the defence, shouldn’t Arsenal be doing the same ?
And until they could identify outstanding players in Van Dyke and Allison it didn’t make any difference. The biggest difference between the top sides and the rest isn’t the quality of their defensive work its the attack. Arsenal have been finishing above teams with far superior defences for DECADES. Klopp honed Liverpools attack to become a fearsome unit and then last season when good players in defence became available they went for them. It’s isn’t unimportant but apart from Chelsea in the last 40 years no team has won the league on the quality of their defence. There are no outstanding candidates we can afford in defence hence why we’re waiting for Saliba last year. It will cost us points but not as many as if we can’t win games with the quality of our attack. If you don’t believe me ask every team who finished below is with a better defence for the last two decades.
Pretty sure we did it a few times under GG…
Yes, 30 years ago… and find me another Tony Adams that we can afford. This is entirely my point.
as good as a player he’s been for the Arsenal no player is bigger than the club.Sell him. The Arsenal will still survive.We have had plenty of prima donnas like other clubs so it’s nothing new.Once the agent gets in their ear they all turn.
P S It’s time players start paying agents fees not clubs.Watch the players attitude change when they’ve got to foot the bill.
We will get Saliba and Ceballos. Why…no outlay of course. Zaha and Tierney, of course not..they cost money. Kroenke is playing with you. We will just fail with Zaha like we did with £40 million and a pound for Suarez. Our first game is 11 August and guess what. We have spent £8 mill. I
I like what koz did and I mentioned this in earlier article on this site.
If arsenal now decides not to buy a CB, that’s there problem and I hope u all this take the same venom to the coach as u took to koz behavior.
Koz can’t be intimidated. It’s his last year, an experienced defender, has some suitors and the board and or coach cannot reason well even to the point of trying out beleik as CB. I will be watching from a corner. Haha
Just for the record Tierney is injury prone. Never buy an injury prone LB or RB.
Ur team will get disorganized the moment it happens ( if that is one of ur attacking treats or ur basic move forward).
You will hate the outcome
Again with the injury prone nonsense….. The lad played 43 games last season despite being injured, 60 games the season before that and 43 games the season before that…. I fail to see how with those numbers he can be described as injury prone.
As far as I’m aware he has had a broken leg (before his debut which set him back), cruciate ligament problem a few seasons ago which wasn’t anything serious and made a full recovery, broken jaw which happened in a cup game at end of season so he missed nothing (he literally ran back into the stadium to lift the cup with the team), then finally this hip problem which led to his double hernia op and the osteitis pubis probably from overuse but that’s minor and should be fine soon.
Please either give the injury prone nonsense a rest or show me where I’m missing something
Haha,u think Scottish league and Epl is the same.
Ride on.
By the time he gets injured twice in the same season u will understand.
No your right the SPL and EPL don’t compare….. SPL is far more physical than the EPL just like the Championship.
Fact still remains that KT is not injury prone nor do I think he will have a problem with the physicality of our league… He may need some time to adjust to the pace and pressure (personally I think he would take to it quickly) but to say he’s going to pick up more injuries just because he is playing in the EPL is laughable
Madhatter, by your admission, Tierney has had five injuries in three seasons and yet you say he isn’t injury prone?
Not in 3 seasons…. Broken leg was about 5 seasons ago before he even made first team, ligament problem was his debut season I believe, broken jaw was end of season before last I think (maybe one before that even) but that’s neither here nor there as was caused during game by an elbow to face and didn’t cause him to miss anything….. Its mainly last season that he was injured and how much of that was caused by being overused the season before and still being played when he should have been rested we don’t know, so yes I stand by the fact that he’s not injury prone.
The lad has made more appearances than any of our defenders have in each of the last 3 seasons…. Except Sokratis who made 49 appearances compared to KTs 43 last season
I sincerely hope Beilik is given an opportunity to play at CB prior to the start of the season as I consider him and Chambers to be better than Mustafi,Socratis and Kocielney.To sell Beilik after the excellent season he had with Charlton and his good performances in the under 21 Cup just does not make sense.
Even Gary Cahill over mustafi any day of the week
Not buying a CB this window is inexcusable considering the state of our defence:
Mustafi is not good enough
Koscielny does not want to play anymore
Sokratis is 31
Holding is still injured and might not be as good as he was when he returns
Chambers is not starting material yet – and didn’t he shine most as a CDM at Fulham last season?
Movrapanos is not ready yet
Bielik is apparently not in Emery’s plans and has been told he can leave
Monreal is a makeshift CB at best and is now 33
The fact we’re rumoured to be spending £30m on a CB who will be loaned out again to the selling club is a joke. We are desperate for a quality CB. Without one we will ship more goals than last season.
Analysed so well.
Injury prone k Teinery from Spl Celtic will add to our defense.
Haha, we allowed 51 goals last season.
By the time we ship 65 goals, the understanding of how important a good strong CB will crystalize by then I just hope our competition will not be between wolves, licester and everton.
We need a good DM and 2 strong CB
You’re speaking as if koss is going to be sold,i doubt it man and don’t be surprised if he keeps the armband! ?
I have to agree with Grandad,and perhaps they are hoping to convince Bielik to stay now that they are losing Kos,I’ll rephrase that, I HOPE they are trying to convince Bielik that he will get first team game time and that he will decide to stay and command this dodgy defence, I see him as a future captain and leader,something we have lacked for a very long time.