Morning guys.
Kev’s part two, the defence.
The Maitland-Niles experiment at full back/wing back, has not exactly been rip roaring success as his performance in Baku highlighted last season but it’s not been a disaster either. Summer rumours linked Arsenal with a move for PSG right back Muenier but it didn’t happen so AMN continues as the understudy to Hector Bellerin.
Unai Emery seems to prefer to utilise him in the right back position where his pace, physicality and attacking prowess are a definite asset but he just needs to work on his awareness and concentration. Bellerin is gradually recovering from his debilitating injury and needs to be given time, handled sensibly and not rushed back. He might not be up to speed until the end of October, early November which leaves the team dangerously vulnerable during these vital early months of the campaign.
So AMN has a big role to play during the next few weeks. We need four players in those full back roles who can be rotated regularly to avoid the kind of stress related injuries Hector is currently recovering from.
But what if, and there’s always one of those lurking, Bellerin does suffer another setback? Or AMN suffers injury before Bellerin returns?
Lichtsteiner, Jenkinson and Bramall have all departed, Reserve right back Jordi Osei Tutu (20) has gone on loan and left back Dominic Thompson (19) was sold for a healthy if surprising £3m, leaving Kolasinac, Monreal and the ubiquitous Calum Chambers to fill any other gaps. Or Mustafi? He certainly performs better at right back than any other position so perhaps selling him before the transfer window shuts abroad, wouldn’t be such a smart idea.
The signing of Kieran Tierney will hopefully be as effective for Arsenal as Van Dyke has been at Liverpool since he joined from Celtic. Tierney is a top rated left back, wing back and centre back in a three, a kind of Scottish Monreal so to speak and on a par with Liverpool’s Scottish left back Robinson. Both whom share a healthy rivalry for the No.3 shirt in their national side.
Since the retirement of Per Mertesaker the centre of the Arsenal defence has veered between the reasonable to the shambolic, it’s a major problem exacerbated by our central midfield issues, but I’ll come to those in a day or two.
Laurent Koscielny made a miraculous return from a career ending injury last season at a time when we were suffering an injury crisis in that area of the team but has now acrimoniously buggered off to Bordeaux.
Sokratis came out of his inaugural Arsenal season with relative positively, even if Arsenal’s end of season collapse tarnished his early season efforts. The lack of rotational options together with the absence of a winter break took its toll on him I think, as it seemed to do with Lucas Torreira. Doesn’t make them bad players though, it just means their tank was empty at the finishing line.
The Premier League is an unforgiving competition and Emery needs to rotate his players more, especially during the early months of the season when the League Cup, Europa Cup and Internationals fixtures grind our players to a standstill. On reflection, maybe he should have utilised more of the youngsters in some of the early rounds of the cups.
There were heavy rumours linking Arsenal with the signing of 6’ 3” Joachim Andersen, but that deal floundered even though he looked just the kind of defender we needed. A player of Mertesaker proportions who plays with the same intelligent style, but we ended up with the deadline day signing of David Luiz. Still, I’m quite looking forward to seeing him play in our defence. He has a strong personality and we need a shake up in that dept.
Rob Holding, who once fit will bring his no nonsense Northern grit back to our defence, has been sorely missed. Rob was one of the success stories of last season. Very much on the fringes in August, Emery put him into the side and he never looked like losing his place until Rashford ‘did’ him at Old Trafford. Calum Chambers, after a strong pre-season has been starting alongside Sokratis and looked very steady but Anfield will certainly show us more about him. As it stands Mustafi can go and we’d still look very able at centre back although I wouldn’t have thought that a few weeks ago!
Saliba is an interesting signing, a teenager with huge potential who perfectly fits the profile of the kind of player Arsenal need to target in this era of Kroenke austerity. We have him on a long contract and if he develops as we hope at St Etienne this season, keep extending that contract to keep his agent happy, and we should have a top top centre back for many years to come.
And if we’re forced to sell, then I’m sure we can get a fee of Van Dyke proportions. It’s all about buying well, enjoying the player and if need be, selling well whilst competing at the same time.
We also have Mavropanos (21) although he’s injured again which is a worry, Medley (19) who played a bit in pre-season but needs to fill out after a growth spurt left him looking like a serous knee injury waiting to happen and finally Ballard, (19) who is out on loan at Swindon.
That’s pretty much our defence in a nutshell…
By AllezKev.
Nooooo. No way.
Good morning Kev, I would gladly pay you to taxi Mustafi to the St Pancras Eurostar terminal.
If AMN has a problem, either injury or suspension, Chambers can move to right back with Luiz taking over at centre back. Anything is better than trusting Mustafi to go an entire match, even half a match, without committing some disastrous error.
He has to go, even for free to get him off the wage bill. We should cut our losses as it seems he is incapable of learning from his mistakes. He has been a big flop at Arsenal and is basically not suited to the Premier League.
It would still leave us with Sokratis, Holding, Luiz, Chambers, Mavropanos and Monreal as centre back options with Saliba to come in next summer.
Morning All, Sean, I didn’t pick the headline…. 😉
Morning Rico, thanks for the edit, did I say that about Mustafi, I don’t remember? 😁
Morning Cicero, Emery has a big selection issue this weekend, I mean if you’re Calum Chambers and you played in a defence that kept a clean sheet, away from home, for the first time in ages and you are left out for Luiz, then you really have to ask yourself if there’s any future for you at Arsenal..?
Morning Kev, all.
No Kev, you didn’t. Perhaps I should have added that the question was mine, sorry.
If we can’t get a decent fee for Mustafi over the next week or so, is he really that bad at right back that he couldn’t be part of the Europa squad or league cup?
Rico, I wouldn’t want to see us give any of our players away for free or cheaply, that’s what started this tangled mess we’re trying to get out of now…
If we can’t sell Mustafi, we should loan him out, his relationship with the fans has totally broken down, can you imagine him playing for us now, making a rick leading to a goal and the reaction of the fans? It doesn’t bare thinking about.
Ozil is the elephant in the room, his agent is obviously eyeing a lucrative transfer to the United States and was doing so before the Albanian mafia thing (or whoever they are) sprung up.
Ozil’s agent probably will use the current situation I’m sure, to try and engineer a free transfer next January, with Arsenal picking up some of his salary.
Ozil should not get a free pass to leave anymore than Kos didn’t .
We may not get his market value but if he wishes to go then he has to negotiate his deal in the MLS and take the hit , he can’t expect The Arsenal to do it for him.
Many people have moved jobs and taken less for various personal reasons , I did it to be closer to my family and to get out of London . If he wants out then , off he goes , his decision , his problem.
Kev, I wouldn’t want to give him away either, but why not just use him if we can’t sell him? We’d still have to pay some of his wages on loan wouldn’t we?
Good morning.
Read Sam Dean’s article about Ozil. Maybe judgements might not be so hasty. We are people before we are footballers!!
Sam Dean Reg?
See a twitter link on Arseblog today, Saliba is out injured until mid October, apparently!
As for Mustaffi. .. A chimpanzee walks into the Colney training ground pulling a cart cart containing a cadaver with no arms, no legs, no head and obviously no sign of life. He hands £5 and a note which reads ‘we’ll swap all this for Mustaffi!’… Not a joke, just wishful thinking😕
Ah, full name again!
That truly is a delicious War and Peace sized Post, Kev, that made me feel the need to read it twice. (that is some achievement, as I can only read with my tongue protruding, and moving from left to right, while trying not to dribble on the keyboard). 😁
Joking aside, that really was a classic football Post, and thank you for that.
I have said the following before, and it has not gone down well withe literati, but here goes.
It is accepted that AMN has manfully tried to stand in for Belli at right back, and made a reasonable fist of it, even though he really is not a rightback. He is as you say skilful, pacy and can beat defenders and cross the ball well, but …….. he cannot defend/tackle for buttons.
Because of his lack of awareness in the role, he can too often, be too far upfield in attack mode, and gets bypassed by the opportunity winger, and then using his pace and strength he can hurtle back and make a sterling effort to thwart the winger, to the delight of many. But frankly his positional play is sketchy, and any dyed in the wool ‘proper’ right back would never have allowed that to happen in the first instance.
Here’s the kicker. To my mind, Belli is almost the spitting image of AMN in the way he plays — fast, pacy, skilful, and can cross a mean ball into our forwards — and yet he is often caught out of position and bypassed, and inevitably he has to use pace to hurtle back in an attempt to rescue the situation — but he cannot defend/tackle in the way a right back should either.
In truth, they are both attack minded midfield players.
Let’s get to the crux of the question posed — is there a way back for Mustafi?
The way the fans feel about him, the answer has to be NO — no now survives for long with fans baying for his head.
I have some sympathy for him, personally. Statistics have shown that he is not as bad as some would have us believe — but having one shaky right back, or the other, haring off upfield and leaving him to cover for the hole they leave makes him look bad, and he can look really poor — when the real fault lies with Belli, for the past two seasons or so, and AMN, while Belli has been injured — that’s what you get when you do not have players in the right positions — neither are true right backs.
See a twitter link on Arseblog today, Saliba is out injured until mid October, apparently!
As for Mustaffi. .. A chimpanzee walks into the Colney training ground pulling a cart cart containing a cadaver with no arms, no legs, no head and obviously no sign of life. He hands £5 and a note which reads ‘we’ll swap all this for Mustaffi!’… Not a joke, just wishful thinking😕
Well there I was, about 40 minutes ago, driving past Lords when I saw this blond guy in a nice blue suit lighting up a cigarette.
Strewth, it was Shane and the barnet looked a million dollars and that’s what it probably cost him, fair dinkum mate, you can afford it.
He actually looked fitter and thinner than when he last turned his arm over…
Anyway, as I approached Grace Gates who was that I saw chatting to Monty Panesar, well it was Beefy and he looked in really good nick, thoughts of 1981 came flooding back, then I had to focus on getting through the traffic to get to Kings Cross.
Roll on the 3rd Test…
Rico
He writes for the Telegraph. I accessed it via Bleacher Report/Arsenal. It really is a good read and explains a lot. I may have got his name wrong though.
Thanks Reg.
1981 was something else, incredible series especially for Beefy and big Bob.
I used to live in St John’s Wood, Kev, maybe a couple of hundred yards away from Lords.
My only claim to fame was I, and a number of other kids, knew how to ‘bunk in’. Not for Tests, security too tight, but County matches, when we joined 10 men and a dog watching Middx.
The ‘authorities’ knew we were there I suspect – but just turned a blind eye. We would have preferred to be chased!! Would have been more fun!! 😜
Sam Dean is correct btw…
Rico
Here’s the link
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/08/16/search-real-mesut-ozil-special-report-turkey-arsenal-stars-struggle/
Thank Red btw, I sometimes wonder if I go on a bit but I’m glad you enjoyed it…
I always seek advice from Adam, he is our wordsmith on here…
I guess the authorities were glad of the atmosphere you created Red…
Can’t read it Reg as it’s a premium article…
Aren’t there a couple of American schools in St Johns Wood…
Avenue Road?
And another just off of Wellington Road?
Go to Bleacher report directly.
I did..
Evening all and thanks JinxKev ! 😆
Since your article about defenders we have had the two loanees injured……….Ballard is now out for upto 5 months !………………………….please dont do one about the midfieders and especially the attackers as we dont want Pepelaccayang injured ! hahaha
It’s in the can Cocker
Evening Rico and the House.
In tonights match our U23s have won 2-1 against Brighton.
Smith Rowe played 63 mins and was withdrawn when
he scored the 2nd goal.
It was the type of goal I have seen him score more then once
the last 3 seasons and he is looking good.
I think we will be making a big mistake to let him go on another loan
Have you all seen the Willock tackle on Selvey.
The same thing happened in tonights Game.
A heavy tackle by a brighton player sent Swanson hurtling into a dugout.
He jumped up run back onto the pitch and went straight into his defender Role
We are no longer a soft touch
Evening Rick. The sterner stuff seems to working it’s way through the club. Long overdue but it’s good to see after being labelled softies for so long.
I always thought ESR would make it into the first team before the other younger players but I guess injuries have played their part. Hopefully he’s over them now.
New week Kev, Lc. Perhaps it should go on hold.. 😆
If we are stuck with Mustafi, it’d be nice to see some sort of work being done to improve him and others.
If it is being done, it’s not being done well.
I went to school in St Johns Wood Kev .It was called Quintin grammar , next door was Kynaston secondary modern and then George Elliot primary . I left in 1964 I don’t know if things have changed now although we bunked into Lords after school as well.
No.
In my opinion, we are very deficient in defense. We usually have as a rule every week 2 or more injured or suspended defense players or, like Kos last year, unavailable to play regularly. With Bellerin, Holding, Mavropanos (?) Not knowing when they return and how they return, we are very deficient in all defense positions. Mustafi, until he sees, has no injuries. It can do several positions. It’s not brilliant (is a defense required?), It makes mistakes (tell me an Arsenal defender who doesn’t), but it’s relatively strong in air play, scoring, physical contact and not being fast, it’s not slow either . I do not know, if necessary, if it is possible to get Saliba. If not, it can be complicated. Especially because the issue of Kolosinac (who defends badly but attacks well) can be worrying
RA @ 5:50, you are so on point. Let’s not forget, Mustafi was a regular on the Germany team until he got to Arsenal. The way Belli (and AMN) leaves CBs exposed, even Adams and Dixon would have problems. Gallas, Mert, Vermelean, Gabriel, Chambers all good defenders elsewhere, but had catastrophic periods playing for Arsenal, maybe it’s not the players but the system and coaching….the Steve Bould effect.
Obi,
I thought that a long time.
Potter, I left Quintin in 1959, I had started at the school in 1954 when it was based in two separate sites one at Pulteney, behind Berwick Street market and the other in the Regent Street Polytechnic. The school moved to the new building in St.John’s Wood around 1956.
Cicero , you must have left as I joined , Life is just full of coincidence , now both in Norfolk .
Birds of a feather ??????
BTW :- You weren’t that prefect that falsely got me caned for smoking in the playground were you ?
No, Potter I never made prefect, I left after O Levels at sixteen. Towards the end of my last term a couple of us leavers went down the road to a pub one lunchtime, The Marlborough I think, inside we bumped into three or four of our teachers, one paid for our drinks, half pints of bitter. I think they were pleased to see the back of us, I think the term “disruptive pupils” might have been mentioned. 😕
New post up guys.
7.49 Potter. Oh how I chuckled. I thought it was only my school where people grouped in the corner of the playground for a cigarette. No cane though, our lot never got caught… 😝