Oh aye, I know everyone brings something different and I rate Koscielny a lot. Mertesacker brings height (a damn sight more than Djourou) and experience to the table and I imagine he'll be better at positioning himself too. What he lacks is speed but he'll be fantastic at set pieces. I'm a bit sad we look to have given up on Cahill but I feared the worst when the Bolton chairman starting acting like a proper tw*t. Yeah yeah it sounds like it was a low offer but I don't think he gets how bargaining/ acting like an adult work. Whether we should have been pussying about with such bargaining attempts so late in the transfer window when we're minted/desperate is another matter entirely.
Completely agree. In my opinion, Mertesacker will be good for the team. He's experienced, a Captain and therefore an organiser, and will suit Vermaelen down to the ground. With Sagna & the Brazilian, you'll finally be looking at an experienced defense with plenty of international and Champions League experience. The Cahill bid I personally think was to destabilise the player. He wants to move, wants to go to a big club and cement his position for England. Wants to play Champions League. If Arsenal had gone straight in at 17m, they would have got him. But by making a low bid, it shows their interest, even though there's no chance they'll get him. Cahill see's the interest, it distracts him, and suddenly Bolton have an unhappy player on their hands, who they will now let go for 14 or 15m. It's dirty, underhand tactics, but it works.
Only problem he may have is adapting to the pace of the Premiership. What he has in height, is definitely not compensated with his pace and agility! I'm still happy we've signed him though.
John Terry and Vidic are complete carthorses too; doesn't stop them being great defenders. It's all about positioning.
Exactly. I swear you can hear beeping sounds when Terry reverses but it doesn't stop him from being a top class defender.
Djourou isnt poor.. Infact he has been playing at a pretty decent standard consistently over the past season. By numbers alone he was the best defender in the premier league. Its that he is being taught wrong. Most times you see him making mistakes is during set pieces, and that comes down to the coaches not understanding the opponents set pieces and then not teaching them how to even remotely defend a set piece properly. Apart from Squil, all our CBs are VERY capable, and if they were at Chelsea or United, would be incredibly good players already.. But this would be because they would be taught correctly, something the Arsenal coaches seem incapable of doing after year on year of the same defensive mistakes.
Sorry Dave, but I don't buy that. The first goal was a complete abomination, it's basic defending to not let the ball bounce like that. He had the chance to just lunder that ball away to ****; but he fannied about. However, the worst one was Nani's goal...he was marking Nani, then inexplicably charged forward, leaving him completely unmarked. I play fullback for a team, and if my centreback did that, he'd get a ****ing well deserved bollocking. It was comedy defending. Djourou is simply not good enough...and for such a big guy, he's a complete and utter fanny. He shows no aggression whatsoever.
But they dont play high lines like us! Look at chelsea the other day against the new boys, they played a higher line and the defencer got beat time and time again by norwich
Arsene is probably less of a tactician than he is a squad builder or talent generator which is why the club needs to bring in someone like Steve Bould or Lee Dixon to help him. Pat Rice or Boro P aren't the ones IMHO. Arsene really doesn't have someone like Mike Phelan and that is what I believe will be useful for him.
Lol That don't mean sh...it. Quality players are quality players i.e. Aguero, Silva, etc. Get Mertesacker good defender/player you need, he'll do well, but you need a lot more.
Mertesacker lacks pace and his ability on the ball is very limited. He is very strong in air though and his positioning is good, could be a Sami Hyypia-like transfer for us. We need to change the way we defend with him, we won't be able to defend high up the pitch like we usually do. Nice to see a German guy in our squad, wondered why we haven't signed any more of them after our success with Mad Jens
Now they lose him for free in the summer when desperate for money. They are the ones who suffer, not us. They could of got £10m out of us for him, but insisting on £18m is obviously lunacy
He is an organiser and a pure proffesional. We have seen that you need more than talented footballers to win things. Sure, mertasacker will look bad on occasion. But what he will bring to those around him on and off the pitch will help us alot. Thats the CB and LB positions fixed. And wenger has picked up a replacement CF (park). Gervinho is a good buy as he can fill in up top too. Now we just need a creative CM (preferably for big money) and a defensive midfielder. Wenger is smart. He knows where we have problems. He has fixed 3 of them from the looks of things. Just 2 to go!
We offered 12m rising to 15 and they said no. Can't see us offering more but stranger things have happened today. I see Lowe has confirmed he's allowed Mertesacker to leave the German training camp to fly over for his medical.
