He has made quite a few errors. Some poor passes out of defence, some poor cross field passes, some instances late to a ball he should never have been going for which has left us exposed... Don't get me wrong - he is a top player, but currently flawed.
I've said this myself. Wenger used to do this with Keown when he wanted to snuff out an opposing number 10. Never seems to employ that tactic these days, but it used to work, especially away in CL games.
Sounds like you're describing the last 5/6 games to me. Before that I never saw him put a foot wrong. It's bad form is all.
All defenders make errors. Vermaelen is usually playing last man in our defense. If he makes a mistake it is obvious. If one of the others makes a mistake then Vermaelen covers for them.
Vermaelen is a top quality CB. Definitely a first choice for me. He made two errors which cost us the game at QPR, but to be fair, the second was a slip. He also made some mistakes in one of the games when he came back from injury and played at LB. Other than that, he has been solid and I would pick him ahead of Mertesacker (who is also very good) everytime.
Great signing, but lets not pretend his only mistakes are in the last few games. As a classic example of TV rushing to a ball he cant win and exposing the defence - take a look at Messi's third goal for Barca at the Nou Camp in 2010. Really inexperienced defending, and TV still does it. He needs to stop rushing in, and hold his ground more often.
What a ******ed comment. Drogba, Rooney, Walters etc have destroyed him in the past. Plenty of other forwards have as well. And what do you mean why did Szczesny have to cover his ass? Because it's his job. He made a mistake in the CC final. Get over it. Everyone else has. No-one is overrating Koscielny, he's comfortably our best defender. It's not even debatable.
Really? I'll look that up in a sec. I'm pretty sure he had a shocker against one of the Stoke forwards a while back. Zamora, Carlton Cole etc have also caused him problems in the past. Anyway, my point still stands. He's too injury prone to be a world class CB atm. Don't get me wrong btw, I love the guy to bits, he's my favourite Arsenal player after Koscielny and RVP.
I guess RVP is too injury prone to be a world class forward then. Zamora caused Kosc just as many problems recently.
No, RVP is not too injury prone to be a world class striker because he's been fit for almost a year without picking up any kind of serious injury and scored bags of goals in the process. He did cause Koscielny a few problems but not half as much as Vermaelen. SJW19, you're right btw, Vermaelen hasn't played against Walters before.
the story apparently originated from bild (same tabloid which broke podolski's news) but i still don't buy it and i hope its not true
People on here need to get a firm grip on reality. KOSCIELNEY IS NOT A WORLD CLASS CENTREBACK. Over the last two seasons he has had more appearances than any of our other centrebacks. There is still 5 games to go and we have soo far conceded 41 league goals this season. Last season we conceded a total of 43. Some fans will claim this is purely down to our style of play but that is not true. Our defence has been found out on numerous occassions this term. Its our ability to score goals that has saved us. stats dont always paint the whole picture but when they are this conclusive its hard to argue. Our defence needs more quality. The games where Vermaelen has started we have conceded on avergae 1.03 goals per game compaired to 1.43 without him. In my opinion neither Koscielney or Mertasacker are truely top class. Both have massive holes in their game. -Koscielney is excellent with the ball but his positioning is woeful and he lacks upper body strength. The other issue is he is too simular to Vermaelen to make a balanced pairing. (Vermaelen will nearly always get picked because of his leadership qualities and goalscoring ability even if from a technical level they are very simular) -Mertesacker lacks pace and is somwhat average in possession. He is great in the air though and reads the game well. I've maintained for a while now that Matt Hummels or Vertonghen would be the perfect defensive signing for Arsenal. Somebody who is mobile and technically skilled (like Koscielney) but also tall and powerful enough to cope with the premierleagues larger centrebacks.
I don't think you can judge CBs individually, you have to judge pairings. You also can't take one of two bad performances and let them skew the numbers. The 8-2 loss to Manchester United completely screwed up the numbers this year, but it was only one away loss. As a team in 2010/11 we conceded the least number of shots on goal than any other team (by over 50, Arsenal 332, next best Chelsea 388). There are many ways you can judge the statistics and whilst I don't fault you for using them, I think the reason for us letting in goals this year is more because of our full back situation than because of anything the CBs are doing. If you want to call our centre backs woeful, go for it, but you don't have any real case for it. You can pull names out of the air as much as you like, but most knowledgeable people I associate with, rate Vermaelen and Koscielney as the best CB pairing in the league, by quite a long way, and Metersacker the best #3. Id be very suprised if Wenger is stupid enough to break that up. Saying our players are woeful when we are not going well is irritating, but you may have a case. Saying they are crap when they are doing really well just makes you look like a fool.
