I agree on this physical weakness. Kos is great at tackling but he isn't the strongest around, an attribute you really need in such a physical league as the Premier league. That is why so many of us are saying we should pair Mertz with either Vermaelen or Kos. We need a strong commanding CB at the back to counter big forwards such as Carroll, Holt etc, then our quicker CBs (Verm, Kos or Djourou), can chase faster targets. All i can say is thank god Drogba has gone....
I don't agree with some of the names you put on there like Wellbeck or Muamba or even Carroll for that matter. As for Drogba and Ibrahimovic they bully defenders against the majority of teams so you could say that about most defenders. Vermaelen had a shocker against QPR were Zamorra physically outmatched in almost every clash. Mert considering his size is hardly a powerhouse either and he was frequently out strengthened by players far smaller than him. At least with Kos he can make up with pace to get back at strikers and put them off.
Fair enough mate, sounds like you have more experience here than me..just out of curiosity have you played some pro football then?
I played semi pro. I trained with Enfield, I played for Wembley and Walton & Hersham - who were Diadora Premier - promotion would've taken us to the GM Vauxhall conference league and promotion from that would've been the equiv of the current Division 3. We used to run up hills at Wembley and run round running tracks. Players would be throwing up in the heat, the only time we saw footballs in pre season was when doing "doggies" with the ball, we didn't kick footballs properly for ages. What I noticed though even in semi pro football, the lower down the leagues you go the less football that is played. But mostly teams play percentage football, very few stick to their principles and knock the ball around .. like they do in training. Come match day it all goes out the window. The ball ping pongs about at full speed in thee middle of the park, its ridiculous, but normally the big no nonsense defenders just lump it forward .. so us midfielders have to get forward for knock downs or "seconds". Inevitably the other team will win a lot of those balls and .. .you guessed it .. they then do the same, so us midfielders have to bust a gut to get back to help out the defenders .. and try to get "seconds". Its a bloody nightmare, believe me, you are constantly looking up in the sky at the ball going over your head
Comforting to hear that you used to occasionally take your head from out of your arse once upon a time
I haven't read through this thread, because I am not reading through 4 pages. But this is what I think. Koscielny is by far our best CB. Vermaelen is terrible at CB and should be turned into a full time LB, that way, he can use his disgusting attacking instincts out wide where we won't be exposed so badly, and make a more solid defensive contribution than Gibbs at the same time. Win, win. His flaws at CB stem from his poor positioning and lack of discipline in his work rate. It is no surprise that we concede a hell of a lot of our goals from our left side. I would rather Mertesacker was played at CB with Koscielny, but saying that, I would rather we just signed a new CB altogether, as Mertesacker is not qucik enough to keep up with the high line. Yes, Koscielny can cover him extremely well, but Koscielny is better than that, he amongst the top CB's in Europe and he should be utilised properly, not as a player to clean up the mess of others.
HH - I cannot understand why Fat Sam or Pulis didn't sign you up !! With the experience you have - you sound made for their teams.
