Has everyone been watching England vs Switzerland? Djourou has been atrocious. By far the worst player on the pitch. I don't think I've ever seen him perform so badly.
He is decent cover, but to rely on him for a 38 game league season as much as we did this season is always asking for trouble. Hopefully we will be signing a first choice CB this summer.
I certainly would. Koscielny is our best CB imo, he lacks leadership qualities but with Vermaelen playing alongside him, that shouldn't be a problem. If we sign Samba, we can play him against the rugby teams.
As it stands, yes. Don't think they are the perfect partnership though. Djourou and Koscielny had a great spell at the turn of the year up until Djourous injury against Newcastle, but they don't have the all round qualities a partnership needs. Koscielny/Vermaelen has more of these qualities imo, compared to JD/TV.
Djourou's performances got a lot worse as the season went on, that shouldn't take away how good he was before that though. I think Vermaelen and Djourou are our best CB partnership.
Still think we need a powerful beastly no nonsense tall center back like Samba, Djourou is good but reality is he was only playing because Vermaelen was injured. I reckon he is 3rd choice, not on the same level as Koscielny or Vermaelen.
Fun fact: We had the lowest average goals scored against us when Djourou was on the field out of all our CB's. He wasn't a standout this year as far as bad performances go, Koscielny on the other hand did bottle it in quite a few games with penalties and fouls on bad positions. (not even talking about Squillaci)
Djourou is 6'4, what more do you want? He dealt with Drogba well enough when we played Chelsea which is more than you can say for any of our other CB's in the last 5 years.
djourou is a good player, but we can do better. i'm looking forward hopefully to seeing TV and Kos starting some games together. what do people think about having samba?
Yeah okay djourou is tall, however he has a girl mentality. Doesn't like to get stuck like Vermaelen or Koscielny, he is also clumsy sometimes. Koscielny dealt with Drogba more than Djourou I feel.
vpersieisthenewvanbasten, Djourou did absolutely nothing wrong v Newcastle, if my memory serves. We were 4-0 up when he went off, and comfortable. It was when he went off when the problems began!
When has Koscielny bottled it? He made a strange mistake in the CC final, but that can happen to any player. And the penalties he conceded at Newcastle were never penalties, they were both poor decisions by the ref. Koscielny hasn't made half as many mistakes as Vermaelen made in his debut season.
D'Jeezus has a point, the capitulation happened not after Diaby's red card but when squillaci replaced Djourou. From that moment in we looked shaky in defence.
Djourou has been quality between January and March! Koscielny has been consistent during the whole season if you look at the whole 90mins koscielny rarely makes 3 or 4 mistakes within the 90mins. Koscielny hes got the confidence, composure, Djourou gives me the impression of someone whos about to fall on the floor when the ball is at his feet! He looks so dodgy some times! When he plays alongside koscielny hes looks more comfortbale cause koscielny is good on the ball
That wasn't just any old mistake though, the CC final was a hugely significant point for us as it was our best chance of proving we weren't bottlers. To make such an inexplicable mistake when he should have just booted it smacks of letting nerves get the better of him in my opinion.
you say we need a better CB than kos, djourou - but who is there that won't cost a rediculous amount of money and that will adjust to the league quickly enough to make a difference during the season?
It was a big mistake, but Szczesny could've done better imo. Koscielny was too confident if anything, like you said he should've just put his laces through the ball. They should've communicated better, especially considering that they can both speak Polish. Overall he's been great this season, he hasn't had one bad game. He made one or two mistakes in the first few weeks of his Arsenal career, but he's been immense ever since. He'll become the best CB in the league soon.
Not really, from how I remember it we couldn't deal with long balls being pumped in to the box with a Squillaci and Koscielny partnership because neither are that good in the air. This meant we were under greater pressure than normal causing us to give a lot of gaols away. Koscielny was equally as bad as Squillaci in that match.
I disagree Samir. Both of the penalties Koscielny conceded were poor decisions by the ref. And until Squillaci came on, everything was going to plan.
