Koscielny the weak link? How so? I don't think I can over estimate the importance of the return of Sagna. By far the best right back in the league. Had we not lost him for 4 months our season could have looked a whole lot different.
Actually, if you look at the statistics for last season, we gave up the least number of chances by far in the premier league (shots on and off goal). Our problem was that the chances we gave up were taken more often by our opponents, which may mean they were better chances. I understand that the statistics may not tell the whole story, but numerically speaking this is a totally incorrect statement.
Again - I speak regarding what I see and I see us getting carved open far too easily and far too often. I think defending is an art form and when I see poor defending it bugs me. A great tackle is as good as a great shot in my opinion - the defence is at least as important as the offence, if Wenger spent more time getting the defence and midfield to operate as a unit we would be more difficult to beat but still offer a big threat going forward. We have gaps all over the shop in our defence.
Just utter crap! We give up less chances per game than any other team in the league. Or at least we did last year.
It's interesting how things work off of reputation. Vermaelen had a really good first season and now he can do no wrong in the eyes of many here. Koscielny has been our best CB by a long shot this season, can't believe someone would say he's our weak link at this point.
when in place as a back 5 we are almost as good as anyone. However our big problem is losing shape and charging upfield leaving zero cover.
Well i think comparing Kos and Vermaelen is actually very difficult because their roles in our defence are very different, although they both play CB. Kos seems to be our man-marker, and pretty much closes down the opposition main striker. Vermaelen playes more of a second defender, sweeper type role. I don't know who is "better" as they are both better at their particular job, but right now with Metersacker out injured, I would say Vermaelen is more important, because Djourou is OK as a man-marker but seems to have problems at the sweeper role, as does Kos.
Is that a general comment, in that any defender would always benefit from "better" coaching, or do you have something that leads you to believe that Arsenal defensive coaching is sub-standard?
Very difficult to understand you, when you just attack Arsenal's coaches, can't really articulate why, but when asked about it resort to a personal attack on the person who merely asked you a question.
Another personal attack? hmmm, on this board we promote a mature acceptance of peoples opinions. I haven't even expressed one yet. However, thre is no evidence to support an opinion that Arsenal are "disorganized" any more often than any other defence, in fact the opposite is true. There have been many analyses done on Arsenal's perseived defensive problems and they are inconclusive. The only thing they have been able to figure out is that Arsenal seem to give up more goals per chance allowed, and more goals per passes allowed in the final third, than any other team. No one has really figured out whether this is due to our tactics, the players, or just bad luck. My personal view is that we play a very technical and difficult system, and finding defenders able to play it is not easy. When we have injuries, our performance drops more dramatically than a team that plays a simple 4-4 defence. I think the evidence shows that when we have all the back 4 comfortable with their roles and used to playing together, they are at the very top of the league in defending.
