People just base their views on recent form. But to spout an old cliche 'form is temporary, class is permanent' For a 'balanced' partnership it should be either Vermalen or Koscielney alongside Mertesacker. For me its Vermaelen all day long. Vermaelen is a better defender than Koscielney. Physically stronger, better in the air, scores goals and most importantly he's a natural leader. (also Vermaelen has a better goals conceded to games played ratio than the Frenchman) The fact is that Koscielney has played the MOST games (mainly due to injuries) out of all our defenders over the last two Seasons and both have been disastrous in terms of goals conceded. (I dont just blame him mind you) 2010/2011- 44 League Goals conceded 2011/2012 - 49 League Goals conceded I think if you ask most neutral fans would pick Vermaelen to play for their team over Koscielney. The reason for that is the Frenchman is actually a fairly poor defender. A good technical player but lacks the key attributes of the world best centrebacks. If you were to write down the key ingredients of what makes the likes of Tony Adams a great defender it would be something like this... 1. Leadership 2. Positional awareness 3. Physical strength 4. Aggression 5. Aerial Ability Vermaelen is better than Koscielney in pretty much all those areas. Koscielney has alot of pace and makes a fantastic recovery tackle (normally because he is out of position in the first place) mind you but he is not and never will be 'World Class' defender.
At last some proper appreciation of Mertz. We need to organise our defense more and Mertz seems the man to do it. Personally i would like the captaincy to go back to a defender. We need more organisation and discipline in our team, and players like Mertz can offer that. I'd rather we play a more conservative defence sometimes, than our sometimes, gung ho process where our CBs and midfielders ie Song, so bombing forward, leaving gaps behind....
Agreed, Verm is probably one of our best defenders, next to the magnificant Sagna. However, we have to pick according to form and if Kos is better than Verm in pre-season, then pick him to partner Mertz. Also, Verm is multi-talented and can play LB and DM. Why not try him out as a DM, to close out a game?
Yeah I agree with that, I think both Vermalen and Koscielney look like they would be decent in the 'Makelele role'.
Kos and Vermalen are the ideal partnership for me, people fail to mention that we had Sagna, Gibbs and Santos out for large parts of the season so of course our defence was shaky at times. I would hardly blame Kos and Vermalen for solely for the number of goals conceded.
I do wonder what some people actually see when they watch football. Kos was our best defender by a country mile last season - Vermaelen one of the worst. As for this praise of Merts, I don't remember him having a good game. I remember him getting "roast" for dinner all the time and being out jumped by players half his height though But I do see his qualities and I like them, positionally he is spot on and is a great tackler - he doesn't give away stupid free kicks all the time like over eager Kos and Verm. Lets see how he copes in his second season, his height is valuable.
The major issue with Vermaelen is he's easy to play against. Stand in the hole, draw him out, have the ball played into your feet, and you can turn him because he'll always try to get in front of you to win it rather than staying back, letting you have it, and shepherding you out wide. Mark Hughes noticed that right from the off, and his teams always play that way against Arsenal when Verms is playing. If he can cut the rashness out of his game, his will to charge in a bit, he'll be a much better defender. Hopefully (hopefully hopefully hopefully) there'll be more of a focus on defensive coaching during the next few weeks going into the new season. Solidarity at the back is absolutely essential this season.
I think Vermaelen would make a great defensive midfielder. He would have license to get forward, but his excellent positional play would improve our defense substantially. Song's problem has always been his positioning. If we don't get M'Vila, I would like to see Vermaelen in that role.
If anything Kos would be more suited as DM than Vermaelen because he is more agile and is probably the slightly fitter of the 2 (that role requires a lot of running and I don't think Vermaelen would be able to cope with 90 minutes every week)
Koscielny isn't anywhere near as good getting forward though. Vermaelen makes great runs through the midfield, can shoot, and scores way more goals. If you play Kosc in midfield you're basically playing a 5-3-2.
The DM role doesn't require a lot of running. I'm a CM, box to box and when I get tired I just sit in front of the defence as a DM.
A lot of people have been complaining about Song getting forward. Why would you want to replace one guy who is going forward too much with another?
No disrespect HH but were talking about playing in the best league in the world and at the highest level. The sheer pace and intensity of the game requires someone who is both fairly fast and who can keep up a high pace for 90 minutes. If you look at Song for example he is known to switch off at times and drift leaving space for the opposition and because he lacks pace, he cant always get back in time.I would suggest that this is largely the reason that we have conceded so many goals.
Completely disagree, I think Kos is a great defender and is a better defender than Vermaelen however Vermaelen is far more aggressive which is why he is seen as the more dominant one. You only have to look at the way Kos handled Messi in the games we played Barca to see that he is very good. i dont know how you judge a defender but given his age and great potential I could see him becoming one of the best in the Premiership. If he wasn't good then he wouldn't be part of the French squad.
I think we blame everything on Song/defence most of the time. The problem is the team as a whole tends to swtich off over the course of 90 minutes. Song may allow some gaps at the back, but many of the players fail to close down or position themselves correctly. This comes down to discipline.
Song is not a strong defender, so Wenger plays him as a central midfielder. If Vermaelen was played in that position, I would hope that Wenger would play him as a true defensive midfielder because Vermaelen is capable of doing the job well. So it all depends on what Wenger tells the player to do tbh. Vermaelen has the good forward play in his locker though, so I see his strengths as perfect for the true DM role. With Wilshere and Arteta as the other two midfielders (both exceptional passers), I think we could cope with Vermaelen in there.
He played well against Barcelona yes. Where he struggles is against strikers/forwards taller than 5'8. Its not a coincidence that Drogba, Wellbeck, Crouch, Carroll, Morisson, Holt, Ibrahimovic, Muamba, Zamorra, etc.. etc.. scored against us recently. Koscielney struggles against larger more powerful players because he's physically very slight of build. (bare in mind I'm a professional strength training coach) He's 6'1 but cant weigh more than 75 kgs.(and this is after Arsenal have tried to bulk him up with a high calorie diet) Wengers obsession with technical centrebacks has proven to be flawed. While its still a contact sport size/strength/aggression are still important.(even more soo in the EPL where more contact is allowed) Personally I would rather see Koscieleny at fullback or even defensive mid.
Mate - the game is faster lower down from the Prem. Lower down they tend to bypass midfield so midfielders have a lot of back and forth running to do. In the prem they tend to pass the ball around the back a lot. Dont believe the hype that the Prem is the fastest league and that you have to be the fittest, thats bull. The Championship is faster than the Prem and Div 1 is faster than the Championship because they don't knock the ball around, its frantic. You may or may not know but the higher up the leagues you go the less the emphasis is on running without ballwork, I know this from players that I know The time and space you get in the Prem you don't get in the championship and in Div 1 its even worse.
Kos at defensive mid would be utterly amazing because he can bring the ball out and he is a great defender. Kos for DM is a great call.
