I was watching a video of his incredible performance against Barcelona yesterday and it struck me that his best attributes were: tackling technically and sweetly harassing players in the centre of the park passing the ball out of danger breaking up play All of this led to a fantastic centre back display as he dispossessed Messi more times than Giggs slept with his brother's wife. But he did seem to me like someone who could effectively cover for Song if needed, he might even be better than our Cameroonian at it. This is the video in question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42cjGa3jLqo
He like Vermaelen gets drawn towards the ball a bit too easily so i'm not sure he has the discipline to play that role well. Besides I don't think he has the aggressiveness for it. like to see it happen as an experiment in pre-season though. Thanks for posting the video though, it reminded me of just how good Koscielny can be.
He is still improving. Arsenal certainly need a player who can play both DM and CB comfortably and we tend to look at Vertonghen but I think Koscielny could be the better option.
We need someone in DM that can really scare the opposition, someone aggressive, something that Arsenal lacks. Kos doesn't really posses that attribute.
Kos is definitely better at CB imo, but I think we could use him at DM if needed, but for that we would definitely need to buy another CB. The idea scenario though is that we buy both a CB and Dm who are established in those positions.
Or a player like Gilberto, who was the invisible wall more than the thug. I wouldn't be afraid to put a 3 year old girl in a ring with Sergio Busquets but he's still fairly effective.
If Song could learn to curb his enthusiasm for scoring and getting into the final third, he'd be fine. But for some reason he thinks he can be everywhere at once and gets caught out. He just needs discipline.
I thought Wenger told Song to get forward more often last season? I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that Wenger wanted him forward to give the other team another midfielder to worry about, giving our other more attacking midfielders more space.
I think he has been told to go forward for tactical reasons. Most teams know which players are dangerous/likely to attack and who aren't and so plan accordingly. For example our full backs are allowed to have lots of space in wide positions because the opposition know that they can't cross, however if Fabregas were in the same position he would be instantly closed down. With Song, at the start of the season he was assumed to be only a defensive screen which meant there were no specific plans to deal with him. Song exploited this by bombing forward which contributed to our attacks because the other team were completely unprepared to deal with him and stood off which gave him space to cause damage. Nowadays they are much more aware of the dangers he could pose however he still can be useful as they do not know which one of our midfielders are going to attack, and so take a crucial second longer to close them down which can lead to a goal.
i agree - Song on his day is up there with the best DM in the league - however his performance last season and especially those towards the end of the season were like watching an under 9's player being asked to play at the back but still running forward to try and score all the goals. If song doesnt want to play as the DM role then he will have to compete against wilshere/nasri/fabregas/ramsey for one of those more 'advanced' roles but i guest he might find himself warming the bench if that is the case. but I also agree with SamirNasriIsOurMessi's earlier point that replacing or having Kos as our DCM or the back up for that role would be a terrible idea - now if your looking for DM who can also play CB - i would say we buy Rodwell - but thats jus my opinion
personally i think rodwell is brilliant and I'm a big fan of his. he also offers versatility as he can play at the back as well as in midfield... However, he does have injury problems which may count against him...
Koscielny is easily the best CB at Arsenal. He's just such a quality defender. He'd definitely be good back up for DM.
