NEWCASTLE V ARSENAL

I don't know what your background in the game is, but I've played a lot and coached a lot and for me I don't see any defender dealing with that situation well. He has two players running at him with speed one in front and one behind.

He has done what I would tell any young defender to do, He has forced Perez wide, taken away the turn and pass to the open man in front of goal and trusted his goalkeeper to stop the first-time chance from a narrow angle.

Now it didn't work out (And lets not take anything away from Perez, he took it well), but it was the % move for Mustafi to make.

As for losing the ball in the build up, I don't have any memory of that so I can't make a judgement. As for his "Past" mistakes some of them are like this where he is hung out to dry, some probably were genuine mistakes, and some were, as Bear points out, where he was over-matched physically.

But the guy is statistically performing very well this season, and whether you like it or not, you have to at least deal with that if you are going to make out that he is a problem. I mean You have it in your mind that he was losing aerial duels against Gayle, and I repeat, he simply wasn't. Your mind plays tricks on you and you see what you want to believe.

 

@ToledoTrumpton

Maybe it was another one of Newcastle's players, but someone shorter than Mustafi won an aerial duel against him in the second half. The crowd got hyped up and the atmosphere in the crowd was magnified. It may not have been Gayle, but I am surprised it says he only lost one aerial duel. Either way, it doesn't matter. I was watching the game and he did not perform well overall.
Nemanja Vidic himself, one of the best centre-backs in Premier League history, criticised Mustafi for his performance, in addition to various other ex-players and pundits. So I know it isn't just me criticising him for the sake of criticising him.

I am not sure how Whoscored calculate their ratings, but they've given Mustafi a 7.8/10 for his performance on Sunday. I'm sorry, but if you speak to near enough anyone who watched that game, I will be amazed if anyone thinks his performance warranted a rating that high. Seriously. Even if you think he had a 'decent game', how can anyone justify a rating like that? Forming an opinion that only factors in statistics is very dangerous.

Funnily enough, when we signed Gabriel, a lot of reliable sources were saying we assessed his statistics (i.e. interceptions, tackles won, aerial battles, passing, clearances etc) and they were amongst the best in Europe for defenders. Yet when he signed for us, he wasn't exactly a standout performer. You can argue that his inconsistent form was because of poor coaching/tactical set-up, but was he the right type of signing we needed to begin with?

Back to Mustafi, I will admit that his statistics for the game are somewhat surprising. However, this is why you don't base a game/performance purely on statistics. You can take a lot more in when you observe the game using your eyes. Sometimes perception is not always what it seems too, but that's life in general. For example, his pass % rate is quite high, but that is partly because whenever the Newcastle forwards closed him down, he was forced to pass backwards or sideways. It doesn't take into account how many of those passes were build-ups to attempted attacks or how many passes forward were successful. He only won 2 tackles the entire game as well.

Don't get me wrong - our problems lie much deeper than Mustafi and as I've already alluded to in other posts, I have no doubt he has been a victim of bad defensive coaching. However, we'll just have to agree to disagree about his performances this season and whether he's good enough for us.

 

Take a quote out of context, Why not.

I said the league is full of large athletic forwards. Never mentioned Newcastle.

But if you wanna go down that direction. Just looking back at some of our recent results and players that have scored against us...

G Murray 6'2
L Dunk (CB) 6'4
Pogba 6'4
S Clucas 6'2
Vincent Kompany 6'3 (CB)
Sane 6'1
Ben Brereton 6'2
Harry Kane 6'2
Luka Milivojevic 6'2
Jay Rodriguez 6'3
Dominic Calvert-Lewin 6'2
James Tomkins (CB) 6'5
Charlie Austin 6'2
Shane Long 6'0.

Of course I'm not trying to claim only large players score against us but football is still a contact sport where strength, speed, power and endurance play a huge role. If you've ever played even Sunday league football you must be aware that size is a HUGE advantage if skill level is similar.

Mustafi is 6'0 and lightweight, Koscielny is 6'1 at best and skinny. Height is of course not everything for a defender - but it's the position on the pitch where it matters most.

It's no coincidence Didier Drogba used to ****ing annihilate us. It was like a heavyweight competing against Welterweights.

 

I've conceded that he isn't a big man. I don't know what else you want me to say. And he is 6', he isn't Cazorla.

But only one goal scored by those people could be blamed on Mustafi's heading. Dunk's, Pogba's, Clucas', Austin's, Milivojevic's, Sane's and Long's were not headers. Murray beat Chambers in the air not Mustafi. Tomkins and Calvert-Lewin both beat Koscielney in the air not Mustafi. Rodriguez's was a penalty! Mustafi was out with a hamstring injury, when Kompany scored. He wasn't in the squad when Brereton scored.

In fact the one goal where he did get beaten was the Kane goal for Spurs which is about when all this stupid **** started. Firstly Kane is a decent striker and if he is to only striker to out-jump you that isn't awful. And secondly there was a fair bit of leaning on his shoulders during that goal, which Kane got away with.

Going through all the goals, and I did do that, some things did jump out at me.

1. Considering how small he is, Mustafi gets beaten in the air for goals very rarely, less than our other defenders..
2. Cech has been culpable for goals more than all the rest of the Arsenal players put together.
3. How many times we have given up goals when one or two of our defenders have had 2,3,4, or even 5 attackers just swarming them.

 

Honestly mate, I think because he plays as the last man, he is always the one being overwhelmed right before a goal is scored, and if he makes a mistake, it is a goal, no one is behind him. Anyone is going to look bad in that situation. No one counts the blocks, tackles and clearances he makes.

That is why you have to look at the stats.

 

I think a new manager with an actual defensive plan or any idea of defending at all would sort a lot of this out. I dont think the defenders that we have are as bad as their performances make out.

 

Oh for sure.

I think Mustafi is a good player, Vermaelen was a very good player even Gabriel was decent.

But I dont think any other else manager would replace players like for like even when it's clearly not working. The two small ball playing CB's has just not worked for Wenger.

 

Its more than just headed goals though. It runs deeper than that.

Firstly there's playing style. Even Barca who pretty much perfected this 'playing from the back style 'under Pep would play the smaller ball playing CB (Puyol) alongside a taller CB in Pique.

When you look at our 'first choice' pairings under Wenger post 2006.

Kolo and Gallas
Gallas and Vermaelen
Vermaelen and Koscielny
Koscielny and Squillaci
Koscielny and Mertesacker - 2014/15 was Wengers best defensively since 2005. (36 goals concede)
Koscielny and Gabriel
Koscielny and Mustafi

Koscielny and Mertesacker was the best pairing from a goals conceded perspective. Even though Mertesacker is slower than your average three toed sloth.

Besides the obvious aerial advantages of having at least one tall CB. Theres also a sense of balance.
If you take Kolo and Campbell as an example - Kolo would push forward and often sit right up near Gilberto. He would play the ball out and rely on his pace to get back, while Campbell would sit deep.

With our current side or with many of our previous CB paintings both defenders push up high and our often caught on the counter.

Mustafi and Koscielny are too similar stylistically, are physically unimposing, easy to push off the ball and our both poor in the air.
45 goals already conceded this Season - There's NO WAY Mourinho, Conte, Simeone or any manager with a good understanding of defensive football would stick with this pairing.

 

I don't disagree with much of this. I've always said that CBs have to be judged as a partnership, not individually.

I think Wenger got obsessed with getting CBs that could defend against the counter-attack and set-pieces, and he has successfully done that. This is part of the reason teams are now coming out to try and win the midfield, because they can't beat us on the counter attack or from set-pieces anymore.

I think Wenger is actually a lot closer than people give him credit for. It is one of the reasons he has frustrated me to the point that I want him gone. We have driven other teams to come out and play us and we don't need all that fire-power up front anymore. We have the players, we are not playing them.

I coached a LOT of youth soccer and when you have a crappy team you know it. Some years you are just not in the race. But I could still win a LOT of games if I flooded the midfield. I'd play 3 back, one up front and the rest in the middle. If teams did not play a long ball over the top, we had a fighting chance. Some games we would have twice as many players in midfield as the other team. At some games we would end up with our striker backed up by at least 3 midfielders running at their defence while the other team's 6 forward players watched on, their 3 midfielders exhausted and their 3 forwards, complaining that no one was getting them the ball.

It didn't matter how good their defence was, they were going to ship goals at that point. The amazing thing was how often the other coach would be upset at his defence and particularly midfield when they lost. I just can't believe we are falling for **** that happens in some crappy youth league.

At one point I experimented with a 7 man midfield, but it seems that defences need one striker to keep the 4 of them occupied, otherwise they step up, and you need at least 3 at the back, or the long ball over the top becomes too obvious​