Rumours about Vermaelen is wanted by Barcelona... http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/onthemove/id/5524?&cc=5739 Good or bad? True or not is another question!
Please be true, ****ing awful Captain and awful CB. Only reason why people liked him was due to his goals in his 1st season, now they have dried up hes been showned to be an pathetic CB.
Vermaelen is not an awful player, our defensive organisation and tactics is what makes these players look worse than they are. Apart from Mertz (who has had his dodgy moments), all of our defenders have looked iffy at times. This isn't down to them, but more to the lack of emphasis on defense at the back and midfield. If you leave great big gaps between midfield and defense, what do you expect? That's why it's not difficult to get to our back 4 when opposing teams have fast players counter-attacking against us.
Unless we revert to a good old fashioned 4-4-2, get rid. He will never live up to the reputation given him by some fans and we can't afford to cling on to these type of players for a couple of years in the hope they come good. Time to get ruthless on the squad's asses
I think it's very obvious by now that our defensive problems are due to our system and coaching, not the individuals (apart from obvious cases like Andre Santos). Every defender we buy looks good initially then as time goes on they get worse. Co-incidence? Nah. We could buy any defender in the world and they'd get worse with our (lack of) defensive coaching. We could rid of him and buy Hummels and Chiellini but give it a year and we'd still leak goals like there's no tomorrow and we'd be saying how rubbish those two are.
We have a backline consisting of top International defenders, yet we look rickety at times. Vermaelen would go into the Barca team and look good, mark my words. You don't suddenly become a **** player when you're in your prime. Same with Kos, Mertz and Sagna. Just a little while ago, people were saying that Sagna was over-the-hill and that Jenks should take over after a few decent performances. Guaranteed, if Jenks and Nacho played every game from now till the end, people will be calling them **** too after being exposed. Our system relys heavily on attack, with defense as an after thought. Just imagine if we didn't have top defenders playing for us, we would really be in trouble.
Vermaelen has been poor all season, so I wouldn't be too mad, I think if he was sold it would be like a Clichy moment, good player, you don't mind if he stays, but if he goes, you wouldn't be too upset either because he's too error prone etc. Plus if we can get 15 million for him, that'd be great money.
I for one would be disappointed to see Verm go. I just think every player goes through times of poor form and I just think his confidence is at an all time low. When last did you see him get forward and try to shoot as he did in the past? The captaincy issue has really affected him extremely negatively as has the departure of RVP (I remember him stating something last season about the need to keep hold of RVP). Apart from his lack of confidence, he also suffers from lack of positional awareness at times and was partially responsible for both goals conceded in the game on Sunday. There are rumours that his defensive partner Mertesacker may also be on the way out. So if it came to that, and we lost three defenders in the summer, Mert, Verm and Sagna, who would you replace them with?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...er-Ashley-Williams-potential-replacement.html It's the fail, but still...
I think the only defenders we will lose in the summer are Sagna, Squilachi, and potentially Djoure. Oh yeah, and Santos. We would obviously need another right back, and I also want us to get another top quality CB.
Williams is winning things at Swansea, why would he join you? He's class, and would be a good addition for you though.
Partially? I don't think poor training causes someone to switch off as much as him. He may as well lay down and taken a 5 minute nap on the penalty spot during the game - sod all with training or tactics. Also, Ramsey & Diaby need to be got shot of too, along with the Djourou & Squilly et al...
Vermaelen is a great centreback, when played alongside someone more defensive. The thing is you need a balance. A 'ballplayer and a ballwinner'. (Toure and Cambell, Gallas and Terry, Nesta and Maldini , etc..etc..) Mertesacker is decent but not great and Koscielney is soo bad in the air its almost laughable. He's one of our best players and biggest names, selling him would do the club even more damage.
There has been speculation that Wenger will be changing his system to a potential 5 defense system. 3 centre backs with 2 wing backs. I wonder if this has some truth in it and if it's his way of plugging the holes in our defence/defensive midfield and maintain our attacking intensity. Personally i think he should employ a DM as outlined in your post, playing Vermaelen as a DM for extra defensive cover. Kos and Vermaelen can play such a role, and it would give us extra protection against counters.
I really don't know why people keep going on about our defense being bad. I will point out to you again that we have the stingiest away defense in the PL and we have only given up 1 more goal than Manchester United and 2 more than Chelsea. This is not a dreadful defense this is a lot of paranoid fans complaining about not going through games holding other teams to virtually no chances. Our problem this year has been scoring goals and our midfield getting winded from over-committing to an aggressive press when we are chasing games. Arteta and Cazorla are not fast and are very easily beaten. I saw the Spurs goals coming 5 minutes before they arrived. Our whole midfield was sucking wind and not getting back. You can't expect big guys like Per and TV to win balls in the air and also defend against fast quick runners without someone covering in front of them. I am not pushing for a "beast DM" or any such nonsense. Chelsea have exactly the same problem with Mata and Hazard who are liabilities defensively. The problem has been worse since we moved Cazorla to the wing. He offers no protection to he left back. All of our left backs have looked better when Podolski plays in front of them. When Cazorla plays as the "man in the hole" he is better because he doesn't have to track back so much. Unfortunately, right now we dont have a good team balance. For me, I think Wilshere would have been a better choice on the left than Cazorla. Honestly, IMHO, teh defense has been outstanding this year. Possibly the best in the league.
