If you had to pick one position of our team where we were weakest, where do you think any why? The obvious choice is left back but I actually think we're missing a creative playmaker more than that. What are your thoughts?
Our weakest right now is RB, as Sagna is out and our only real cover is Jenkinson. I'm still not sold on our LB position as neither player has quite proven themselves yet. But i would rather we buy a midfield than another LB, as I'm sure one of them will prove themselves. Lastly, we need a proper second keeper. Do we have one?
Sagna will be back before September I imagine. Besides, Jenkinson and Coquelin can more than adequately fill in.
We play the likes of Stoke, Liverpool, Mancity all away from home, and Chelsea at home by the end of September, for these big games I don't really see Jenkinson as reliable cover, Coquelan somewhat, but not filling me with huge confidence.
Based on the little I've seen of him I don't think Jenkinson is adequate cover for Sagna. He's slow and he's nervous and the only thing I've seen him do well (bar his stunning own goal!) is his ability to cross which isn't the first thing I look for in a defender. I still miss Eboue and think he'd have been the perfect figure to fill in. Your John O'Shea type utility player. Maybe not good enough for a first team spot week in week out but capable to play not only there but in numerous other positions (and happy to be that sort of team player). Other than that I think we definitely need a LB. I've been in the minority for a couple of seasons on this and don't think either Gibbs/Santos have proven themselves good enough yet. Out of the two I think Gibbs has more promise but I don't trust his injury record. I want to love Santos (he certainly makes me laugh) but he's the most positionally inept player (let alone defender) I've ever seen. At his age he should have sorted this out by now too. It's still early doors for him but my worry is that his problem is not the pace of the game but the state of his mind! Obviously I'd like a new DM too. Failing that I think we should take Song and drive a tent peg into the centre of the pitch with no more than 10 feet of slack and shackle him to it. He's got the strength and tackling ability to make a fantastic DM and was awesome there a few seasons back. No reason why he can't be again if he's told to do nowt else but that. Sadly I think he now sees himself as more of a central midfielder/creative midfielder and won't want to sit back. Creative midfielder too. Don't know when Jack will return or even if he'll be the same player that he was. I don't want to lump too much pressure on him like Aaron had to suffer from. Rosicky is good but can't play 90 minutes every game so would like to see someone brought in. Lastly a backup keeper. Not too much to ask right?! I think we'll get one of those. I'd settle for 'boue!
Middle of the park, we don't have a "guv'nor". Until we do we won't realistically challenge for anything.
Persoanally i think we are weak in about 2-3 Posistions at the moment. DM - Need to signed Someone like M'Vila. AM - We cant really be serious on replying on Rosicky (Ie Mr No Goals) as Jack will take along time to comeback to form. GK - Szez is still Error prone and if he gets injured we are left with no1. Gordon or Mcgregor both available on Free should be signed if possible. We dont need a RB for just 1 Month and our LB are just fine.
A first class creative midfielder, we have lost Cesc and Nasri and have not really replaced them. Arteta has been very good but he does not have the creative vision and passing ability as the likes of Fabregas, Wilshire will be out for a while by the sounds so we only have Song and Rosicky who are creating chances. Therefore we really need to have a very good creative midfielder.
Definetly LB. I rewatched the NLD and our last game against Man city, Gibbs hogs the halfway line, is always 3 quarters of the way up the pitch and doesn't track back enough. The amount off times the ball was hoofed over midfield exposing that LB area was unreal. Even Neville mentioned it with the Saha goal. Always saw this: please log in to view this image
The left side of our defence is extremely bad. As you have shown, Gibbs shouldn't even be on a football pitch, and if we put him next to Vermaelen who likes to pretend he is a CF, it doesn't give us much hope.
It is always difficult to decide. It seems like every year a new position is our "obvious" weakness. Injuries play a huge part though, even when players come back from injury, they are not as good as before they were injured. I suspect this year, we may have a midfield crisis. Wilshere still looks injured enough to have a disrupted pre-season, Rosicky and Arteta are not getting any younger, we can't keep getting nearly 50 games a season out of Song and Ramsey needs to improve a bit, but he is going to miss our pre-season at the olympics. I have almost given up on Diaby. We need a couple more A-class midfielders to either step up from the youth ranks, or we need to buy them in. Frankly, it all looks a bit weak to me.
I just hope this RVP scenario doesn't take over our need to fix the defence problem we have in that area.
I don't think it would have been fixed anyway, Vermaelen is vice captain (well, probably captain now) and Wenger has a lot of confidence in Gibbs. I think the only thing we could have hoped for was a DM.
As hard as it is to accept, I can see Wenger ignoring our defence issue, justifying it with his usual philosophical ramblings .
