Match Reaction: Arsenal 3-2 Southampton

Calamity Kos :lol:

Merts did win the World Cup, you know! :lol:
Past his best when we got him but he still did a decent job for a while.

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Originally Posted by Letters

Merts did win the World Cup, you know! :lol:
Past his best when we got him but he still did a decent job for a while.

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Now very, very crap:)

Not being funny but Mertersacker has never been that good, never rated the guy, moves like a barge, not that good in the air, excels at nothing, very overrated IMO.

I kinda agree, Campbell was the only real standout CB he's ever signed, the others he inherited, some have been not bad but they all pretty much had a mistake in them, Koscielny could be good and then he'd make a calamitous mistake leading to a goal.

Campbell was the last true top class CB IMO.

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Originally Posted by Chippy

Forgive me. I meant central defenders.
You will need to do better than Kos. Very average.

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:lol: no

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Originally Posted by Chippy

Sol Campbell was the only decent defender Wumger ever signed. We can all create the list of dog shit he has signed in order to replace the best back 5 we have ever had. Ray Parlour has a great story about the Steponovs signing. He thought it was actually a wind up that we had signed him.
Also very sad to see so many empty seats. However, you cannot blame people not bothering to watch that shite.

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Don't forget Silvestre, a reject from Man U some pretended was a good signing when we signed him :lol:

The list of bad defenders is endless, he's never had a clue about defending tbh, that's part of the problem.

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Originally Posted by Özim

Not being funny but Mertersacker has never been that good.

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Yes. Over a hundred caps for Germany and won a World Cup
Stop being ridiculous.

We certainly didn't get his best years although he played a big part in us winning the FA Cup last year with an exceptional performance in the final.
Reckon he'll be a good defensive coach if Wenger lets him be one.

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Originally Posted by Letters

Yes. Over a hundred caps for Germany and won a World Cup
Stop being ridiculous.

We certainly didn't get his best years although he played a big part in us winning the FA Cup last year with an exceptional performance in the final.
Reckon he'll be a good defensive coach if Wenger lets him be one.

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Remember when Klinsmann took over and Mertersacker alongisde Metzerlder were a distaster and both got slaughtered by pundits for their performances, Germany did well in that tournament and got to the semis but the centre of defence was their weakness, he wasn't much kop for Werder Bremen either.

Lowe has been in charge all the time since then and the guy for some reason had a soft spot for him, in the same way Deschamps has a soft spot for Giroud, sometimes managers just like certain players for some unknown reason.

The odd decent performance here and there doesn't make a top player, just look at Welbeck, played well the other day but by all intents and purposes is a load of rubbish.

Our defence has been weak since 2006 tbh.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Letters

Yes. Over a hundred caps for Germany and won a World Cup
Stop being ridiculous.

We certainly didn't get his best years although he played a big part in us winning the FA Cup last year with an exceptional performance in the final.
Reckon he'll be a good defensive coach if Wenger lets him be one.

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Winning a world cup is not a certain measure of quality. Lots of average players have medals, Meetesacker has been no more than average his whole life. Wenger is blind when it comes to CBs and defence as a whole. Kos is just the best of a bad bunch. Thats not saying much. Campbell was our last quality CB

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Letters

Yes. Over a hundred caps for Germany and won a World Cup
Stop being ridiculous.

We certainly didn't get his best years although he played a big part in us winning the FA Cup last year with an exceptional performance in the final.
Reckon he'll be a good defensive coach if Wenger lets him be one.

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Not many people rate Merts. He gets a lot of shit on here but I agree with you on this one. I'm not going off the World Cup, just off the difference I've seen him make to the Arsenal team.

People forget how crap Kosienly was in his first season for us. Merts joining the team is what gave us some structure and helped get the best of Kosienly. I'd even argue that if we'd have kept Gabriel and played him alongside Merts we'd have seen more consistent solid performances from Gabriel. Same goes for Mustafi if he had arrived earlier at Merts peak.

Our defence has never been perfect but when Merts was at his best for us, we could keep clean sheets and grind out results.