Quote Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie View Post
The problem seems to me to be persisting with Mertesacker and then shoving in a rusty Gabriel and then bench him again when his positioning is poor and actually needs you know game time.

This has been a long running issue, I remember going to watch us last season at the Emirates when down to our bare bones we paired Mertesacker with Monreal, and actually Monreal was the one who looked more disciplined and controlled and Mertesacker was ponderous.

Gabriel and Koscielny could be an excellent central defensive partnership but it's one that should have been deployed at the beginning of the season, Mertesacker is still capable of good games but he's far too slow and for someone so tall he gets taken advantage of too often aerially.
This is true. It goes deeper than who should be playing the next match. It goes back to why we bought these players in the first place, what were we trying to achieve in the long term, what has been the defensive strategy (if we have one). Bothe Chambers and Gabriel looked decent players when they arrived. I can understand why Wenger stuck with Mertesacker in a season where we should have been challenging for a title. But in hindsight, which doesn't count, we'd have been better off getting one of the younger, better defenders bedded in and using Merts as a backup. So now I'm saying we don't need hindsight. We're out of this title hunt and have 10 games to do some prep work for next season without jeopardising our Top 4 Trophy. Might as well do it, unless we intend to go into next season with Mertesacker starting. In which case, shoot me now.