Vermaelen Surgery?

[Niall_Quinn]

Kos is very well suited to this strategy actually, as he has decent recovery skills and reads the game well, Merts lack of pace could be an issue but as long as we stay organised he'll fit in fine.

I don't get this at all. Are you saying Kos may have to account for Mertesacker's deficiencies? Kos can barely keep his own shit together, he's a skin of the teeth defender with even the simple stuff stretching him to his mediocre limit. If Mertesacker doesn't give us twice as much, pace or none, then we've just thrown £10mill down the drain again, as we did with Kos last year. Some of our defenders are so awful it can make players like Kos look good, but he isn't good by the standards of any other PL team and he wouldn't get in any other PL team. Remember, it was his unique reading of the game and his general inability to kick a ball that started our ongoing collapse.

[Cripps_orig]

Kos is the worst CB we have. If this is true about Vermaelen then we truly are fucked. Tempted to give Miquel a chance. Can't be any worse than Djourou, Toto or Kos.

[Master Splinter]

My prediction of Sagna, Gervinho and Szczesny dying has been brought forward to next week.

Song's children to be our backline by the Spurs game.

Platini's curse is showing great stamina.

Come on Meee-Gwell .

[Darth Vela]

I don't get this at all. Are you saying Kos may have to account for Mertesacker's deficiencies? Kos can barely keep his own shit together, he's a skin of the teeth defender with even the simple stuff stretching him to his mediocre limit. If Mertesacker doesn't give us twice as much, pace or none, then we've just thrown £10mill down the drain again, as we did with Kos last year. Some of our defenders are so awful it can make players like Kos look good, but he isn't good by the standards of any other PL team and he wouldn't get in any other PL team. Remember, it was his unique reading of the game and his general inability to kick a ball that started our ongoing collapse.

That's precisely what I'm saying, Kos has zero leadership but is a damn good defender (I know I seem to be pretty much alone in this so feel free to ignore everything else), Mertesacker knows how to organise and has the leadership to pull it together, I believe the technical term is 'partnership'.

[Özim]

That's precisely what I'm saying, Kos has zero leadership but is a damn good defender (I know I seem to be pretty much alone in this so feel free to ignore everything else), Mertesacker knows how to organise and has the leadership to pull it together, I believe the technical term is 'partnership'.

From what I've seen it's been mentioned Mertersacker isn't really a leader, certainly not a vocal one anyway.

[Flavs]

That's precisely what I'm saying, Kos has zero leadership but is a damn good defender (I know I seem to be pretty much alone in this so feel free to ignore everything else), Mertesacker knows how to organise and has the leadership to pull it together, I believe the technical term is 'partnership'.

no i agree with you son, Kos has done well IMO or at least as well as any other of our defenders who are left to get swamped by our useless DM's

[Darth Vela]

no i agree with you son, Kos has done well IMO or at least as well as any other of our defenders who are left to get swamped by our useless DM's

Glad I'm not going completely mental.

[Niall_Quinn]

Glad I'm not going completely mental.

Just a leettle bit lacking sharpness of sanity because it's a pretty insane situation in defence at Arsenal. All the years we've known the defence is lacking both in terms of players and the tactics and nothing done about it. We brought TV in and one more significant CB at that moment could have made all the difference. We've done the same again this season. It's actually worrying now how much faith everyone is pinning on Mertesacker before he's even played a game, but let's just hope that works out. Flavs makes the point Kos has done as well as any other of our defenders and that's true enough. It;s also the main problem, doing as well as any of our defenders doesn't make you a good defender. Most of our players are 90% good enough, that's the problem. That 10% we are lacking costs us over and over again. It's not just a case of us being unable to compete for the big names. Cahill has only really become a big(ish) name in the last season, we looked at him last season and wouldn't pay the lower price. Cahill's an average PL CB from what I can see. He's sound. He doesn't have those flaws that Kos and JD demonstrate. We should have signed him, we needed him. But Wenger's doing it again, investing his hope in flawed players who aren't suited to this league. And we'll inevitable get the same result as last time.

[Darth Vela]

Just a leettle bit lacking sharpness of sanity because it's a pretty insane situation in defence at Arsenal. All the years we've known the defence is lacking both in terms of players and the tactics and nothing done about it. We brought TV in and one more significant CB at that moment could have made all the difference. We've done the same again this season. It's actually worrying now how much faith everyone is pinning on Mertesacker before he's even played a game, but let's just hope that works out. Flavs makes the point Kos has done as well as any other of our defenders and that's true enough. It;s also the main problem, doing as well as any of our defenders doesn't make you a good defender. Most of our players are 90% good enough, that's the problem. That 10% we are lacking costs us over and over again. It's not just a case of us being unable to compete for the big names. Cahill has only really become a big(ish) name in the last season, we looked at him last season and wouldn't pay the lower price. Cahill's an average PL CB from what I can see. He's sound. He doesn't have those flaws that Kos and JD demonstrate. We should have signed him, we needed him. But Wenger's doing it again, investing his hope in flawed players who aren't suited to this league. And we'll inevitable get the same result as last time.

Rather have Cahill than Djourou, no argument there but the major problem has been lack of organisation at the back as we only had one defender that could take a bit of responsibiltiy on that front, adding one more makes our options at the back a lot more secure, one of Merts or Vermaelen can form a good partnership with Kos and maybe help keep Djourou's head in the right place (i.e. out of the place it seems to get stuck in).Ofc, if it turns out Mertesacker is shit then we're in trouble.

[Niall_Quinn]

Rather have Cahill than Djourou, no argument there but the major problem has been lack of organisation at the back as we only had one defender that could take a bit of responsibiltiy on that front, adding one more makes our options at the back a lot more secure, one of Merts or Vermaelen can form a good partnership with Kos and maybe help keep Djourou's head in the right place (i.e. out of the place it seems to get stuck in).Ofc, if it turns out Mertesacker is shit then we're in trouble.

But don't we have a track record of Kos being shaky (if we are kind)? I agree we have no choices now and we go with what we've got. I wonder when the club knew TV needed surgery? Before or after the transfer window closed? If it was before then Wenger is again saying Kos is good enough to start for us, or maybe JD is good enough. I think they have clearly demonstrated they are nowhere near good enough. Not sure what Wenger is looking for or what he sees in them. He also appears to count Squillaci as a viable option when he speaks about us having enough CBs at the club. This is the heart of it. Wenger says one thing and all the evidence contradicts him.