Vermaelen Surgery?

[IBK]

Or you both could be mental?

FWIW I see the potential in Kos I just don't think he's at a stage yet where he can perform at a high level every week.

Moreover our alleged lack of defensive drills in training will not do him any favours as he needs to learn and to an extent be babysat.

I think Kos can be quite useful as a 4th choice, he really isn't a bad back up option.

I think Kos could be very good. But I think its near impossible to evaluate the relative quality of our defence against players from other clubs when the cover they have from midfield is non-existant; the line they hold is suicidally high; our interminable possession game almost invites the opposition to pull us out of shape, and we neither attack the box or exploit set pieces - meaning that our defenders cannot train to hone this side of their game.

[Özim]

It's a sad state of affairs when a 26 year old defender can't stand on his own two feet and thus still needs babysitting.

As has been said before, good defenders are good defenders regardless of who is beside them, they don't need to rely on others to make them look good.

There's an awful lot of excuses for Koscielny's poor play, he's not a 19 year old kid at the end of the day.

[Cripps_orig]

It's a sad state of affairs when a 26 year old defender can't stand on his own two feet and thus still needs babysitting.

As has been said before, good defenders are good defenders regardless of who is beside them, they don't need to rely on others to make them look good.

There's an awful lot of excuses for Koscielny's poor play, he's not a 19 year old kid at the end of the day.

[Joker]

Oh dear, we're going to have to play either Koscielny, Squillaci or Djourou with Mertersacker until at least November it seems. God knows how many points we'd have lost by that point, and how many defensive calamities we'd have had to endure. What awful planning from Wenger and the board, he should have bought Cahill in the transfer window, if he had our defence would have had at least a semblance of competence assuming Metersacker and Cahill would have started most of the games until Vermaelen came back.

I don't know what's happened with Wenger. He used to be a smart manager, now he's one of the least capable managers in the EPL IMO.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Arsenal.com say he'll be back in training in a month, which I think will be when the next international break is.

[AKBapologist]

Weren't the same people saying we shouldn't make excuses for Koscielny blaming Zack Knight for Boltons defensive shocker vs Liverpool?

Reality is that you need a stable back 4. If you can get the same 4 players playing 20 games or more they'll be half decent. All this chopping and changing throughout the side is no good.

[Daniele]

Stepanovs was a far worse player than Kos and Djourou.

[Niall_Quinn]

Weren't the same people saying we shouldn't make excuses for Koscielny blaming Zack Knight for Boltons defensive shocker vs Liverpool?

Reality is that you need a stable back 4. If you can get the same 4 players playing 20 games or more they'll be half decent. All this chopping and changing throughout the side is no good.

If all the defenders in the PL were lined up and we got to pick 5, who would we pick? How far down the list would Kos, JD and Squid be? A long way down I'm thinking. You can have 4 out of 5 at the back doing a great job but one sub-standard player can bring it all down. We're supposed to be a top PL club, that's the image being given out by the board and the manager anyway. 2% away from greatness they tell us. Unlucky all the time, had too many injuries, the fixture list is crooked, Internationals are getting in the way, the refs are against us, excuses, excuses. Fact is we haven't spent enough to be genuinely up there challenging. We have sub-standard players in key positions and - as we have seen (have we not?) - Kos is one of them. Djourou is another, Squid is a joke and Chamakh is shit. You hire shit and you get a shit job. TV is not the best defender in the world but he's up to the job. More like him, less like Kos and JD and the defence is sorted. We should have bought another decent CB in the window. We didn't, we'll pay the price instead in terms of poor results on the pitch.