Quote Originally Posted by Chippy View Post
I know that I will receive much criticism for this comment, but here goes anyway.

I fully understand that the fans are crying out for a defensive Midfielder (which we have now got in the addition of Elneny).

However, my concern is with our central defenders Koscielny and Mertesacker.

I know that Kos puts in a good shift and is dedicated, however, in my opinion, he is certainly not outstanding.

As for Merts, he has a big heart and gets involved, but he is so slow and gets caught out far too much.

I would put Gabriel alongside Kos from now on and use Merts as back up.

We rarely look secure at the back.

Just saying………….
Central Defence isn't perfect and I am not against Merts being dropped for Gabriel but that will not fix the flaws in our team IMO.

The bigger concern and major flaw in our team right now is Central Midfield. They offer the defence pretty much no protection, lack positional awareness and offer little creativity. Central Midfield right now is an abomination and it's completely handicapping the balance of the team. Central Defence is massively exposed and overworked at the moment, they are under immense pressure pretty much every game now.

Before Caz & Coq got crocked Central Defence wasn't an issue, we had the best defensive record in the league because we had Coq who was mopping up in front of them and Caz who was distributing and keeping hold of possession, since they've been crocked our level of performance has dipped dramatically and we are basically struggling in most games, even our recent wins against Bournemouth, Newcastle and Sunderland haven't been easy.

IMO, even if Gabriel replaced Merts we wouldn't see that much of an improvement because opposing teams are getting a free run at our back 4.

Wenger needs to fix Central Midfield and quickly because if he doesn't I think we'll be dropping a lot more points.