Central Defence

[Özim]

Yes. The man who has a hundred caps for Germany, most recently as part of their World Cup winning team, is "pure rubbish" and has "never been any good"



He's getting on a bit now and arguably shouldn't be first choice now but man you spout some nonsense.

Correct, always been a liability

He's as slow as a barge, has poor anticipation and isn't even that good in the air, nothing about him has ever screamed out quality.

[Power n Glory]

I think Cech and Coquelin have really papered over the cracks. I don't think either Merts or Kos have been good this season.

[Globalgunner]

TBF Kosc has generally been excellent. Everyone has those off days. However Merts I do not get. We should be easing him out instead of playing him as the default pairing with Koscielny. His positioning is his only attribute, but it is not enough for him to anchor a position in this team. Germany soon realised his faults and he would have been dropped anyways had he not retired.

[Power n Glory]

Kos gets way too much leeway imo. It's only until Merts showed up that he started playing well. It was a good partnership.

[Kano]

That is because Coquelin was protecting them! Papering over the cracks so to say.

I'm not sure how that is so easily decided. Doesn't every defence look less effective when their reliable midfield shield is not there? I thought that was half the point of a DM type of player.

[selassie]

I'm not sure how that is so easily decided. Doesn't every defence look less effective when their reliable midfield shield is not there? I thought that was half the point of a DM type of player.

Yep that's what I thought. At the moment we basically have nobody doing that role which is leading to teams having pretty much a free run at our defence, first 15 minutes yesterday against Liverpool was comical, they just bypassed our Midfield. It happened against Southampton too.

[IBK]

I'm not sure how that is so easily decided. Doesn't every defence look less effective when their reliable midfield shield is not there? I thought that was half the point of a DM type of player.

Yes - just the point I was trying to make.

[Power n Glory]

70% or less pass completion for Ozil, Flamini and Ramsey. Besides not protecting the defence the distribution was really bad yesterday. We'll see if our new signing starts a game soon and I'd be tempted give Rosicky a game. If Theo doesn't sort his shit out as well, push Rambo to the left. Usually dead against such moves but Theo has had way too many days off and it's indefensible.

[IBK]

70% or less pass completion for Ozil, Flamini and Ramsey. Besides not protecting the defence the distribution was really bad yesterday. We'll see if our new signing starts a game soon and I'd be tempted give Rosicky a game. If Theo doesn't sort his shit out as well, push Rambo to the left. Usually dead against such moves but Theo has had way too many days off and it's indefensible.

Yes our distribution from MF has been increasingly non-existent - which has disrupted our attacks, while it's been pourous defensively. If Flamini had been playing alongside Cazorla; or Ramsey with Coquelin, these defects might have been masked, but the double injury situation has been a bit of a disaster.

[selassie]

Yes our distribution from MF has been increasingly non-existent - which has disrupted our attacks, while it's been pourous defensively. If Flamini had been playing alongside Cazorla; or Ramsey with Coquelin, these defects might have been masked, but the double injury situation has been a bit of a disaster.

Yep, was saying this in another thread, we've lost all the qualities we had before in Midfield and it's screwing us.