After six years of being in and out of Arsenal’s radar, Per Mertesacker finally sealed his dream move to north London on deadline day this summer.
Though I feel Arsene Wenger was never keen on the German international, the 8-2 demolition at Old Trafford and Thomas Vermaelen’s ankle surgery forced the manager into signing the former Werder Bremen captain.
Arsenal fans would have loved to seen Gray Cahill or Chris Samba come in, but at just £8 million, Mertesacker represents an astute buy, given his experience, quality and physical presence.
But will the German international succeed at Arsenal?
The overwhelming answer is ‘Yes’, but will he really fit into Arsenal’s style of play?
Our high defensive line regularly leaves the centre-backs exposed and given Mertesacker’s lack of pace, it is certainly a risk to continue with the same tactics. So are we in for a tactical change?
Arsenal’s style of football places a lot of importance on passing, movement and pressing opponents when possession is lost, and for such a style to be effective, it is natural for the defence to push higher up in order to pin opponents in their own half and to provide the midfield with passing options. As long as possession is retained, this is highly effective. But when possession is lost and opponents launch a counter-attack it leaves the centre-backs scrambling back to defend.
In his initial years at Arsenal, Wenger used a solid, deep back four while allowing them to express themselves more and move forward when the occasions demanded. Over the years, that successful tactic has given way to a high defensive line that is shaky and has resulted in a number of goals being conceded on the counter
Last season we mostly played with Laurent Koscielny, Johan Djourou and Sebastien Squillaci at the back.
Squillaci is absolute crap and although Koscielny and Djourou are technically sound and good tacklers, both are really poor at reading the game. This regularly leaves them out of position or moving in the wrong direction and given our style, it was a disaster waiting to happen.
But with Mertesacker coming in and Vermaelen out of action for a few weeks, Arsenal has two excellent readers of the game. It’s extremely unlucky that Vermaelen is out for 2 months and with Koscielny likely to partner Mertesacker until his return, Arsenal need to adopt a defensive back four where by the centre-backs sit deep. This will allow the full-backs to attack more while also getting the best out of Mertesacker and protecting Koscielny’s evident weaknesses.
The 26-year-old German lacks pace and will be caught out easily by agile and fast strikers, especially given that he is new to the quick English league. But he has shown with Germany that if he is allowed to sit deep, he is extremely hard to beat with his imposing figure.
He reads the game in advance and his tackling and distribution make up for his lack of speed. It would give the adventurous Koscielny more freedom and will reduce the pressure on him and when TV5 returns, it would be a mouth watering partnership at the back for fans to behold.
With Mertesacker set to provide the physical edge in set-pieces for Arsenal, his success in open play depends largely on Wenger’s tactics.
With him sitting deep and Vermaelen eventually joining him, they will be able to reduce the goals conceded. That means our forwards have more freedom and one or two goals will generally be enough to secure three points. And we’ll be less dependent on our young keeper to save the day for us every week – It was such tactics that Borussia Dortmund used as they won the Bundesliga last season.
Perhaps Wenger needs to take a leaf out of Klopp’s book for Arsenal to succeed.
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This is a good analysis. I truly hope we change back to a deeper defensive line. The high line we have played so far this year has been an unmitigated disaster. It was arguably defendable when we had a ball control midfield like Fab, Nasri and Wilshere– but they are all gone or injured. Now we have to rely on a group of very fast wingers- Theo, Ryo, Gervinho and overlapping full backs (Sagna, the new Brazilian) we should play deeper and hit teams on the break much more. This style would work better in a 442 imho with ideally RVP playing just behind of Park as the true target man. Then we could get closer to the Invincibles formation and style.
It is a good analysis and so is your 442 with RVP lying off a Park (or Walcott ?). However I doubt if Wenger will change.
koscielny poor at reading the game??? are you a complete idiot? thats his strength, he reads and intercept passes then moves the attack on. he is brilliant at reading the game. against barcelona he was phenomenal, and intercepted many a pass from xavi messi iniesta etc through his footballing intelligence and reading of the game
well said.
this is all rubbish. if you really believe koscielny is poor at reading the game then i cant take anything else you say seriously. i mean honestly he probably the best or at least one of the best. case and point the barca game at the grove.
he rather lacks physique or a an agressive partner who will atack the ball so he can use his reading skills to cover. oh and he’s mighty quick too/
Kozzer and Vermanlen are fine centre halves I rate both equally. The problem lied in when they were injury etc we had to fall bacl in Squallci who is a joke I’m glad we did sign Per realy hope he can deal with the pace of the PL, competition for places is a must in any winning team.
After i read koscielny is poor at reading the game,believe me i stopped reading the article.
he is a class act and one of the best defenders.
Koscielny is poor at reading the game = a joke.