Koscielny at right-back – why not?

‘We have Jenkinson, we have Koscielny – who has been educated as a right-back – we have Djourou who can play right-back.’

Last week, when I read what Arsene Wenger said this, I initially dismissed most of the options as ridiculous, assuming that it was obvious that Jenkinson would cover long-term absentee Sagna whilst he recovers.

Now for me I am not actually keen on seeing Djourou ever again at centre-back, and after his cameo at full-back against Blackburn, I certainly never wish to see him there for nay period, but on reflection I am reconsidering Koscielny. I did some research and lo and behold and unsurprisingly, as Wenger was unlikely to be wrong, he did indeed spend his youth and early professional career at right-back.

Now I am not against Jenkinson, per say, but I am beginning to feel we might have a real opportunity in November to reorganise the back four into one of huge experience when our Vermaelen returns to the centre, as he undoubtedly will. I am sure that in August when we invested the money in Per Mertesacker, Wenger saw him playing alongside our inspirational Belgian, and let’s face it, does look a strong potential pairing. However, this would seem harsh in many ways on the ever determined, ever committed and undoubtedly talented Koscielny. I am a huge supporter of Kozza and always recall the positivity of Arsenal defensive legend Nigel Winterburn when speaking about him last March towards the end the season:

‘Obviously I always look at the defence because I played defensively and the one player that I think will turn out to be a big, big player for this football club is [Laurent] Koscielny.’

‘I love his mental strength. I remember a game early in the season when he had a clash of heads and he went down and I was thinking, ‘Oh, a foreign player, I would love to see what happens here.’

‘But he was straight back up and the next tackle, he went into a 50/50 and that for me shows great mental strength. He still makes one or two errors but I don’t like judging a player over six months or a year, I like to judge a player over a couple of seasons.’

I totally agree with Winterburn and am wondering whether the return of Vermaelen and the unfortunate leg break for Sagna gives Wenger the opportunity to incorporate all three of our top central defenders in the same back four by deploying Kozza at right-back. Given that we will certainly be running with Santos at left-back, this to me looks a very solid and experienced defensive unit to potentially line up against Stoke at home and Chelsea away, if Vermaelen is on schedule.

Bottom line is that if you are a good defender as Koscielny is 90% of the time, he will be able to pick up the right-back duties easily. He may not give us a rampaging energetic overlap that Jenko does, but the youngster is worryingly out of position too often straight after this surges and now potentially another in the sickbay. I recall Redknapp for West Ham and Keegan for England deploying Rio Ferdinand at right-back early in his career and similarly Sol Campbell played there frequently early on. In both these high profile cases this improved their abilities later on in their illustrious careers.

So in conclusion, I would not wish to see Kozza dropped, particularly after his superb display last night in Marseilles, but I am as desperate as the next Gooner to see the ‘Verminator’ back to forge a partnership with Mertesacker, and think this re-jigged back four with Koscielny and Santos has an excellent blend of strength, balance and experience for a tough November and December schedule.

I would be interested to hear the views of the Gunnersphere readers.