One of the more surprising things in the World Cup final in 2014 was the Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker not getting a starting spot in the center of the Germany defence. Joachim Low, the Germany manager, thought that the pace of the Argentinian offense may be too much for the BFG. Thus, he opted for the quicker defensive partnership of Mat Hummels and Jerome Boateng instead. This proved to be more effective as Germany went on to keep a clean sheet and more importantly, lifted the World cup thanks to a brilliant finish by Mario Gotze. It is a well-known fact that Mertesacker is not as quick as the other defenders in the premier league. However, Per has more than made up for it with his brilliant defensive mind. He has almost perfect positioning and can frustrate the opposition offensive players more often than not. Nevertheless, Per being slow has at times caused Arsenal problems as we were being caught on the counter attack by the Big Teams countless times last season and also, the offside trap was often being exploited. I would prefer not to look at this as an individual problem from Per Mertesacker. What I would like to see it as would be the partnership of Koscielny and Mertesacker. Laurent is quick and he is a daring defender, never afraid of going in for tackles. He can cover up for Per’s slowness at times and has repeatedly bailed him out of trouble. While Laurent is quick, he can be reckless at times, often caught out of position. When this happens, Mertesacker can cover for him with his calmness and experience. Together, these two are an unbreakable unit. A good centre back pairing is crucial to our title challenge and with Per and Laurent together, we may have found one that will last for the ages and ensure Arsenal is competitive defensively in years to come, but perhaps Wenger should make sure they have eztra help for the really crucial big games?
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 16:11:06 +0000
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