I agree with this. Although he’s certainly better than Vertonghen.
I generally think Arsenal fans have overrated his qualities. He’s a good defender but he’s error prone and is guilty of being responsible for us conceding a lot of really soft goals. He’s particularly weak dealing with crosses as his positioning is often awkward.
I’d much rather we signed a new partner for Mustafi and worked on something new.
Brave enough and committed but never as savvy as some think he is. Defo agree hes prone to mistakes.
Would have been better under a more defensive coach probably.
Funny thing is, a lot of our ‘terrible’ defenders were actually rather bloody good both before and after playing our suicidal attacking football.
I reckon Ramos and Boateng would retire after a week with Coquelin falling over his own feet and watching the whole team run up the pitch without the ball.
If he’d spent 4 years playing in a 3 with Chiellini and Barzagli I can’t help thinking he’d probably be mentioned in a list like “XYZ Arsenal defender is not as good as Barzagli, Koscielny, Chiellini, Godin…”.
Wasn’t it Gary Neville that said he’s always going off injured at half time?
And yet it’s United players that are being criticised by Jose over the last few days for not being willing to play through the pain barrier, whereas Kos is always playing hurt.
I’m happy with Mustafi holding and Monreal at CB against Sunderland and Everton if it means he can be ready for Chelsea.
But yeah, I think it’s clear that we need to phase Koscielny into a Ledley King role for us then where he’ll be on the bench a lot but play for us in the big and important games when he’s needed. Mustafi will need to step up.
We were always going to have to start planning for a future without Kosc sooner or later since he’s 31 now anyway, but it’s a shame to hear how bad it’s gotten for him.
Like you said Holding looks very good, Mustafi was brilliant earlier in the season and his dip in form came along with everyone else’s so I’m not too worried. Chambers seems to have done well at Boro too, and with Kosc and Monreal as CB back up I think we’re in a strong position there.