Laurent Koscielny: Page 61 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Laurent Koscielny

JazzG

Godsend_Gooner wrote:
Funnily enough, I was able to catch Thiago Silva's last few matches at the Confed Cup, PSG and 90% of the time I thought that Kos was almost as good as him if not better. Both have very similar traits as well, inclusive of "lack of organizing skills".

I think that is probably pushing it, did you see Silva against Barca in the CL? He was running the defence for them in that match and generally is just fucking awesome. Rolls Royce defender is what he is, think he is comfortably better than any other CB.

GodsendGooner

JazzG wrote:
Godsend_Gooner wrote:
Funnily enough, I was able to catch Thiago Silva's last few matches at the Confed Cup, PSG and 90% of the time I thought that Kos was almost as good as him if not better. Both have very similar traits as well, inclusive of "lack of organizing skills".

I think that is probably pushing it, did you see Silva against Barca in the CL? He was running the defence for them in that match and generally is just fucking awesome. Rolls Royce defender is what he is, think he is comfortably better than any other CB.

I'd say Koscielny ran the defense for us as well in our win against those fuckers at the Emirates. He did the same against Bayern at Allianz. The overall level of quality of defenders has gone down but dont think there is a huge gap between Koscielny and Silva (Not based on the last 10 odd matches Kos has played).

I'd rate Rio, Kompany, Vidic above him.

JazzG

Not right now they aren't, Kompany has been shown up in the CL for two seasons now and the other two are well past their best. Here is what Maldini thinks of him

http://dailymilan.com/its-an-honor-for-me-to-be-compared-to-thiago-silva-maldini/

In your last year at Milan, you trained with the current captain of the Brazilian team. When you saw Thiago Silva for the first time did you think he’d reach this level?

When he arrived at Milan, He just trained during the first six months and did not play any matches. He Had a good touch but had no sense of teamwork. Gradually he improved his rapport with the team and with others in the defense.

Today, I can say that Thiago Silva has no rival in his position. He is by far the best defender in the world. Sergio Ramos is physically very strong but Thiago Silva is better and much more decisive.

Of all the Defenders today, Does Thiago Silva most resembles your style?

I do not know. Each defender has his own characteristics. I started as a fullback and finished as a central defender. It’s a compliment for me to be compared to him. Especially the way he plays in the area. He is an exceptional player.

GodsendGooner

Great players tend to be magnanimous. Sometimes more than required.

Zidane branded Gerrard as the best in the world above Messi and Ronaldo in 2009. He did it with Scholes too AFAIR.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/mar/13/zinedine-zidane-steven-gerrard-liverpool

I dont disagree to the fact that Silva is a great player, but I'd say Kos is inching quite close to his level but would not get the same recognition as him.

JazzG

http://news.arseblog.com/2013/07/koscielny-lists-five-reasons-hes-happy-at-arsenal/

Koscienly saying he is happy here

Godsend_Gooner wrote:
I dont disagree to the fact that Silva is a great player, but I'd say Kos is inching quite close to his level but would not get the same recognition as him.

I think Koscienly needs a full world class season under his belt before we talk about him being among the top CBs. Not saying he isn't one of the top CBs but don't think he is in the Silva bracket

kamikaze

koscielny has loads of talent, but he's not great in my eyes until he shakes his propensity for making stupid mistakes. until he cuts that out, it doesn't really matter how good he is during the other 92 mins.

Burnwinter

http://justanotherfootballblog.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/kompany-vs-koscielny-who-is-best-cb-in.html

(from May 2012)

The faux scoring over the course of the article is absurd, but some of these stats vs Kompany are quite interesting. The turnovers for Koscielny are a bit damning, but some of the other stats are more encouraging.

Unfortunately they don't have a straight out "defensive errors" category, but I have a feeling it did come up recently (that's why I was looking)?

Mirth

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-koscielny-reminds-me-of-martin-keown-

Mirth

kamikaze wrote:
koscielny has loads of talent, but he's not great in my eyes until he shakes his propensity for making stupid mistakes. until he cuts that out, it doesn't really matter how good he is during the other 92 mins.

He doesn't tend to make those mistakes when he plays regularly though.

kamikaze

not sure i agree with that. i don't think i've ever seen an arsenal CB who passes it straight to the opposition forward once a game like kos does. do that in a home leg of a CL knockout fixture and that's pretty much the entire campaign done right there.

he's obviously a much better passer than say, mertesacker, but he just does stupid shit so often. he takes unnecessary risks. risk-taking is for forwards - at the back, it should be safety first, always.

Klaus

kamikaze wrote:
i don't think i've ever seen an arsenal CB who passes it straight to the opposition forward once a game like kos does.

Mertesacker does it twice a game or so.

Acquisition

I agree with Kamikaze, Koscielny is a very good defender but he is prone to constant judgement lapses and errors. It won't matter that he is brilliant and technically very sound for the entire match, cause people will only remember the highlights. That's why when you ask non Arsenal fans of their opinion on Kos he is very underrated, because all people remember about him are the lapses like the Carling Cup final etc.
This is what separates him from a great defender like Thiago Silva.

Captain

Those same fans will praise someone like Hummels as their dream signing though and he is exactly the same. Most fans barely watch their own team...

Mirth

kamikaze wrote:
not sure i agree with that. i don't think i've ever seen an arsenal CB who passes it straight to the opposition forward once a game like kos does. do that in a home leg of a CL knockout fixture and that's pretty much the entire campaign done right there.

he's obviously a much better passer than say, mertesacker, but he just does stupid shit so often. he takes unnecessary risks. risk-taking is for forwards - at the back, it should be safety first, always.

Yeah, but the thing is, out of all our defenders Koscielny is the one who tends to perform the best against difficult opposition such as a CL knockout fixture.

No doubt he can and has been a bit dopey, but the one mistake a game is a more accurate description of Vermaelen or Senderos.

kamikaze

what's the point of defending brilliantly for 92 mins if you make one dumb mistake that allows a goal? sounds like a bad game to me.

marv3llous

Arsenal only lost 1 of the 18 Premier League games that Laurent Koscielny played the whole 90 minutes in last season.

Mirth

kamikaze wrote:
what's the point of defending brilliantly for 92 mins if you make one dumb mistake that allows a goal? sounds like a bad game to me.

You make it sound like it happens frequently. Last year, Koscielny's mistakes happened during the opening months when his general performance was poor as well. He was out of form and not in the team, it happens.

Tactics

Kos reminds me of Ferdinand; brilliant man marker, very good in the air but prone to brain farts moments.

Love him though.

Btw Is there anything like 'unlucky' defenders? Koscienly's cock ups are mostly fatal, he doesn't get away with them too often. He also scores some freakish own goals, you can't really blame him, but again when it happens so often(relatively speaking), is it all down to bad luck? or is it down to the way he defends?

If 'unlucky' defenders do exist, then I'll class Djourou as a very lucky defender. He makes you feel very uncomfortable but he mostly gets away with his cock-ups, I can't remember him costing us a lot of goals.

Coombs

kamikaze wrote:
what's the point of defending brilliantly for 92 mins if you make one dumb mistake that allows a goal? sounds like a bad game to me.

agreed. good thing kos doesn't play that way.

lorddulaarsenal

Our most important player. Best defender and best attacker

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