Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:
That he is a poor player is not in dispute but i think that even the best CB in the world, van Dijk, would have his work cut out given the frequency of attacks our defence has to deal with. At Liverpool he has a hard working Milner and the immense Fabinho shielding him so he has less to do.
I agree. Mustafi is a very poor defender because he doesn't read the game well and has poor concentration, and he's too slow, short and weak to compensate for those shortcomings.
That said, we have a midfield that can't defend, doesn't work really hard, and consequently leaves the defence far too exposed.
Van Dijk is a good example; he's obviously a top player, but talk of him being the overriding difference between kamikaze Liverpool and the clean sheet machines we saw last season, is a huge exaggeration.
It's a combination of their changing to 3 very hardworking and discplined midfiielders; they had their only real bad spell last season when Klopp foolishly played around with a 4-2-3-1 to try and accommodate Shaquiri in the team, and also another time when he tried Firmino at 10 and Salah up front. Unsurprisingly the removal of Milner or Henderson and the addition Shaquiri made them much more porous defensively, and van Dijk was still there doing his thing.
An even better example is last season [17/18], after van Dijk joined in January. Fabinho hadn't been signed yet and they hadn't really changed the team shape yet in the immediate after-math of Coutinho's departure. They were still high up the pitch, pressing like maniacs and trying to directly replace Coutinho's attacking midfield role. And they were very average defensively, the two legs againat Roma is some of the worst defending you will see at the highest level, outside of Arsenal of course, and van Dijk was right there at the heart of it.
Even this pre-season, and amittedly not too much should be made of it, but without Mané and Salah keeping teams honest and stationed a bit deeper, their midfield perhaps not working quite so hard, they're getting smacked up by everyone. Every time I see a result of theirs they've conceded 3 goals. With Napoli beating them 3-0 at Anfield last time out. Van Dijk was there playing, as was the rest of their starting back 4 and midfield.
What concerns me as far as Arsenal is concerned is I don't see any indication of Emery even contemplating a 3 man midfield. It looks like he is intent on playing Özil or maybe even Lacazette in that attacking midfield/second striker position. And when the guys behind them are Xhaka, Guendouzi and Ceballos each of which can't really tackle and aren't particularly physically gifted, and Torreira, who can do the tackling part but has no physicality or athleticism at all: It all screams porous defence to me, and makes the fact that we already have a weak pool of defenders to choose from all the more concerning.
On the plus side, I think having a front line that has both Aubameyang and Pépé in it, should help us push teams back in the same way Mané and Salah do for Liverpool. And I think it will help if we are able to get in Tierney and a quality centreback. Until we tighten up that midfield though, and have their primary job be to control the game and protect the back four, I think we're going to be vulnerable no matter what we do elsewhere.
I do think we could form a hardworking flat 3 in midfield of Torreira, Guendouzi and Ceballos and it could do the job, but, as I said, Emery doesn't seem interested in that kind of a midfield, and it seems more likely Xhaka is named club captain than is dropped out of the starting XI. The shape and idea behind what the midfield is designed to give to the team is by far the most important part though. Xhaka would have much more chance defensively, too, if he had two hardworking guys next to him that stayed behind the ball and put defending before attacking.
