What do we do when Vermaelen is fully fit?: Page 5 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

What do we do when Vermaelen is fully fit?

kamikaze

kos has been in great form. just needs to cut out the penners - i'm sure it's true that no one gets past him in training, but we def saw him get burned a few times earlier in the season (when he was still adjusting to the league). i do like his crisp passing as well.

Klaus

Keown chips in with his pocket change as well:

Keown admits he did not expect to see such confident performances from the 25-year-old in his first season, but he has formed an excellent defensive partnership with Johan Djourou.

Keown said: "He may have been sent off on his debut against Liverpool, but Koscielny has impressed me a lot since joining from Lorient in the summer.

"Wenger probably bought him thinking that, at 25, he was not going to use him too much this year, but the injury to Thomas Vermaelen has given him no choice. It has accelerated his development."

The injury that has kept Thomas Vermaelen out for almost the entire season has allowed both Koscielny and Djourou to shine, but Keown expects that when Vermaelen returns, he will be first choice alongside Koscielny.

He added: "He and Vermaelen will eventually make an excellent pairing. They are good technically and very mobile, which is more important than being physical these days."

Rex

Have no idea what will happen when we have all of Kos, TV and JD fit and available. Fairly certain Kos was bought as a starter, but the form of JD must give Wengie selection problems, at least initially. Either way I am happy we have them all. Lots has changed since pre season when a bunch of people wanted to get rid of Djourou ASAP!

IMO TV is the best CB we have. Not so sure that him and Kos will work that well together though. They are both prone to rushing into situations, and they both want to be pro active trying to get ahead of the forward and break up play. One player like that is really good, but both CBs? This may of course not be a problem, but it could be.

Another aspect to take under consideration is that JD and Kos work well as a pairing. Do you automatically break that up when TV is fully fit? (Which for me probably means next season). Wengie persisted with a malfunctioning CB pairing in Gallas/Toure because they were individually our best CBs. Will he think differently this time around? (And I´m not saying that a Kos/TV pairing automatically means trouble).

kamikaze

having 3 really good CBs doesnt seem like much of an issue given the number of matches we play. i dont think we really need to worry about it.

Burnwinter

Adams, Bould, Keown - remember those guys causing no end of headaches and problems.

Claudius

We are unlikely to have to deal with having all three healthy for long spells, so this is really not an issue. Whoever is healthiest and most on form should play

Clrnc

Not to mention, Djourou and Kos wouldn't mnid being dropped as well. One just battled back from long term injuries which we always kept faith in, the other was a unknown till Wenger bought him. Not like they are big names who will demand game time

est

I'm pretty sure both DJ and Kos would be pissed if they were dropped for Vermaelen. Footballers are an egoistic lot. What was before this season has little significance as both have had some excellent performances and probably feel like they've earned their place in the starting XI.

It will be a difficult task for Wenger to keep all three happy.

YounGunner

It brings back memories of when we signed Diarra and in the start of the season everyone was looking forward to having a proper DM only for Flamini to hit solid form early in the season. We couldnt really drop Flamini even though Diarra was probably the better player.

Similar situation here. The partnership has been too good to drop but Vermaelen will get his chance.

Big Willie

I doubt anyone got overexcited about Diarra other than the fact that he was a youngster who was highly rated by Chelsea and jumped ship to join us. Most people back then were expecting Gilberto to come into the side that season (and rightly so after the season he had prior to that) but Flamini performed beyond expectations. Diarra on the other hand thought he should be starting games despite proving nothing and accused Arsene of promising him a certain number of games (which I'm pretty certain he didn't but oh well, things change) and forced himself out of the club much in the same way. Comparing Koscielny or Djourou to that big headed cunt is an insult.

kamikaze

they'll all play, it'll be fine, though it goes against the conventional wisdom of keeping your back five constant.

Rex

At Arsenal of all places I don´t think you have to worry much for playing time if you just have one player between you and being on the pitch.

Look at Chamakh! He certainly wasn´t bought as a starter - and he is so fatigued that he himself claims that he is suffering from burn out...

Claudius

Funny how Chamakh largely gets a bye for admitting that he is not in Premier League condition, while Arshavin gets abused for being lazy despite being probably our most productive attacking player statistically this season.

Qwiss

Caligula wrote:
Funny how Chamakh largely gets a bye for admitting that he is not in Premier League condition, while Arshavin gets abused for being lazy despite being probably our most productive attacking player statistically this season.

Theres a difference between ending up lacking fitness from working too hard and not working hard enough though 😆

In fairness Wenger handled Shava perfectly, few weeks off gave him both a break for his fitness and a kick up the arse by showing him he's not untouchable.

goon

Arshavin had a few poor games work rate wise but in general people have been far too harsh. There were games where he worked his socks off but was poor and all he'd get was more accusations of being lazy.

Claudius

As QS noted, Wenger managed the situation well. Look at how well Clichy has played in the last few weeks on the same flank as Arshavin. That's because Arshavin is spinning his hamster legs to get back on defense and help out.

Mirth

Caligula wrote:
Funny how Chamakh largely gets a bye for admitting that he is not in Premier League condition, while Arshavin gets abused for being lazy despite being probably our most productive attacking player statistically this season.

Arshavin got plenty of leeway regarding his fitness when he joined Arsenal two years ago. If Chamakh complains about fatigue next season I doubt many will sympathize with him.

Burnwinter

Arshavin's attitude has been rather good this season. He has certainly practically stopped mouthing off to the press - I for one really appreciate the (relative) silence.

Claudius

Any defense that concurrently has Clichy and Koscielny is at high-risk of committing an error. It'll be good to see Vermaelen back. Koscielny might one day turn out to be a superstar defender. Certainly, there are aspects of his game where he is better than his peers at Arsenal, but there are too many moments of imbecility for him to be a dependable first choice. I want to love him, but just can't.

Really makes you feel sorry for Sagna who, this season, has been solid as a rock.

Burnwinter

Koscielny fucked up badly under pressure and cost us a good run at a trophy in extra time.

However Wenger works on the whole of a player's performances, not the special moments. It's both a strength and a failing of his, he looks at the romance and incident of football, the critical points, the one percent efforts and he can't see them - he just sees the statistical expectations and the bell curve of results of the whole team.

Therefore we'll persist with Koscielny I would imagine.

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