JazzG wrote:
jones wrote:
Bit of a lazy analysis, players do develop over the years both for the good and the bad. Alderweireld was a failure at Atletico and they couldn't wait to get rid of him. Savic who was a failure at Manchester City is now a success and starts under Simeone. Similar with Mustafi who was one of the best defenders in Europe when he was in Spain, lots of different variables which determine whether a player turns out good or bad.
I agree, I am over simplifying things but both those players in question were doing very well for Southampton when we were linked but as usual we leave things too late. With Van Dijk it was even earlier, he was talking about how he was honoured to be linked with Arsenal while he was still at Celtic. Then you look at our record of signing CBs in the last 10 years it makes you wonder. Maybe with the new coach our current CBs will look better?
I'm almost certain this will be the case. Almost everything about our defensive setup was a shambles and was almost deliberately put in place to expose the centre halves. The complete lack of defensive shape when without the ball, the haphazard positioning of full backs and midfielders when we have the ball, the absent training when it comes receiving a ball under pressure, passing it into areas instead of under a team mate's feet, the poor defensive contribution from our attackers and the overall carefree attitude of defending whenever anyone feels like it. I genuinely have no idea what the fuck Wenger, Primorac and Banfield have been doing in training because it sure as shit wasn't emulating real match situations.
Think about it differently. Mustafi has been very impressive for Valencia to the point Barcelona considered signing him, Kolasinac was in the Bundesliga team of the season and monitored closely by City and Bellerin has shown plenty of times that he can compete with Europe's best in the CL for us. Yet we conceded more than Newcastle fucking United over a full season, even West Brom who are dead last have conceded just five more than we did.
Emery must be ecstatic about coaching this shambles because there's very little chance he doesn't massively improve them. He had to field the likes of Carrico and Kolodziejczak in a European cup final and managed well enough, even if he's no defensive specialist like Simeone or Der Zakarian. He's basically the complete anti-thesis to Wenger in terms of management style, Wenger sends the kids out to express themselves while Emery is literally giving them instructions and tells them exactly what to do and when to do it. I wouldn't mind an experienced short term fix like Sokrates until some of our youngsters (Chambers, Holding, Mavropanos) can make the step up but I'm not worried either way, between Mislintat and Emery for the first time in more than a decade I'm not worried about us taking the right decision
