Christopher Samba: Page 11 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Christopher Samba

est

Where could we find such a player?

Off the top of my mind, I can't think of many top CBs that tick all the boxes and are available.

I'd take Samba as a squad player. It would also allow Bartley to spend another season on loan.

invisibleman18

Not necessarily better than Vermaelen. Ideally but we certainly need someone at least better than Djourou and Koscielny with whom to partner Vermaelen. There's surely a number of players of that quality out there.

flobaba

Actually, Ideally, we need someone to drill some organisation, communication, and defensive discipline into the entire team. There's surely a number of coaches of that quality out there.

Biggus

But it's the system we play that relegates defending to almost an afterthought, Wenger doesn't care about defending.

asajoseph

We need a defender that gives us what we lack, without creating too many problems elsewhere. It's all very well being good on corners, but until we are allowed to make rolling subs on set pieces, Samba ain't the answer.

Burnwinter

Since only a freaking expensive CB (realistically 15-20+m quid) is going to really improve us over and above training and discipline, does no one else think the whole issue is a distracting sideshow?

I tend to think so. I'd still rather see other areas addressed.

Qwiss

kamikaze wrote:
is samba even better than bartley

😆

Yes, significantly.😐

asajoseph

Burnwinter wrote:
Since only a freaking expensive CB (realistically 15-20+m quid) is going to really improve us over and above training and discipline, does no one else think the whole issue is a distracting sideshow?

I tend to think so. I'd still rather see other areas addressed.

We have two choices: -

1)- buy an experienced, or exceptionally intelligent centre half who requires minimal coaching and development, who will communicate and organise and already has a good grasp of the tactical side of the game. This is the expensive option.

2)- hire a coach who has a clue about defending. This is the cheap option.

Either we do 1), or 2), or we'll continue to be shit at the back.

Burnwinter

I'd prefer (2). We've seen a rolling roster of centre halves, quick slow tall old grizzled loud etc. fail to alleviate our defensive problems.

In short one centre half isn't going to fix things and we won't sign anyone better than Vermaelen anyway.

Captain

A much fabled coach isn't going to make any difference.

Ricky1985

You mean it won't solve all our problems, Capi? 🙁

Captain

😆

It's a nonsense. This idea seemed to develop when Keown came in for a bit to coach during our highly impressive champions league run. That completely ignores what was happening in the league in favour of what? 5-6 games?

We need better quality players. We had Campbell and Toure just six years ago and have gone backwards in quality of personnel and performance every season since; the correlation isn't shocking or unwarranted.

asajoseph

The idea developed after such a long period of incompetent defending, and the same problems coming back year after year.

And it's pretty obvious, I'd have thought.

Captain

It's obvious in so much as every time we downgrade our defensive players, we get worse defensive performances. Central midfield and defensive four have fallen progressively in quality for how many seasons now?

Our offensive quality has routinely fallen for the same length of time more or less but nobody ever says that we should bring in an offensive coach to solve that particular problem; they talk about the quality of player. Strange that.

asajoseph

It's also corroborated by people who've actually been trained at Arsenal.

Worse players make more mistakes. But when the same players make the same mistakes, over and over and over again, and the sorts of mistakes that hardly ever get made at much lesser clubs by much 'lesser defenders', and despite promising to do so the manager seems powerless to actually halt the slide, then it's pretty obvious it's coaching.

As for the difference between attack and defence - not really strange at all. Completely different ways of playing.

Captain

What is the trend behind going from the invincibles to what we are now?

You should find it isn't the coaching.

lorddulaarsenal

You guys are right. We'll never be strong defensively under wenger so let's just get the best attack we can.

asajoseph

Captain wrote:
What is the trend behind going from the invincibles to what we are now?

You should find it isn't the coaching.

What's the trend in our defending over that period? I think you'll find the individual players have made next to no difference.

I'm not even sure I can tell what you think Wenger even does. Just a glorified scout or something?

Captain

My bad, our defence and attack have produced exactly the same thing in the last ten years. Nevermind.

Ricky1985

Captain wrote:
It's obvious in so much as every time we downgrade our defensive players, we get worse defensive performances. Central midfield and defensive four have fallen progressively in quality for how many seasons now?

Our offensive quality has routinely fallen for the same length of time more or less but nobody ever says that we should bring in an offensive coach to solve that particular problem; they talk about the quality of player. Strange that.

I really don't see what's so outrageous about this comment? I know that it is because I have the same view and any time I've brought it up in a conversation it's caused a stir.

We need better defenders and better midfielders. Sagna and Vermaelen make by far the least number of mistakes out of our defenders, and that's not a coincidence.

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