Name the centre back you want us to buy

Gunnersaurus · Post by **Gunnersaurus** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:22 am

He has it in him to be a Sol Campbell.

franksav63 · Post by **franksav63** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:30 am

Gunnersaurus wrote:He has it in him to be a Sol Campbell.

Hmmm... in more ways than one ?....

Its Up 4 Grabs Now · Post by **Its Up 4 Grabs Now** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:33 am

Sol Campbell is gay.

hadareud · Post by **hadareud** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:37 am

Its Up 4 Grabs Now wrote:Sol Campbell is gay.

even if that was true, so what.

franksav63 · Post by **franksav63** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:44 am

hadareud wrote:
Its Up 4 Grabs Now wrote:Sol Campbell is gay.
even if that was true, so what.

Statman, don't worry, it's a spillover (wrong choice of words there) from another thread (player rumour thread, that's all)

CelticTiger · Post by **CelticTiger** » Thu May 14, 2009 12:52 pm

Matt Upson.....

BRAZILLIANT 19 · Post by **BRAZILLIANT 19** » Thu May 14, 2009 1:15 pm

CelticTiger wrote:Matt Upson.....

Would rather have Michael Mancienne.

Bergkamp-Genius · Post by **Bergkamp-Genius** » Thu May 14, 2009 9:06 pm

DB10GOONER wrote:
Irish Gooner wrote:
Bergkamp-Genius wrote:I think what few of us are taking in to consideration is that we quite obviously don't have the coaching staff to get the best out of our defence, the lack of organisation and understanding in our defence regardless of who the personel have been in the last few years has been as much our undoing as any individuals lack of ability.

If you take our first choice back four all four of them are top notch players and would get into most teams in Europe, somehow playing for us they frequently look like liabilities, i've no doubt if you took any one of them or even all four of them and gave them to Fergie, very quickly they would look like the best thing since sliced bread.

Similarly those who talk of the quality of the Everton boys Jagielka, Lescott and Yobo, yes at Everton they all look strong but they are playing in a team that is very well organised and play a very tight hardworking formation, they are everything we are not and i have no doubt if any of the three of them were thrown into the middle of our defence they would suddenly look not quite as solid as they do at Everton and conversely if you gave Moyes Kolo and Gallas to replace what he had he would probably turn them into a pairing that we looked at admiringly.

It's partly because of the open way we play and therefore tend to leave our defence more exposed than most top teams and partly because of the lack of organisation and understanding in our defence and although this is partly down to not having an intelligent leader in the middle of our defence to organise on the go it's mostly down to the coaching.

So although i'd love to see a big dominant intelligent central defender brought in this summer, i think just as if not more important would be a new defensive coach to make sure we get the best out of what we already have and whoever joins them.
Top post mate. I agree individually our defenders are all good players but they aren't a unit and are not organised at all.

Again the blame lies with Wenger for this.
On Toure's form over the last season he would not get into any top team in Europe. I love the guy, but let's be realistic here - he's been awful. He needs a big stopper beside him (as does Gallas). And while I highly rate Sagna his form has dipped dramatically this season too...

This is the point i'm making, you know they are all capable you've seen it, so why is it that they all can look like such liabilities as they have frequently this season, imo it's the way we play combined with the obvious lack of organisation in the defence which is largely down to the coaching and a part of this is as you say is not having a big aerially dominant CB for either Kolo or Gallas to play next to, no matter how bad either has looked you know that given the right circumstances they would flourish so this again is down to the coach, not the ability of the players.

Even though all our back four have looked poor on occasion or quite often this year Chelski and United aside i think if they were made available there would be no shortage of takers for all four of them among europes elite clubs even for Kolo, because most of them can see they are good players and i'm sure take into consideration the circumstances they are playing under at Arsenal.

You just have to look at how much AW in his whole tenure at the club has spent on our back 6 GK to DM compared to how much he has spent on the front five, even allowing for the obvious difference in values of attacking players over defensive players the difference is vast he has spent almost nothing on the defensive six and that is representative of how little interest he takes in it or how important he thinks those positions are and this shows, firstly in the lack of quality depth and secondly the lack of understanding of what types of players both personality and style we really need in those positions and finally how to get the best out of the defensive unit through coaching.

I get annoyed as much as anyone at looking at some of the comical defending that i see from us but on reflection i also understand there are reasons out of the players control that are contributory to them looking like they should be playing for Newcastle and not Arsenal and as i said until those reasons are remedied no matter what players come in there is always going to be an underlying problem and this eventually is going to sap the confidence of each player and each players confidence in those around him regardless of who is playing in our defence.

n7gooner · Post by **n7gooner** » Fri May 15, 2009 12:01 am

On what evdience do people believe Lescott, Taylor, Jagielka, Dunne and Richards are better than Hangeland?

augie · Post by **augie** » Fri May 15, 2009 9:59 am

The two everton players are certainly better all round that the fulham guy....they are good enough with the ball at their feet, are certainly pacy enough and are good enough in the air where as it is generally accepted that the fulham guy only fills the latter need

burns718 · Post by **burns718** » Fri May 15, 2009 10:18 am

rather than look elswhere why not go with the partnership of senderos and djouru. they will have played with each other for a while both in the youth teams and reserves.
we all know that given a run in the team senderos can be a very good player. hes only real bad performances have come against drogba and torres, who aint exactly weak or shit are they.
djouru is your ball player and senderos ur rock. add to that a decent defensive coach and your sorted.

if this were to happen though Senderos would have to be the ever present as he needs the games to flow to keep hes concentration/reading of the game sharp.

helmet on waiting for the abuse

dvbrisgooner1 · Post by **dvbrisgooner1** » Fri May 15, 2009 10:22 am

burns718 wrote:rather than look elswhere why not go with the partnership of senderos and djouru. they will have played with each other for a while both in the youth teams and reserves.
we all know that given a run in the team senderos can be a very good player. hes only real bad performances have come against drogba and torres, who aint exactly weak or shit are they.
djouru is your ball player and senderos ur rock. add to that a decent defensive coach and your sorted.

if this were to happen though Senderos would have to be the ever present as he needs the games to flow to keep hes concentration/reading of the game sharp.

helmet on waiting for the abuse

I half agree with you. Either of those two alongside Gallas - last season Gallas and Senderos played brilliantly together (then Kolo came back from ACN and it all went downhill - Senderos was back to a bit-part role and we all know what happened).

Personally I would be happy with Senderos and Gallas, and appoint Senderos as captain of the team.

Failing that I would take Lescott, Upson, Hangeland - just anyone who is able to head the ball away.