Laurent Koscielny

[GDeep™]

Like I have been saying for 18 months, and been mocked for on here, he’s in a natural decline now.

 

[krengon]

Cost us the game today.. the defending for the 3rd was almost as criminal as the mistake for the 1st. Amateur stuff. He's just way too error prone to justify being called world class and unfortunately I've to agree he looks to be in decline.. Still a great defender, but can't be trusted to be a leader..

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Beginning of decline sadly can't play 3 games a week too.

 

[A_G]

Don't think it was tiredness that was the issue, just poor decision making. Those mental mistakes are a killer.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

I still love him, he's been a one man army at the back for so long now, to think we've never really have given him the proper protection and proper partners at the back that he truly deserved. If anyone's wasted their best years here it's him. At least he was part of the team that ended the drought and hopefully we can get the Europa League at the end of the season as another trophy for him.

 

[Jury]

Like I have been saying for 18 months, and been mocked for on here, he’s in a natural decline now.

As you've been saying it for 18 months, you might be right now

 

[Trilly]

He may have lost a bit of pace but I’m not too sure about the decline being the reason for today. Was just standard Kos in a big game.

 

[grange]

Like I have been saying for 18 months, and been mocked for on here, he’s in a natural decline now.

Broken clocks and all..

 

[MutableEarth]

Made a rash decision and never recovered. Not the first time we've said that about Koscielny.

 

[Macho]

He’s always pulls stunts like these in the big games tbh. Just does bizarre stuff, like his suplex against Man City a couple seasons ago.

Still 1st cb and you guys will all be on his nuts again probably after the next game.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Never world class.

Good for one major **** up in every very big game.

Koscielny makes more mistakes in a single season than most top defenders do in their entire careers.

This has been my sentiment for years. Koscelny s a good CB but way too error prone, him ****ng up is inevitable, think of how many big games he's dicked about in and had us concede or he gets a red card.

Serious Koscielny without Mertesacker is a liability. No one ever gave Per credit for holding that back line together.

 

[kraphtous]

With his injuries and decline, he needs to be slowly phased out of the first team. Monreal too. They would be fantastic options on the bench/rotation but we need better players for the first team.

 

[dashsnow17]

His defending for the 3rd goal was really poor and disappointing. The terrible pass for the 1st was also disappointing, but I think we have to spot a trend here. It's been a while now that our passing from the back has been very suspect. Kos/Mustafi/Monreal are good passers, but they're still defenders, we can't expect them all to be Kroos.

It feels like the reason they might be making these stupid unnecessary passes is because Xhaka isn't a viable outlet for them. Xhaka didn't make himself available for the pass for the two goals at the start and I'd understand if defenders subconsciously aren't confident in giving him the ball under pressure, so they resort to something riskier.

The same applies to our criticism of Alexis giving the ball away up the pitch. Attackers give the ball away, that's the nature of attacking. It all comes down to Xhaka. He's not solid enough to receive the ball from centre-backs under pressure, and not mobile enough to stop attacks when we've lost the ball.

Blame Xhaka, that's my thought of the day.

 

[say yes]

His defending for the 3rd goal was really poor and disappointing. The terrible pass for the 1st was also disappointing, but I think we have to spot a trend here. It's been a while now that our passing from the back has been very suspect. Kos/Mustafi/Monreal are good passers, but they're still defenders, we can't expect them all to be Kroos.

It feels like the reason they might be making these stupid unnecessary passes is because Xhaka isn't a viable outlet for them. Xhaka didn't make himself available for the pass for the two goals at the start and I'd understand if defenders subconsciously aren't confident in giving him the ball under pressure, so they resort to something riskier.

The same applies to our criticism of Alexis giving the ball away up the pitch. Attackers give the ball away, that's the nature of attacking. It all comes down to Xhaka. He's not solid enough to receive the ball from centre-backs under pressure, and not mobile enough to stop attacks when we've lost the ball.

Blame Xhaka, that's my thought of the day.

Really not sure whether this is satirical or not. Hope it is.

 

[dashsnow17]

Really not sure whether this is satirical or not. Hope it is.

Nope, i'm on the warpath today.

 

[say yes]

Spoiler: What arsenal fans see

Spoiler: What everyone else sees

As Charlie Nicholas said last March before the Bayern game:

“Arsenal will do what they do, they’ll win the game [against Bayern Munich] but they’ll come nowhere close to qualifying because they can’t defend,’ Nicholas told Sky Sports.

Please stop telling me Laurent Koscielny is a world-class defender.’

Ironically of course we didn’t beat Bayern in the end, despite playing fantastically.

Laurent Koscielny conceded a pen and got himself sent off against the run of play.

 

[A_G]

Didn't he get done for Eder's goal in the Euro 2016 final as well?

 

[kraphtous]

Also did his best to make Ukraine nearly knock out France going into Euro 16

 

[Sniper Mik]

T

Spoiler: What arsenal fans see

Spoiler: What everyone else sees

As Charlie Nicholas said last March before the Bayern game:



Ironically of course we didn’t beat Bayern in the end, despite playing fantastically.

Laurent Koscielny conceded a pen and got himself sent off against the run of play.

That Dzeko tackle does my head in. What an incredibly unecessarily daft thing to do

 

[Dokaka]

It's a shame he's never stamped out his "WTF" decisions from his game, because on his day he's world class.

That pass across the pitch for Man Utd's first goal was inexcusable, what in the flying **** was he thinking. If you're in doubt, boot it forwards, not ****ing sideways. He completely sold out Kolasinac. While it wasn't necessarily excusable 5 years ago, you at least hoped it was something that would disappear from his game with age. The fact that he's doing it at the age of 32 is just terrible.

Still, easily the best Arsenal CB over the last 10 years or so. He's had so little help around him throughout his career at Arsenal, it's quite frankly astonishing how well he's done. For every 5 yards a CB from Man Utd/Chelsea has had to cover, Koscileny has had to cover 10.