• ! ! ! IMPORTANT MESSAGE ! ! !

    Discussions about police investigations

    In light of recent developments about a player from Premier League being arrested and until there is an official announcement, ALL users should refrain from discussing or speculating about situations around personal off-pitch matters related to any Arsenal player. This is to protect you and the forum.

    Users who disregard this reminder will be issued warnings and their posts will get deleted from public.

Per Mertesacker: The BFG

Aevi

Hale End FC
Moderator
He doesn't have a proper thread, and is an important topic of discussion, so made this one.

Anyways, now that I have had time to mull over the Chelsea game and release some anger, I have come to this conclusion:

A slow but tall defender can work, and there are multiple cases of this just in the PL, ie. Terry, Dann, Demicheles, etc.

The issue stems from the fact that Per makes absolutely no use of his height, with his greatest attribute, "positioning", being a mere excuse for why his pace isn't an issue. Height can be used for several things; being heading, strength, and intimidation. Per is proficient at none of those, and that's an absolute travesty. His air game is surprisingly nonexistent, as his slow motion movement comes with no ability to jump. He has decent strength, but not considerably to say it's an attribute of his. If he is strong, he doesn't show it, as he doesn't often enough shield players away from the ball. Then there is his intimation, and who are we kidding, his smiling face leaves all attackers confident they can steam roll him. He is as scary as ****ing Mike Wazowski. There is no aggression in him, no fight, he's pure talk, and that isn't even intimidating. It's uplifting to the team, but means nothing to opposition. He absolutely needs to play to his real strengths, or else he is done for me.

Then we have all of his weaknesses, those being pretty obvious. He is slow af, which gives quick players (or any decently fast player actually) the ability to run in behind easily. I also want to highlight his positioning, which is very annoyingly bad. A lot of people here seem to think he is adept at it, but he really isn't. His speed makes him poor at the offside trap, which he should leave to Kosc by being slightly ahead of him, but he always seems to lag behind, leading to several mistakes that have happened this season.

Needs to get better, because Gabriel is looking at his spot now. I appreciate him, but he needs to step up, or step down.
 

remains

Active Member
Pathetic display yesterday from our supposed experienced head. I'd give Gabriel his chance now if I were Wenger.
 

CurryFlavoured

Established Member
We need a new physical defender of his type to replace him. Not sure about Gabriel yet, I was hoping it could be Chambers but he hasn't developed.
 

Impact

Established Member
We mustn't go overboard with our criticism. Per is a good defender (and a leader). You cannot accomplish what he has done in the game without being a good player. But ultimately, for the elite level, with the style we want to play, he isn't what we need. A ruthless manager would be looking to move him on for an elite talent or player better suited to our style. Not sure I see Wenger doing either.
 

Gooner_girl14

Active Member
We mustn't go overboard with our criticism. Per is a good defender (and a leader). You cannot accomplish what he has done in the game without being a good player. But ultimately, for the elite level, with the style we want to play, he isn't what we need. A ruthless manager would be looking to move him on for an elite talent or player better suited to our style. Not sure I see Wenger doing either.

Sadly I agree with you that Wenger will not move him on. Wenger is very loyal to his players, and if the likes of Rosicky, Arteta and Flamini are still in his plans (all of whom contribute far less than Per), it'll be some time yet before he gets around to letting Per go.
 

Dj14

Well-Known Member
Koscielny needs to up his game tbh especially with Mertesacker being so slow koscielny gets caught ball watching and we end up with Mertesacker trying to run back and make a tackle from behind
 

razörist

Soft With The Ladies, Hard With The Mes

Country: Morocco
Its not his lack of pace that concerns me, it wont change and the responsibility lies with Wenger to replace him. The problem is his concentration for me. I dont know what to call it exactly but look at what he did with that first chance of willian. He just kicks the ball towards him and gifts a big chance to chelsea. He has increasingly given the ball away in these situations where he should just clear it. Really annoying.
 

Lilwizzle

Established Member
Consistently been the worst player in our starting XI for the last two seasons now.

That red card was a combination of poor decision making, poor positioning and plain stupidity. Forget about looking away from the ball just as you're about to make the tackle(rookie stuff), but why the **** did he not slide with his strong foot? Watching the direction of Costa's touch means he would have either got the ball or missed both if he had tackled with his right foot, such a strange decision from our 'leader'.
 

skip spence

Well-Known Member
Per hasn't turned into a **** defender over night, he's still a very solid and reliable player. Koscielny hasn't played well lately, more often than not it's the Frenchman's rash decisions that puts Per in a tight spot with pacy players breaking the off-side trap.

That said, Per made a bad mistake yesterday that cost us the game, there's no two ways about it.
 

Lilwizzle

Established Member
Per hasn't turned into a **** defender over night, he's still a very solid and reliable player. Koscielny hasn't played well lately, more often than not it's the Frenchman's rash decisions that puts Per in a tight spot with pacy players breaking the off-side trap.

That said, Per made a bad mistake yesterday that cost us the game, there's no two ways about it.
It hasn't been overnight though. Think back, last season, Mert was the biggest underperformer in the worst start to a season in 36 years. He was even worse than Wele!!
 

Jazz

Active Member
Single handedly cost us the game. We didn't start well sure, but we easily could have grown into the game as we've done before and as we still did with 10 men but at that point it was too late. Needs to be benched long term if not for his average performances all season but at least to show that you can't make such huge, costly, braindead mistakes and get away with it. It's not like he was a youngster who got thrown in. I don't think we discipline our players enough which is a major issue that contributes to the complacency in our game.
 

skip spence

Well-Known Member
It hasn't been overnight though. Think back, last season, Mert was the biggest underperformer in the worst start to a season in 36 years. He was even worse than Wele!!
Didn't actually watch us much during that period, luckily perhaps. Think Per has been doing well so far this season though (you know, not yesterday obviously). His lack of physicality and aggression is annoying though. Never seen a CB that tall losing so many aerial duels.
 

skip spence

Well-Known Member
Single handedly cost us the game. We didn't start well sure, but we easily could have grown into the game as we've done before and as we still did with 10 men but at that point it was too late. Needs to be benched long term if not for his average performances all season but at least to show that you can't make such huge, costly, braindead mistakes and get away with it. It's not like he was a youngster who got thrown in. I don't think we discipline our players enough which is a major issue that contributes to the complacency in our game.
Really, you don't punish a player for making a mistake. It's not like Per wasn't aware or complacent to the fact that you can't slide in on someone like that that.
 

Vinci

The Sultan of Unai

Country: Netherlands
The main reason he hasn't done that well is because we try to play a high line, sort of. We don't execute it that well which leaves Per in two minds whether to push up or drop off, which has cost us dearly several times.

If we do, though, Per should be the one to push up and Koscielny should drop off so he can cover with his pace if the offside trap doesn't work. Which, granted, isn't playing either of them to their strength. The main issue is, though, that the team doesn't press as a unit, which we have to do in order to make a high line work.

Yesterday was a great example of this, Ramsey pushes up and presses the opponent, but Flamini is back paddling all the way into his own half which makes it very easy for any team to run at the defence and pick out a through ball to the striker who has chosen a position near Per, who in turn is never going to catch up once the pass is made. Per brings down Costa, game over.

We look so much better with Coquelin because he isn't just ten times better than Flamini, he also plays more on the front foot, which makes the high line work. All in all, though, we shouldn't be dependent to the degree that we are of a single player to make the system work.
 

BBF

Real name: Ragip Xh...

Country: Netherlands
He's a good defender, but his physical ineptitude outweighs any defensive intelligence. He needed benching 2 years ago.

You look at Bayern, and they had Van Buyten who was very similar. Lost his legs (wasn't really that fast to begin with but still) and they benched him 3 seasons in a row whilst Per's undroppable. We could be doing so much better.

Good servant by the way. Stabilized the defence in a period of calamity in his second season.
 

Latest posts+

Top Bottom