Shkodran Mustafi: Cack On Top

[Brown Gooner]

Howedes

Did you watch the Juventus - Napoli match ?
Once Chiellini got out with Howedes moving in CB, Howedes/Benatia reminded me of Senderos/Djorou days.

Napoli were running rings around their box

Howedes is coming back from a long injury. He was decent at Schalke.

Plus some players do better with their NTs than club sides. In that respect, Howedes Fellow Germans Schurrle and Podolski come to mind .

 

[ptrcopp]

I feel like Mustafi is similar to Otamendi at Man City, and actually Gabriel when he was here. All came to the BPL from the Spanish league where all three were the aggressive CB in a defensively disciplined team.
They are all clearly very good centre backs and they have all shown it, but they have shown it with direction and coaching.
Otamendi looked a liability for City, then you get 2 managers in a row that coach him properly and suddenly City do not look awful without Kompany. And Gabs has gone back to Spain and is looking the real deal again. However it’s not like Gabs and Mustafi didn’t show flashes of it here. And Manolas is similar; solid in Serie A, the liability against ‘Pool
Maybe we get a leader in to replace Kos (but merte really) but I think with positional and defensive coaching this team could do something special.

 

[El Granit-Coq]

No, Mustafi is not a good defender.

 

[TakeChillPill]

Hope we can recoup a decent fee for him, come on PSG make a bid

 

[Stannis]

it's nice going back and reading the first 7 pages

The initial euphoria of most signings is a great drug



I wonder if Kosc's injury has saved his career

 

[OnlyOne]

Honestly dislike this guy so much that when someone backed into my car today I blamed him, ******.

 

[Artisan]

Possibly the worst defensive signing we've ever made under Wenger.

He's obviously a lot more talented than what he's shown and could improve under new manager, but it shouldn't matter when you play as badly as he has over the past year. Needs to be sold no matter what.

 

[albakos]

Possibly the worst defensive signing we've ever made under Wenger.

and many many more

 

[Artisan]

and many many more

Those were just less talented players, none of them cost anywhere near us as much as Mustafi. More importantly none of them cost us also as much on the field as Mustafi has since none of them ever got such a perplexingly protracted run in the first team by the manager.

The only defender that I might consider as competition is maybe Gallas, not because he was anywhere even close to being as bad as Mustafi but because he was the captain and we were on course to winning the league before him and team **** their pants.

 

[TakeChillPill]

Now our 4th choice cb

 

[albakos]

Those were just ....

Ok

 

[Artisan]

Ok

Not sure the trophy argument works when you've got Silvestre who won more trophies than someone like Mustafi will ever go on to win as one of the players in your posts. Wasn't riding the bench either like Mustafi at the WC.

 

[KrissKringle]

Wasn't riding the bench either like Mustafi at the WC.

Mustafi played at the WC as a RB until he got injured and it was curtains for him.

 

[Artisan]

Mustafi played at the WC as a RB until he got injured and it was curtains for him.

He was a bench player throughout the group stage, then started 1 game in which he got injured.

 

[KrissKringle]

He was a bench player throughout the group stage, then started 1 game in which he got injured.

http://www.uefa.com/worldcup/season=2014/teams/player=250007624/index.html

 

[Ricardinho]

Valencia had our pants down when it came to the fee. We'd do well to get £25m back for him.

He's decent on his day but far too inconsistent. Some of his lapses in concentration are just unforgivable.

 

[Artisan]

http://www.uefa.com/worldcup/season=2014/teams/player=250007624/index.html

that corresponds with what I said? He was a bench player through out the group stage, then got injured in the one game he started against Algeria

 

[KrissKringle]

that corresponds with what I said? He was a bench player through out the group stage, then got injured in the one game he started against Algeria

Misread that a bit. I thought you meant he was entirely on the bench in the group stage.
Either way, Mustafi is better than Silvestre ever was. He can still be turned good under some strict defensive coaching to eliminate the problems in his game.

 

[albakos]

Not sure the trophy argument works when you've got Silvestre who won more trophies than someone like Mustafi will ever go on to win as one of the players in your posts. Wasn't riding the bench either like Mustafi at the WC.

Have they been into a World Cup winning team though ?
Mustafi played 3 matches, until he was injured and then Lahm was moved from DM back to his natural RB role.

Silvestre didn't play in any World Cup match and Squillaci played in the opening 2-1 loss vs. South Africa in 2010.

I know he had some truly horrible matches this season, but the way some of you are singling him out like the worst signing ever makes it sound like he is the only reason why our season has collapsed; that is really really ridiculous.

 

[Camron]

Have they been into a World Cup winning team though ?
Mustafi played 3 matches, until he was injured and then Lahm was moved from DM back to his natural RB role.

Silvestre didn't play in any World Cup match and Squillaci played in the opening 2-1 loss vs. South Africa in 2010.

I know he had some truly horrible matches this season, but the way some of you are singling him out like the worst signing ever makes it sound like he is the only reason why our season has collapsed; that is really really ridiculous.

I haven't given up hope that there's is a defender in there, judging from his early work. Let's see what he does under an Allegri. Still think he's squad rotation at best.

If it makes things any better, none of our defenders look like more than squad rotation though. Mavro too early to judge.