It has been pretty clear for a while that Arteta's plan is to play with a flat back four, and we reverted to three at the back because our defense was leaking goals. I will be amazed if Arteta keeps on playing with three at the back for most of this season after buying Partey.
Also, even when we play with three at the back we still only use two CBs. Tierney or Kolasinac have played as the LCB because Arteta switches to a back four when we are in possession. I honestly don't understand how people think our back three means we play with three CBs when we actually never do that.
In our starting 11, we play with two CBs regardless of whether it is four or three at the back. Our CBs are Gabriel, Luiz, Holding, Mustafi, Chambers, and Mari, not including Saliba and Sokratis. We have eight players for two positions. Sokratis isn't even registered for the Europa League, and he got plenty of minutes for us last year and played well.
Like I said in the earlier post, Mustafi and Chambers also played well last year too. Hypothetically, Saliba could jump ahead of Mari, Chambers, and Mustafi; but that would make him fourth choice for our two CBs positions. He's 19, and he needs to play every week and get used to English football. He won't get that here.
It is definitely a very romantic idea that we'll have a CB partnership of Saliba and Gabriel right now, and 19-year-old and 22-year-old will guide us to the top four, but that idea is pretty ridiculous.
I could care less about what Rodgers does with Fofana. Different coach, different squad, different ambitions. I think Fofana is LCs main defensive purchase this window. LC mostly sell their best defenders. Gabriel is the main defender that we bought, and Saliba is #2.
And yeah, we spent about 30 million on Saliba, and he has three more years on his deal. And yeah, our older defenders wouldn't sell for that amount, but most of them are on the last year of their contract. Mustafi, Sokratis, and Luiz are on the last year of their deals. Including Özil's wages we'll save about 30 million pounds a year just on their wages, and we won't need to sign any players to replace them.
When we bought him we knew he wasn't ready for the EPL so we let him stay at St. Etienne to develop. Due to injuries and COVID, he played about 11 matches. Last year was not the developmental year that we thought it would be. No one is doubting his potential, but he needs more experience to prove that he can deliver every week. Gabriel already has that experience.
If Saliba plays really well on loan do with think his value will go down? If he sits on the bench for much of the season it will. If he comes back a better player and gets regular minutes, I doubt it would be too hard to extend his contract.
A loan will do him good, and hopefully, next season Gabriel, Holding, Saliba, Chambers, and Mari can be an elite group of CBs.
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