I am of the impression Koscielny is far from good in the air. Can’t quite put my finger on why though, does anyone else share that sentiment?
He’s not the best but he is better than Mertesacker who is a lot taller.
Kos is only just over six foot so against strikers like Ibrahimovic and Carroll, who are taller and far more aggressive, he is going to struggle, but his positional sense and awareness compensate for this.
I think with Mustafa playing alongside means we have a CB pairing that is one of the best in the PL.
This is something we have lacked for a long time and we actually have the players to have a more solid and organised defence.
We have a top quality GK, great attacking FB’s, two top class CB’s and a great DM, as wells good cover in all positions.
It’s a shame we have waited so long, but Wenger seems to have sorted out the weak links in the defence and has filled the gaps with some very good players.
Our defence looks a mess and likely to concede everytime there is a corner or a free kick.
None of our back 4 are that good in the air although when Giroud is in the team he defends quite well.
Monreal and Bellerin are next to useless in a jump off the BFG cant jump and Kos gets bullied in the air when the opposition attack the Zone !
When we have had a holding midfielder the defence operates quite well as both CB’s could defend face on .
Not sure what will happen with Mustafi but it must be an improvement. I still hate Zonal marking .
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Not really. You can have all the will in the world to win the ball but if you are jumping from a standing start you are not going to be beating someone like Andy Carroll in the air
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Zonal or man marking on corners should not be a choice of just one. When facing strong players and good headers those should be man marked as much as possible. But should the designated market slip or get beaten there aught to be a guy in that zone who can take over. Atleast it’s what the theory says!
It’s however not that simple of course and I doubt Arsene has specific instructions based on the opposition. I like the idea of zonal marking, but it’s too easy for two players to have a misunderstanding as to who’s responsible for that specific zone. However, a failure with a pure man marking system would often leave the opposing player unchallenged.
Would however be fun if the same rules as in bandy were applied! All defending players must stand on the goal line until the ball is set into play. 
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Misunderstood the thread title at first.
Could easily be titled ‘Arsenal Prosecution- Discussion’.
Semantics I suppose.
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It seems for sone nothing Arsenal does is good
So we spent big money on Mustafi but it has made fuck all difference to our defence, we have leaked 31 in 26 games and continuously concede 2+ in most of our matches vs the top 6.
but spending money guarantees leagues! Instead of persisting with players like Giroud, we should replace RVP and get a real striker. then we would win all the things
Mate we would make a CB partnership of prime Franz Beckenbauer and prime Franco Baresi look like mugs in this setup.
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It was lovely how both center-backs took themselves out from defending for the first goal and no one except the player that was miles away (Welbeck) realized that Mane was completely left alone for the second. We couldn’t have made it any easier for them to score.
If Mustafi has only played for the likes of Everton, Sampdoria and Valencia there is a reason. Another CB who is better than Gabriel, but he shouldn’t be first choice in a big team.
Idea of this topic came from a post by @DavidHillier with whom I share this view on.
How much of our defensive shambles is really a personnel issue - and is it possible to fix this nightmare tacically without any re-enforcements?
Intrigued to hear what fellow Gooners have to say.
P.s. responses more elaborative than ‘sell Mustafi’ would be appreciated
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It’s both.
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Definitely more player based than anything in my book but then again when you don’t have adequate cover you are always doomed to fail. We needed to bring in sok last summer but also move up whoever we have our eyes on as Koz’s replacement. If we have someone in mind to replace koz that is, but knowing us we probably have zero foresight because we suck.
Answer the question after properly reading it. Thanks
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In before Shammy responds with sell mustafi.
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I’ll answer whatever I want however I want. Thanks.
Ah you suck
I’d go so far as to say Sol Campbell or Tony Adams would suffer as a defender in this system.
Such great defenders would still need a midfield link and this midfielder has to be pretty immense. The ability to get the ball from the defensive third to the opposition half in a matter of seconds (either with an incisive pass or by intelligent forward thinking running). Xhaka could have been that guy but he can’t even make a simple pass.