Skhodran Mustafi

Makes sense.

Any time Coquelin has a poor game im going to just say thay Ozil doesnt protect him.

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I really like him. And I agree with much of what @SRCJJ has to say, personnel isnā€™t the issue here, as we might have known seasons ago, and yet itā€™s more to do with the system and it starts with management. I think itā€™s fair to say that Wenger could be doing more to get this team working together but without going into another strewn out discussion of Wengerā€™s shortcomings, I think weā€™ve got a really good CB in Mustafi.

I, like @Cristo think his ball playing abilities really serve as an important outlet for the team. During his absence, with Kos and Gab, we lacked that outlet to play from the back, to get ourselves forward in many ways and not invite pressure from a team that sniffed out this trait early on. Shkodran often passes the ball through the lines and sometimes into the final third, it makes our lackadaisical build up switch in an instant and can really put the opposition on the back-foot. Combined with his mobile nature, great reading of the game and insta-partnership with Kosh, Iā€™d say we have our most competent CB pairing.

Thatā€™s not to say itā€™s the most polished either; both of Kostafi are prone to a mistake every now and then, sometimes costly. I think leaking goals is more a culmination of things we could all quite clearly outline in an essay worth of text.

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Heā€™s been a great signing and has performed better than I expected. Probably one of the best performing centre-backs in the PL this season.

Completely disagree with this.

I completely disagree with you disagreeingā€¦lol

Defensive and off the ball coaching seemingly non-existent at Arsenal. Poor organisation in most games. It is unquestionably a management and coaching issue and not a personnel issue. Heā€™s so far beyond finished on a footballing level now that itā€™s nonsensical that heā€™s still at the club. Weā€™ve known that for years though and heā€™s still here. Then thereā€™s the possibility that the replacement is no different to Wenger.

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Did someone click the wrong button? :laughing:

Haha I did digress about Wenger but initially based it off the whole thing about personnel like Mustafi not being the problem itā€™s the coaching. Could have easily have gone in the Wenger thread though lol.

Tbf, you could easily post it in most player threads. :grin:

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This is not new information.

A few of us have been saying the same things back when it was cool to slate Mertesacker, who dispute his obvious faults is a very competent defender. (Iā€™d actually argue he is better than Mustafi even.)

Now with Mustafi, defensively we have the same issues but he is mobile and good enough offensively so our attacking play can benefit. As you guys have said there isnā€™t much change apart from that, which to be fair I am grateful for as we have seen some decent football this year compared to the shite served up last season.

Finding good Center Backs are difficult, especially ones that can do both ball playing and actual defending. Am I right in saying he hasnā€™t been in a losing side yet this season? He and Kosh developed a good partnership during that spell, not bad considering itā€™s his first season here and people forget Mustafi is still relatively young for a CB.

Thatā€™s true, although thatā€™s also to a big part down to our goal scoring as we donā€™t really do a lot of clean sheets this season.

That being said I agree with the rest.

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When you look at how much City paid for Stones, Chelsea were quoted to pay for Kouibaily and subsequently paid for Luiz we bagged a steal.

Was surprised another top team didnā€™t come in for him because he was very good at Valencia and helped Otamendi look better by being the more composed of the two . After he left to City Mustafi actually had a better season beside Abdennour who was poor in his first season which shows his quality.

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he is still undefeated in our shirt isnā€™t he?

Yeah :slight_smile:

@Robin_L, explain why you have cursed Mustafi :expressionless:

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He got his first goal! :soccer:ļø:soccer:ļø:soccer:ļø

Congrats Shkodran, it was a great header.

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As it turned out, I blessed Mustafi :sunglasses:

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Yes! First goal for us and still unbeaten!

Great goal, but guys, what a fucking defense we have! Thanks to him we have a solid defense. His partnership with Koscielny is incredible, because one tries to limit the weakness of each other

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