Arsene Wenger says that Laurent Koscielny is not ready to play this weekend against Liverpool, meaning that he’s got some thinking to do about who plays at centre-half on Sunday.
The French international just returned to training this week and the Arsenal manager is refusing to rush him back – perhaps cognisant of the risk of him picking up an injury and adding to the defensive crisis.
The manager seemed to hint that his options are between Calum Chambers, Rob Holding and Krystian Bielik, saying, “I have a few options that you have seen in pre-season, that’s basically the players we have available at the moment.
“They’re quite young, but they have a great desire to do well.”
Asked whether new signing Rob Holding was ready to make the step up, Wenger sounded confident.
“He has played in the Championship, so that’s a good experience to deal with one level higher.”
It sounds right now that he’s planning on going with the 20 year old, but let’s see what happens between now and Sunday.
That’s better. Let him regain fitness.
Can Xakha plays center back? He seems to be a good tackler….
Bellerin – Chambers – Nacho – Gibbs
or
Bellerin – Chambers – Debuchy – Nacho
Surely not Holding?
Depends on who Arsene feels has looked more comfortable in preseason. More me its Holding & Monreal for 3 reasons.
1. Better to ride on Holding’s confidence for the first couple of games
2. Monreal has played at CB earlier & knows what to expect
3. There’s no drop in quality if Gibbs starts at LB
Holding already looks a little shaky to me.. Also I’m a bit worried about shifting the whole make-up of the back 4 by moving Nacho central.
There is no good solution :'(
I thought the opposite against Manchester City. Wanted the ball, and his passing out was quick and sharp. He knows the position better, and like has been said already, he’s riding the wave. Bit of protection in front, he will be fine. Might be the making of him.
Nailed in Rossi88 IMO I’d go with the two youngsters. Any option is a big risk at this stage, but giving confidence to Chambers and Holding is going to be a massive boost for them. Nacho hasn’t played in the middle for well over a year so that is a huge risk and playing gibbsy (who isn’t as good defensively) would put more pressure on the CBs. chambers deserves his chance, he has been waiting for this opportunity and it is why he is here, and holding was signed to be a promising young CB who would have to play… Read more »
I don’t see an issue with Holding and Chambers at CB. Two great players who we should get behind!
Agreed, would rather play 2 actual CB’s, they won’t be facing an experienced striker who is going to make them look like kids. Likelihood is it’ll be Origi up front for them who is just as inexperienced as our CB’s!
With Firminho, Coutinho and Mane dashing at him from all angles..
Ah well, hope you guys are right if he does play. Of course I’ll get behind him if he’s picked. Just don’t want him thrown in at the deep end.
Forgetting we have Bellerin, Monreal & actually have CDM options that aren’t Flamini. Yes we need a striker and are currently short at the back due to two injuries and Kos not being fit but let’s not forget that the rest of our team is filled with quality probably above what Liverpool have available to them
This is arsenal…every season we throw youngsters in the deep end and usually every season a couple come out and we are like wow look at this talent…if they were at City or Chelsea (lesser extent United – although you can put them right up there now the unamed one is there) they would never get the chance and we’d just be saying some decent young talent.
Look at Bellerin and Iwobi, thrown in the “deep end” and now 1st team regulars who ooze pure class
Plus we seem to be forgetting that they have played together more
Considering they’re in the England U21 team together
Even recently winning a competition together
I believe you should consider Coquelin at defence, let’s not forget that he started his career as a defender
This will not be a disaster
*repeat 30 times*
Get Mustafi in for next week and just play a solid defensive midfield this Sunday. We know that we have Chambers, Holding, Nacho, Debuchy, and even Bielik if it comes down to it, who can play in that position. I’m sure we can cope.
Better play safe with Kos. We can manage if we give the defense a midfield wall of Xhaka and/or Coq/Elneny with Cazorla
I Dont know why guys don’t have confidence in Holding. He clearly has more experience than Chambers. Plus I do believe the Championship is a very hard league based on the odd 10 games I’ve watched in 2 years
I am not to worried… play Chambers and Holding, have Coq and Xhaka in front as they more defensively minded, was thinking it might be wise to have Santi, but he likes to dribble out where I think Xhaka’s distribution would be more beneficial… basically just lump the ball up and out of danger rather than Santi maybe losing possession in a dangerous area.
Either way think we will win 2-1
Xhaka and elneny would be ideal. With Liverpool’s pressing we’ll need players to be good on the ball and distribute well and of course be defensively switched on to shield our inexperienced back four.
Xhaka and Elneny cover all the above requirements and have looked impressive in pre season as well. So for me these should definitely be the midfield duo for the Liverpool game.
Santi losing possession? No..Santi don’t do that.
Just saying he did against city and it cost us the second goal. I love Santi, but we will need to be patient with his return. I’d have him on the bench and start Xhaka and El Neny,; both great positionally, strong defensively, technically and good passing games. Xhaka could be key at spring counters against liverpool. On a side note I hope we play more counter attacking this season, we are so dangerous on the counter (Ozil is literally one of the best players in the world on the counter and Alexis is not far behind him – and… Read more »
Liverpool will press high, certainly at our centre backs. They did the same when we played with Gabriel and Chambers and it was effective.
I fear arsene still would want us to play out from behind leading to disaster. Hope I’m wrong though
Having Chambers, Holdings and Bielik as your backup second, third and fourth CBs is actually pretty good. If we also get Mustafi then we’ll be well stocked at the back. It seems that we’re fixing our depth issue season by season. Season before last we got Cech and Ospina which added some serious depth to our GK department. Last/this season we got Eleney and Xhaka along with LANS Coq so now our midfield is staked. Going by current however does suggest that we’ll have to wait till next season to sort out our strikers. Slowly but surely our squad is… Read more »
I agree, but my concern in resigning Ozil and Alexis if we don’t sign another classy attacker this season and really compete on all fronts
Good long term decision by the boss to rest koscielny.Hope the centre backs for Liverpool game give their best and give the boss a selection headache for the Leicester game.
Arsene Wenger has refused to discuss the club’s move for Valencia defender Shkodran Mustafi, after the Germany international’s agent suggested that an agreement had been reached. But speaking to the press ahead of the Premier League opener against Liverpool, the Arsenal boss refused to comment. “I cannot tell you,” he told reporters. “Today my focus is not too much on transfers because we have an important game in 48 hours and to win this game, transfers won’t help us. “We have a strong squad and have to deal with the game. “We have lost three centre-backs because Laurent Koscielny is… Read more »
Akron doesn’t need to come good, he’ll work well as a back up for the mighty Giroud.
Don’t know where Akron came from !!
we need another striker so we don’t burn out the mighty Giroud…That has been the problem all along. Personally I feel striker is much more pressing than CB now we have signed Holding. Koz, Gabriel (back october), Per (season may be a right off), Chambers, Holding, Beliek, Nacho, Debuchy. Sure one more might be handy. Up top we have: Giroud, Alexis (I like him up top, but he is a winger), Walcott (winger, striker, now winger, striker…ah I’m lost), Apkom…maybe Campbell at a stretch. That is absolutely paper thin. If Giroud gets injured what then? Alexis as solely a striker… Read more »
I can see Xhaka dropping very deep on Sunday to take pressure off the CB and so he can receive the ball as much as possible from CB’s.
Thus should help the CB’s whoever they are
Jesus
… Ok, but can he defend?
Haven’t signed him yet… But I imagine he’d prefer to play up top.
Might be a bit iffy with crosses…
No, he’s a keeper. Remember Jesus saves!
I’d go with..
Bellerin, Holding, Chambers, Nacho in Defence | Xhaka, Nenners in Midfield | Ramsey, Santi Iwobi in Attack Midfield | Alexis up top
Why is everyone forgetting about Chambers?
I think he’s much further ahead in terms of his development, and will definitely start but seems that a lot of people on here think Holding is better!
I think Monreal should not play central. He is needed at LB to deal with Sane. Coq should be able to deal with Coutinho. Maybe Xhaka can help out too. So I think we should go with Holdings and Chamber. They should be able to cope with Firminho. Who knows we might end up at Chamberings or Holdber
Just play Holding and Chambers. The important thing is to have the correct midfielders in front of them for protection.