I agree.
He was decent but made t look a lot better than he actually was because he was playing alongside such dross.
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Yeah, I think thatâs basically it. I donât imagine anyone is putting him up there with the likes of Adams. But in his time with us, we havenât had much to shout about in terms of CBs. Itâs all about context. Heâs only rated against those he has been competing for a place against. And for the most part â Per aside perhaps â he probably comes out on top.
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I think for him to be truly overrated heâd have to be appearing in all time XIâs or something as equally outrageous.
Iâve seen a few throwaway remarks over the years that he was best in the league or should have been in PL team of the year etc but for the most part I think the majority of us just thought he was the best of a bad bunch over the last 10 years or so.
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I certainly felt he was one of the most solid defenders in the PL during his best years and think he would have done a good job for a lot of top sides in Europe on a similar or slightly better level than us.
I dont think he is significantly better overall than what we have now though, which is why we needed to get him the fuck out after his tantrum.
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Wonât have any of this Kos slander particularly as he essentially played his whole tenure here in a team no structure, defensive nous and under a manager that didnât have a clue how to best position his team to challenge with a foundation that started with the back four.
Tactics werent worth a damn here and he just went out and played his natural game time after time, you can talk about errors but tell me which CBâs in that era in the PL donât have bag of embarrasing mistakes in their locker? And plenty of them had the benefit of player under managers that were actually defensively astute.
Sure he didnât go out on best terms but he was easily one of the most dependable CBâs in the league year in year out for the majority of his time at the club.
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He was good. Per was better.
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Koscielny would have been hailed as one of better CBs in the league for last decade if he was playing for a more stable team.
Itâs no coincidence that he was just about the only defender in the whole era that performed consistently.
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Koscielny suited our suicide way of defending. We used to leave only two CBâs and maybe a DM/deep playmaker back defending when were in possession. At his peak Kosh was quick, a good intercepter and would always put his body on the line. He wasnât flawless, but his agility always suited Wengerâs neglegence towards dedending.
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And by the same token his lapses of concentration, haphazard positioning would have been exposed in tighter tactical systems.
He was an athletic defender who actually suited Wengerâs system - that I definitely agree with.
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Which is assuming that his haphazard positioning would continue in a tighter tactical system.
Koscielny played a high line with Per as cover and would take Perâs role when he played with Vermaelen.
His haphazard positioning was how often I remember him being in the wrong place when balls came into our box. Or deciding to come out of defence to intercept a pass and getting it terribly wrong.
For the standard of modern day defending, he was though, for a period.
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Plenty of that can be attributed to lack of system and foundation.
By default he was made to deal with may more than he should have been for a single defender, countless quality defenders would come here and get consistently burnt under Wenger.
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Its fair also to point out that during the Kosc years, there were VERY few elite defenders out there⌠there were âpark the bus systemsâ (Mou), and âhigh-press systemsâ like Pep that were evolving how TEAMS defend, but in general individual defending was kinda crap⌠and still is, with a very glittering exceptions. Even the best teams have meh for defenders in a LOT of cases.
He was a mainstay in a defence that shipped 5 and 6 goals and so many of them were because of frankly basic defensive tasks. The way guys like Hazard and Firmino would just walk through him and whatnot was embarrassing at times.
Kos was good but absolutely never an elite defender
I donât agree with this, I think he had spurts where he looked good but even by modern day standards he was never on the same level as peak Pique, Silva, Chiellini, Barzagli and evening for a short period - Ramos.
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Itâs certainly at a low now but in the Kosc time you had Vidic and Ferdinand who where top draw.
Terry played under a range of systems under different managers and fitted all of them with Cahill or Ivanovich.
Kompany at City and even England national team had worthy and decent options for most of that period.
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Iâd need to check exact years and overlap and period of âfading/injuryâ for some of them, but across the top 8-10 teams on any given year, there really werenât that many in that top tier and Iâd argue Koss was probably in that next tier during that period.
Iâd agree that we are even worse off now - there just doesnât seem to be many young, emerging defenders that come good - look at the Italian lads who are struggling and players like Stones who just doesnât seem to have figured it out at all.
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Iâd certainly say as of now world game is at an all time low on top defenders.
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So Kos was at fault for those goals?
It was basic deensive tasks that were never expected and driled into the whole team, the sheer amount of times over the years that players have not taken one for the team which results in a goal or at least a shot on target is staggering. Considering this he did very well indeed especially since he was barely coached throughout his time here.
Funnily enough bro youâve mentioned a number of other defenders who all played in better teams with better managers and had an actual defensive foundation. I wonder how they would have fared under Wenger in the latter years, perhaps they may have been better but it wouldnât be night and day. Theyâd still get rinsed on the regular.