Of course we have need for CB’s. Because the ones we have are shit.
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And the wingers, aren’t 
? They are as shit.
I’m not arguing that our wide players are good enough, but shit wingers don’t lose you games. You can compensate for them ostensibly with good strikers.
But shit defenders lose you games. Which is why I’d prefer if we spent our entire budget on fixing our back line.
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I’m not convinced that buying new central defenders is going to fix our problems. You’ve got to think it’d help to have better defenders, but the problem is much bigger than just personnel.
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If that’s the case we shouldn’t buy anyone until it’s fixed.
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It’s a pretty fair point and one that I’ve bemoaned and reiterated numerously throughout the past couple seasons.
Formations are never consistent across the season, systems are being constantly shifted at the back intragame, individuals fucking up with the next available man only being half alert to the calamity oncoming etc. More frustratingly some of our better defensive performances in the last season have been when we’ve walked into games expecting to be obliterated.
Not saying fixing the above will turn Mustafi into a baller, but that would contribute to us not having a defence that rivals a bottom 5 team.
What’s just frustrating about it is you can’t shut your eyes pre-match and just know what system we’re gonna field. Seems to be that we try and pick one which we feel will cater to us against our opponents. It’s not the case with the other top 6; they have a system that they base on and work with game on game regardless of opponent. That’s where my frustrating slides towards Unai especially in recent months. Have a fucking system with the players we’ve got, and demand some fucking identity where we can all sing from the same hymn book. Players need to know their game, position and what they’re set out to do (and what’s demanded of them).
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With big injuries to both Holding and Bellerin, I’d suggest towards the end of the season that Unai played a familiar system in need of consistency. The 3-4-3 was very prominent when he knew he couldn’t cobble together another formation with the players at hand.
I think part of Unai’s downfall was that he often changed players around too much which affected team performance overall.
We’ve got to add players this summer, where to improve first is moreso the big question that should be asked. Our lack of quality in CB and on the wings is glaring.
If we keep both Laca and Auba, I think we have ‘enough’ firepower upfront that a winger becomes secondary. A new CB isn’t going to suddenly improve our defensive woes though, and I’m not sure Unai is adept at adjusting the team in a way that can better handle situations in the PL. Klopp had everyone pressing like crazy in his early tenure, last season saw him shift his system better so that his team could cope better with the big hitters. He did this with and exceptional CB like VDV, but he was paired with Lovren of all people, someone of the same ilk as Mustafi. Can Unai do something similar?
I really think we should prioritise a CM or two young, talented CM’s.
I know we can’t go all out on targets like other big clubs have been, so we could opt for young, reasonably brimming hot talents that would represent low fees and give us a different profile in midfield for example Szoboszlai (ACM) and Lobotka (DM). We need a creative, attack minded CM that adds goals which I think Szoboszlai could potentially give us and I know, from reading reports that Lobotka is similar to Torreira but he’s essentially another resolve in armouring our backline somewhat.
I’d have much more confidence in this team if we can at least maintain a solid midfield again, something we lost when Santi left us.
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Issue is, last season has proven it does.
I’ve argued CB is a position that relies most on other players on the pitch in the sense that the amount of pressure they are exposed to is dependant on how well defending is done higher up the pitch. People like to shit on our defender but emery has done a terrible job of protecting them, particlarly in midfield. You can get away with our options if they’re shielded properly
It starts with an effective press from the forward line, then a dynamic midfield capable of winning and controlling possession/tempo and then having full backs who can actually be effective defenders in the defensive third. We were massively inconsistent at Arsenal and there was zero efficiency in our football.
This obsession with two strikers playing at the same time is so much BS, our football was so top heavy last season and it’s in large part responsible a major cause of our terrible defensive record. Having effective wingers reduces the need for FBs to be the sole provider of width in the final third our 11, which causes massive gaps for the opposition to exploit and space for the CB to cover. If FBs aren’t forced to push up constantly they can better support the midfield and CBs.
For me the most important position is winger, CM, FB and CB in that order.
They don’t lose you games.
If your lack of wide options is holding the team back then yes you could say they do, our lack of functioning attack definitely cost us last season. There are far too many instances where we struggle to break teams down, I mean look at how shit our bench was.
Every top club has some baller wide options, it’s practically mandatory if you want to succeed at the top level.
I think we can all agree this team needs huge work all over the pitch, if we only take care of a single area it won’t result in us challenging or anything of the sort. They’re all important in their own way and until we are more than competent in every area we will continue to flounder.
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Remember that feeling a decade or so ago when you’d almost get a thrill out of conceding corners knowing how awesome our counters were 
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Within three moves we’d be in the opposition box.
Sad shit
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I would agree with this normally, but our situation is down to massive, calamitous individual errors far too often - and those come from CB and CM, exposing us right away at dangerous positions…
We really need better CB who don’t have IQ of 50 - maybe we can hold on for a year with Kos, Sokratis, Holding, Mavro, Chambers/Monreal and let Moose rot, but man, I wouldn’t want to bet on Kos or Holding this year (and so far I rate Mavro as Moose v 2.0).
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I’ve never been comfortable with conceding corners because we’ve never been good at defending set-pieces.
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Must have been watching a different Arsenal. All I can think of is Kevin Davies flicking the initial corner on to another Bolton player who toes it in amongst 8 Arsenal defenders.
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Ahhh yes I can feel the nostalgia flooding back
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Brings a smile to my face every time I think of Rory Delap lining up one of his long throw-ins.
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@Bavin We were definitely watching the same Arsenal. The 2 things aren’t mutually exclusive
@Gladiator please note I said thrill and not comfortable. Slightly different 
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Bargain
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