If United aren’t in for him we should try and get Alderweireld. Offer the wages Spurs won’t. £25m is a snip
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Bit too far with this take. I’ve seen no evidence he’s even close to the best CB’s in the league. Heck even Mustafi ranks ahead of Sokratis in many defensive categories
I think our defence is shit for a combination of reasons, boils down to alot more than individual errors tbh
Mustafi ranks above VVD in those same ball winning stats. When it comes to positioning, not making mistakes and marking your opponent out the game Sokratis is one of the best.
His weakness is his passing so he needs a good passer alongside him.
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I can’t believe anyone who uses Mustafi’s stats to big him up actually sits down and watches us week in week out.
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That’s because Liverpool have developed an excellent defensive system that starts from the from the front. VVD is “cheated” of many ball winning stats like inceptions and tackles because the players ahead of him are well organised and deal with this before the backline has to get involved.
We don’t have this at Arsenal hence Mustafi has higher because our back line is under more pressure, however when it comes to pure defensive stats like clearances, blocks, discipline and aerial duels VVD blows most out of the water.
He’s avaerage at this really, has good moments and bad. Don’t be blinded by high profile success or errors.
His strength is actually passing, that’s the only category he’s clearly better than Mustafi
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I think to many people think mustafi out and a signing in sorts our defence. Personally I think its low quality and nowhere good enough.
Mustafi is its weakest link but far from the only culprit in their.
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I didn’t use the stats to big Mustafi up, more to combat the idea that Sokratis is one of the best CBs in the league by highlighting he comes up 2nd best against a CB who is perceived to be the worse defender here.
Because there’s more to defending than just stats. It’s a discipline and for the most part Sokratis has been superb this season.
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Come on lol… Moose is awful… Sokratis has definitely been above average, and maybe in the top 10 in the league CB for a while. I agree he isn’t the long-term savior, but we will need him starting unless we are buying 2 top CB, and we both know that ain’t happening.
Of course there is. There alot of room for is essentially fan perception too. Like how Mustafi in universally seen as a disaster whilst Sokratis is viewed by some as superb when he’s been distinctly average whilst having a few bad moments in reality during a season we’re boasting terrible defensive stats under Emery.
Point is, both players are good enough to start consistently if we’re aiming for the top
No it isn’t, it’s because a good defender doesn’t chase the ball and get dragged out of position. They position themselves to mark their opponent and minimise mistakes. If you mark properly you don’t need to tackle the opponent because the pass isn’t there. VVD didn’t have great ball winning stats at Southampton either.
Oh dear, oh dear. Highlighted this for you having a 'mare
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You’re contrarian posting nature has reached peak Shakespearean farce levels now.
You’re literally defending Mustafi, take a long hard look at yourself bro
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Noticing there a disparity in perception in spite of similar stats = Defending Mustafi?
That’s BS
Also this whole contrarian angle posters mention is horseshit too. This is a forum, not sure why people get thier panties in twist because someone disagrees using valid points
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Because it very much feels like cherry picking stats when we have far more useful and complete evidence, and it is clear you are smart enough to know it. If you really believe Moose and Sokratis are more/less equal in quality and reliability, then it is highly surprising to me, but so be it… at least based on the last 10+ games or so, I think there is ample evidence to see how Sokratis has settled in despite having all sorts of partners and midfield in front of him and going through injury himself (not even with us for a full season).
But more compellingly, we have LOTS of data now on Moose with this team, under multiple managers and he has been occasionally ok, but frequently enough terrible that it is just hard to see how anyone doesn’t see that at this point.
Hermoso has like a 20m buyout clause, we should be activating that and then developing Holding and Mav and see if we have a top player in one of those guys. Sokratis, Kosh, and Hermoso is plenty to get us through another couple seasons until our youth emerge.
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Losses Mustafi played in (If Sokratis started too it’s in brackets):
City 3-1
United 3-1 (Mustafi came on for Sokratis but they didn’t score until Mustafi came on)
West Ham 1-0 (Sok and Kos played too)
Rennes 3-1 (Sok got sent off tbf)
Liverpool 5-1 (Sok did too)
Bate 1-0
Chelsea 3-2 (Sok started) - we started to get sick of Mustafi at this stage
City 2-0 (Sok started)
Sokratis didn’t play in our 3-2 loss to Southampton. He played in the Spurs loss but had Xhaka as his CB partner
It’s not just Mustafi. Kolasinac or Bellerin need to improve
The fact we’re infinitely worse with Mustafi starting over a young buck like Holding or past it Kosceilny, says it all.
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Even this is wrong, Mustafi has a far better passing range than Sokratis and it isn’t close. This is actually Mustafi’s strength.
Of course it isn’t JUST Moose, but he is a weak link for an experienced defender… the problem we have is we have an aging Koss (looks good right now, but no way should we rely on him too much next year), recovering Holding (who looked decent before injury), Sokratis (our most solid CB recently, along with Koss), and Mavro (who knows what we have there).
Ideally we would get 2 top CB, but we have so many needs all over the place. Realistically, get one top CB this summer, get rid of Moose, don’t rely too heavily on Koss or Holding.
The fact is, state of defending isn’t that super awesome… its not like City has WC defenders… or ManU, or Chelsea… or Pool other than VVD… I’d say Spurs have 2 really good CB and that is f*cking annoying… but top, top, reliable CB are in short supply.
I think CB has to be our big money signing. I’d go hard as fuck for Maguire and try build a partnership with him and Holding.
Get that future of England duo going and get the entire biased rub of the green for the next ten years.
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I’d rather buy some trendy foreigner than Maguire haha he’d cost way too much for what he is