Arsenal’s priority in January MUST be a new left-back
In the years gone by, the left-back position at Arsenal was one of least bother. But after the departure of Gael Clichy to Man City, the left side of defence has become something of a weak link for the Gunners.
Andre Santos is our only fit left-back at the moment. While the Brazilian’s attacking instincts are there to be admired, his defensive abilities are certainly questionable. At times, he leaves the left flank completely exposed and from what I’ve noticed (correct me if I’m wrong), he doesn’t make much of an effort to stop crosses from coming in. But in all fairness, he’s still new to the English game and should settle in time.
A bigger cause for concern is the fitness of Kieran Gibbs. The Englishman is supposed to be our first-choice at the position but spends most of his time on the treatment table. Don’t get me wrong, I think he is a fantastic player but I really don’t know if he’s ideal for Arsenal at this point in time. His lack of fitness is a serious problem.
A team of the calibre of Arsenal just cannot afford to have only one fit left-back. Has anyone thought of what we would do if Santos gets injured??
In my opinion, Wenger needs to get cover. We need someone who can perform consistently like how Sagna does on the right. Someone like Leighton Baines.
What do you think?
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Cristian Ansaldi would be good. He is really fast, so he can handle speedy wingers, good at both attacking and defending and the best part is he is two footed, so he can play both on left back and right back….
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Leighton Baines.
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Yes! We are a great team and can’t keep waiting for one left back to make a one or two game return n go back to the treatment table,gibbs has tried for us,bt I agree with u we need a defensive left back n I’m nt talkin vermaelen here.d squad is thin in some departments n wenger shld look into them If we are to mount a serious challenge 4 d title,FA cup n champs league.meeting madrid right now will give di maria acres of space to run into on d right flank.so we need leighton baines,mario gotze and pato/podolski/damiao.quite a dream though
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we need someone that can slot in at the left or the right imo.
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No, sorry though you are wrong… Santos, Gibbs, Verm… we have enough players who can play at LB…
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Kos and Vermaelen can fill in at back but one doesn’t want that obviously, they are needed in the middle. We need Jenkinson and Sagna back soonest, Santos is OK, getting beter every game and very strong against Dortmund. The issue is we don’t have back-up and that’s too risky for a whole season. We must sell Chamack, Rosicky, Diaby, Gibbs, Almunia and get one or two real top players that can make a difference, we can then make a run at it
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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Since the departure of Clichy? He had become our biggest defensive liability over the last few seasons. Everyone wanted improvement at the position, and I think we found it.
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Also, anyone familiar with Le Coq’s loan to Lorient last season should be aware that he can play LB.
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Ventroghen if that’s how its spelled, can play lb cb and dm
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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i think most people already forgot that we got pedro botelho which has been on loan for 5 years due to permit problems. he is already 22.
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Some people will just think they can write whatever they like irrespective of the fact that it may make no managerial sense or even common sense. How do you explain having two Left backs (Santos & Gibbs), and two possible backups (TV5 & Miguel) and just because one is injured, the next thing is to buy another one. What happens when the injured one is back?
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Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
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believe it or not santos has been a good buy..a player of quality not prone to error as clichy.all he needs is the english style of defending. A good back up will be very sensible ….here are list of players that i think* ** leigton bains***micheal bastos** speed demons that are not very prone to defensive error..and good attacking instinct..
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Too many signings will lead to low morale of young players… when we have managed with somebody like flamini in that position @ 2006… no question that coqi/miquel will do justice if (only if) santos aint available ….
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Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
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Im surprised that you mention the departure of Clichy and the replacement with Santos has left us defensively weak. Having Clichy leave has already made our defence stronger. Santos may not be an Ashley Cole when it comes to defending, but is certainly a danger going forward in terms of shooting and crossing (exactly what we needed going forward) Clichy could nor defend or attack.I totally agree with AYJ. We have PLENTY of LB options. Do you really think Baines will want to come and sit on the bench? #naivety
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Santos anticipation and judgement is excellent, just watch when he makes tackles, 98% of the time he knows exactly what the attacker is going to do. He will stick a leg in there and get the ball. There is the occasional wing who will beat him for pace, and that is his only weakness. He cannot backtrack quick enough if he is dribbled by a fast winger. Walcott would absolutely destroy him, but how many Walcotts are there in the league?
Santos attacking ability is almost like a catch 22. He is great going forward, skillful and crosses beautifully. But if they counter, he will have trouble getting back quick enough. I think it is something he can work on to be honest. Train harder and lose some weight. You can see he is quite stocky. But overall he is a solid player, cool headed, something Clichy lacked and cost us dearly on many occasions.
Our priority should be a striker, then a defender. I would seriously consider bringing Bartley back from loan, instead of forking out more for a new defender. He has had more experience now and his height and strength would be a great asset in defense.
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people should not be sentimental about things and once in a while appreciate good virtue. Santos since joining at the deadline of the transfer window has been magnificient at the back. He may not be 100% ready for the EPL challenges in terms of pace, but he is very intelligent and calm with tackles. statistic shows he has made more successful tackles. and think of it, how many goals have we conceeded through the left back wing? look at the good part of him and encourage improvement. we don’t need a left back Verminator can cover but we need a centre half so that cosh and per can have back up where verm is deploy to the left.
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you said: “after the departure of Gael Clichy to Man City, the left side of defence has become something of a weak link for the Gunners.” No way it was weakest place when Clichy was in arsenal. I didn’t like him even when he was a Gunner. he is a very silly player, has no intelect at all, only ability what he has is “speed” nothing more and I think I was the happiest Asenal fan when he left us. I think Andres Santos already confirmed that he is much more better than silly Gael. we DON’T NEED any more LB. Santos is the best choise I believe that.
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We have verm and gibbs who can cover. Also, nico yennaris is good enough at left back
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Cissokho from Lyon and Baines from Everton should be able to do the work.
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Gibbs has just had a bit of bad luck he’s young and got years in front of him and he’s at the best club to get the
best out of him,fast good at defending aswell as getting forward already better than cashley cole when he was the same age.
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Santos is a winger and not a left back he keeps leaving a massive gap on the left and that is where we have been conceding goals from this season.
Gibbs is injured too much to get any consistency into his game.
If we play TV in that position it mean we are taking our rock out of the middle so step back and take a moments thought before stating that we have three LB’s people.
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As LB, we have Santos and Gibbs
as back ups we have TV5, Miquel and we have Sagna (who will come back by January and he did play last year in that position)
so at least we have 5 solutions for this position.
If we have money, we should spend them elsewhere…
Gooner 4 life !
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Loan Gibbs, get Baines with Santos as back up. Everyone saying we can rely on Verm and Kos who are centre backs are very short sighted indeed. What happens if one or both of them get injured in Feb? What happens if Per or someone else does? Everyone then starts complaining “Why didn’t we buy this player and that player? We always get injuries” The truth is we need to bring players in in Jan if we are to truly make a sustained push for top four and to do well in Europe. Left back and a striker are needed, no question. Unless a quality midfielder (Gourcuff) is available I wouldn’t be courting one. If you’re willing to rely on Gibbs and play players out of position for six months, you’re a naive person.
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UTTER RUBBISH!!!!!!
Our priority is another Striker.
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There are several players we need get them off the payroll. they are all on mid range salary level with little or no contributions which are Almunia, Fabianski, Squillachi, Gibbs, Diaby, Rosicky, Arshavin. I dont count in players we have already on loan like Bendtner and Vela. None of these players wont or dont have the ambition to become the player that Arsenal needs if our ambition is to be on top and win trophies. Offloading those 7 chaps, will give us 350K per week enough to bring in one world class midfielder, one world class full back and also get RVP and Walcott to sign new deals.
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We could sign a new LB, but definitely not this January. Gotze is a priority to push for titles, boost morale and for the fans!!
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all of you saying we have good back up and good players, such bullshit. gibbs is a good left back undoubtably, but before he got injured, when i saw him play, i didnt think he was that special, not at all. We should play santos in a more attacking role, maybe sitting in midfield with song, because they can defend, but both like to go forward and we’ve all seen that santos adds a new dimension when he goes forward, with his quick feet and fast passes. but would you say gibbs or santos are ” world class ” left backs. No, no way near, we was all lead to believe that gibbs was going to be ” the new ashely cole ” to be perfectly honest, i dont rate him that highly, we need a world class left back, sagna is easily the best right back in the prem, TV5 is one of the best centre backs and mertesacker is finding his feet, with a solid left back like marcelo, leighton baines or pereira from porto, we can shore up a solid back line. ( We had the chance to sort out the left back position in the summer with taye tawo and jose enrique wanting to move clubs, and i rate taiwo up there with evra and cole, his is an absolute world class player, but we’re too slow in the transfer market )
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shhh evryone..
1)jan vertonghen or 2)leighton baines.
the answer is the number 1.
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i say everyone shoootttt itt! and let the boss deal with these issues…because the more you speculate the more your setting yourself up for disappointment.
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Sorry m8 Ur wrong, Clichy was so awful it was unbelievable and he had the worst stats as a LB in the EPL last season, he played everyone onside all the time, he was the more weak link than cb last season, firstly we need a clinical finisher that can be back up or play alongside the marvellous Rvp.
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1) leighton baines (fast, great passing)
2) benoit tremoulinas (very good last season)
3) michel bastos (fast,great passing,great attacking ability)
4) eric abidal (very experienced player)
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I can’t bliv some people still dont see that Santos is way above average. Yes he get beaten by players wit speed, and Theo has been tryin of recent to track bk 4 him in such instances bt in situations where he’s faced wit an attacker in a 1on1 situation, he does really well. So IMO if Arsene is 2 get an extra LB it should be as back-up 4 Santos and not as a replacement.
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sorry if this might break your hope.. Wenger will never EVER buy a player this january… believe me! I mean.. he will always be as stubborn as the club board is. He will say, i believe we can cope the league without spending. While our left-back will be fine as santos will cope with the english league. That’s what Wenger and the board will say. Believe me! Leighton Baines?? really?! no way! We even failed to sign jagielka for at almost 3 years! Now you want Wenger to buy Everton’s only main man at the moment.
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if were looking for depth abidal could be the answer
on the other hand zenit st petersberg has a top class left back in criscito and something could be done there and they can get arshavin as part of the deal.
Criscito has blistering pace is exelent going forward (can play as left forward) as well as being defensivley sound(can pla centre back)whick makes him the ideal solution.
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I disagree lol
. In my honest opinion we only need 2 class players. A top creative midfielder n a striker. We struggled real bad at the start of the season cos there was no creativity from the middle, so we were short on getting goals but the team have adapted and doing great with what they have. We need to replace Fab. We need the striker to help us out when really needed, a striker we can count on to do close to Robin. As for the defense we are solid and doing well so why change a defense that is knowing themselves and growing as they do that. Santos is good defensively but also very key to our attack. I have been a strong supporter of Gibbs but he should be benched as the backup when he returns cos its hard to deal with his on and offs. We have loads of backup but top of the list is Miguel, this guy is finished prod and needs his chance to grow. Just imagine him playing with mentors like Verm, Per and Kosh, he’ll learn very fast. However bringing in another one will block this guys who feel Arsenal, breath Arsenal and groing up as Arsenal. They are far better bet than any we bring in
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santos well enough 4 LB position.just give him sum tym to adapt.i think our present team is much more stronger than what it was previous seasons.i could not watch stupid errors lyk clichy squid made n (kos did nt grow much that tym as but is very good now).that team lacked xprnce.we got vermm merte kos sagna santos arteta song rvp gerv who r matured n gRown up.earlier we used to take lead in first half, make sum errors in the diffence n lose points,(remember against new castle),,now u see the team plays better in the second half n da defence is rock solid
if we dont get any more injuries we will do very good this time.
ARSENAL 4 LYF
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Jan Vertonghen
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I like Santos.. a good professional who knows when to intercept and links very well with the attack. He can be exposed with pace but his positional sense and covering is very good. Gibbs appears to be a bit of a sick note ala Diaby and Rosicky..cant build a team around these types
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Santos is way better than clichy, and you are saying that lb wasn’t a position we should worry about when gael was here being gibbs the only substitute. Why would we need another lb now that we have a better 1st choice and the same injury prone Gibbs?
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Domenico Criscito or Aly Cissokho would be perfect !
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NEVER let Djourou play a game for Arsenal again. He’s the worst player in Arsenals first team since I started following the team 15 years ago. Miguel and Yennaris are both better and players for the future!
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VERTONGHEN is the answer, and not just for LB!
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JAN VERTONGHEN PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
Knows TV5, can play all over back line plus DM. tall and has a terrific shot!!!!
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what is it about this clown Wenger that he hates defenders. We hardly ever get a decent one
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