Thoughts on our defense

Thoughts on our defense

I hate to be a pessimist but through the past few years Arsenal has become notorious for having a poor defense, and I think we’re all getting a little tired of it.  However, I think the future is very bright, and can’t wait to finally restore faith in our back line.  I miss the days when Kos and Per bossed the back, and unfortunately the likes of Mustafi, Luiz, and others do absolutely nothing for me.  Now to be fair, these guys have taken a TON of criticism and we have to understand that being a defender is hard to do, but easy to look like a fool.  But unfortunately, the fans want wins and the fans want clean sheets – and they aren’t getting enough of this.

Luckily, Raul and Edu worked some magic this summer and were able to bring in a couple young and very promising defensive reinforcements.  Kieran Tierney from Celtic is a young Scot who plays with pace and a lot of heart.  It’s hard not to compare him to Andy Robertson, but I think that KT has more defensive prowess than the Liverpool star.  Next up is Saliba, a 6’4” centre back who’s only 18 and already looks really good.  He’s a great tackler and everyone is looking forward to him joining the Arsenal at the start of next season.

In the meantime, we’ve got to work with what we’ve got.  On the bright side, guys like Chambers who’s playing well and Bellerin, Tierney, and Holding who are all getting back to 100% fitness give us something to smile about.  Holding can hopefully solidify the middle of our defense while Bellerin and Tierney get ready to do some damage on the flanks.  I think that Emery will start to emphasize the full backs again from attacking point of view, and this could restore some of the attacking bite that the Arsenal have been missing of late.  

On another note, I’m ecstatic to see that we’re finally starting to abandon playing goal kicks short to defenders.  This is a tactic that I hated more than any others, it looked awkward, uncomfortable, and ultimately led to a few goals scored against us.  This lasted way longer than I would’ve liked, but I’m happy to see Unai moving past it.

At the end of the day, the defense looks to be finally on the way up, with key lads returning to full health and tactical improvements hopefully imminent.  And with more reinforcements on the way in Saliba and hopefully one more piece in the winter window, I think we’re then a midfield piece or two away from being a real threat to win some hardware.  The future looks bright.