Written by BBGun Friday, 05 August 2011 12:13

GunnerTalk Blog

Without a defence we'll always be disappointed! 

By BBGun

I'm afraid my predictions for this year are a little less optimistic than the previous two blogs by Lindsay and Fillip..

I too agree that we are great going forward and we will frighten teams with our fast attacking and intricate mouth-watering passing.  However we have not been known to be ruthless and I'm not sure this will change.  The reason I think this will be the same story as the last few seasons is this:  The defensive issues have not been resolved.  In fact it was weakened with the sale of experienced (and only remaining member of the invincibles) Gale Clichy. 

So left back is Gibs, great player as a reserve but nah sorry, not ready for the big Euro nights! Now we have brought in a young inexperienced right back – sorry, nice looking player too but would you be confident he plays against Udines in a must win champions league qualifier, should Sagna obtain an injury two days before?  Has this kid experienced European football?  They would murder him! 

Vermaelen is back, which is great but Djourou showed in the E cup he really has to push up the bar now  - we shall only wait and see.  This, topped with a young goal keeper (wouldn't be such a problem if he had two monster defenders in front of him) and it’s still the same story as last year.

Captain

Sorry to sound all doom and gloom but I must move onto the next point, 'Captain'.  Who is our captain?  This seems to be a huge area that has been missed by most Gooners.  All the talk of Cesc going, staying, going then staying again is not good for a football team’s psychology.  In fact it’s awful.  I love Cesc as a player but for this reason alone I want him to go now.  The captaincy can’t be taken from him and I don't think he has the credentials to be our captain now.  After all what’s happened and his clearly not wanting to be at this club, this guy is supposed to lead us to glory now?? 

Sorry I'm hugely pessimistic for the new season, UNLESS:  Two centre backs are purchased, which would mean flexibility of Vermaelen, perhaps playing on the left (that’s where he's played for Ajax).  This would balance the team, give confidence to Chesny and insert that ruthlessness into the front players.  We have no problem scoring; we are an offensive team by nature but when you have steel to secure leads the oppositions mentality changes (we all remember 1 nil to the Arsenal,  when we went one up opposition thought 'that's it, game over')  and thus creates the perfect balance.  With this current team we go one nill up, so what, teams will still fancy their chances. We surrendered high score leads many times last year, why will it be different this year?  We haven't bought any new players at the back!

Without two good centre backs we'll do well to finish 4th at best.

With two good centre backs and the captaincy dealt with - all competitions are then possible!

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