Koscielny

Koscielny deserves it.

Well done Bosscielny! Fast becoming one of my favourite players, love the guy.

Vermaelen: Koscielny has had an amazing season at Arsenal

Belgian was sidelined early this season and was later moved out wide during an injury crisis, but he has high praise for his fellow centre-back after resuming their partnership

Thomas Vermaelen has praised his team-mate Laurent Koscielny for his "amazing" season at the heart of the Arsenal defence.


The former Lorient man has overcome a trying first campaign for the Gunners last term to excel in his 39 appearances so far in 2011-12, and the Belgian says that he always had faith in his colleague.

“He has done amazing this season,” Vermaelen told the club’s official website.

“I don't understand why a lot of criticism was there in the first season. The first week I saw him you could tell he was a great player and now it is all coming out in his second season. I am really happy for him.”

The 26-year-old has featured throughout the campaign at centre-back as a rare source of continuity in a back line that has been disrupted by injuries, first to Vermaelen and then all four of the club’s full-backs; Bacary Sagna, Carl Jenkinson, Kieran Gibbs and Andre Santos.

Vermaelen went on to express his relief at eventually being able to move back across from left-back to central defence and resume his partnership with Koscielny.

“In the last couple of months we have played together a lot of times and I am pleased with that,” he continued.

“He is a great player. I think we know each other's qualities so at the moment it is going well.

“He is good all-round. He is quick, strong and good with the ball.

“I think we are quite similar players as well. There are just a lot of things about defending that he is really good at and that is why I like him.

“We want to play from the back of course, that is how we always want to play. He is really good in that as well so that always gives you more confidence at the back.”

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2012/04/23/3055833/koscielny-has-had-an-amazing-season-at-arsenal-vermaelen

TV may get more plaudits (outside of the Arsenal bubble) because of his offensive exploits, but Kos is our best defender. Defensively he has helped TV out of more than one pickle this season

Chris Chan wrote:TV may get more plaudits (outside of the Arsenal bubble) because of his offensive exploits, but Kos is our best defender. Defensively he has helped TV out of more than one pickle this season

You think Kos is better than Sagna?

DaveToffy wrote:

Chris Chan wrote:TV may get more plaudits (outside of the Arsenal bubble) because of his offensive exploits, but Kos is our best defender. Defensively he has helped TV out of more than one pickle this season

You think Kos is better than Sagna?

Yes I do, Sagna is a monster right back, but Kos is the better CB, his reading of the game is 2nd to none in our squad and possibly the league

You guys know I have a lot of juicy man love for Kos the Boss.

So I got this :

<3 <3 <3

Nice one Sam!! I was thinking of getting the France one.

ralph avedikian wrote:Nice one Sam!! I was thinking of getting the France one.

Cheers man. The France one will be awesome too! I saw somewhere that they have a new jersey? Don't know if its true or just rumors.

Kos is a better defender than Vermaelen for sure. Sagna is indeed a "monster" right back, but I thought he was poor both against Wigan as well as against Chelsea. The latter game in particular, he struggled defensively and seemed very unwilling to get forward? Sickness? Fatigue? Coach's orders? I don't know, but it was poor.

Still, 2 or 3 poor performances can be overlooked in the face of hundreds of excellent ones.

Zaid Derweesh wrote:Kos is a better defender than Vermaelen for sure. Sagna is indeed a "monster" right back, but I thought he was poor both against Wigan as well as against Chelsea. The latter game in particular, he struggled defensively and seemed very unwilling to get forward? Sickness? Fatigue? Coach's orders? I don't know, but it was poor.

Still, 2 or 3 poor performances can be overlooked in the face of hundreds of excellent ones.

Exactly, and no Arsenal supporter should think that Vermaelen is our best center back.

Van Roy Bostanian wrote:

Zaid Derweesh wrote:Kos is a better defender than Vermaelen for sure. Sagna is indeed a "monster" right back, but I thought he was poor both against Wigan as well as against Chelsea. The latter game in particular, he struggled defensively and seemed very unwilling to get forward? Sickness? Fatigue? Coach's orders? I don't know, but it was poor.

Still, 2 or 3 poor performances can be overlooked in the face of hundreds of excellent ones.

Exactly, and no Arsenal supporter should think that Vermaelen is our best center back.

There are plenty and they would be very wrong

Chris Chan wrote:

Van Roy Bostanian wrote:

Zaid Derweesh wrote:Kos is a better defender than Vermaelen for sure. Sagna is indeed a "monster" right back, but I thought he was poor both against Wigan as well as against Chelsea. The latter game in particular, he struggled defensively and seemed very unwilling to get forward? Sickness? Fatigue? Coach's orders? I don't know, but it was poor.

Still, 2 or 3 poor performances can be overlooked in the face of hundreds of excellent ones.

Exactly, and no Arsenal supporter should think that Vermaelen is our best center back.

There are plenty and they would be very wrong

Centrebacks are the hardest to judge actually. Vermaelen has made more mistakes this season than Koscielny had (although Kos scored a few own goals). The thing is they love Vermaelen because he can score goals, he's more passionate and "hard" on the field. But the truth is Koscielny is a better defender. After Sol Campbell I have never seen such complete defender.

I agree, Sam. Also have to remember that while Vermaelen has the catchier style, Kos has his moments of true hardman awesomeness. Like against Sturridge in the Chelsea game where he came flying in, that was such an AWESOME moment.

Djourou puzzles me. He looked so good last season, what happened?

Djourou made Squillaci look good for a couple of games. Now if Djourou and Squillaci start together, I'd probably prefer watching a documentary about knitting.

Zaid Derweesh wrote:Like against Sturridge in the Chelsea game where he came flying in, that was such an AWESOME moment.

Amazing tackle. Could have easily took out Sturridge's knee and ruin his career but he was confident that he'll get the ball and went for it.

Samritpal Singh wrote:

Zaid Derweesh wrote:Like against Sturridge in the Chelsea game where he came flying in, that was such an AWESOME moment.

Amazing tackle. Could have easily took out Sturridge's knee and ruin his career but he was confident that he'll get the ball and went for it.

He was no where near Sturridge's knee. The only way you take out someone's knee is if you are like Balotelli and aiming for it

Chris Chan wrote:

Samritpal Singh wrote:

Zaid Derweesh wrote:Like against Sturridge in the Chelsea game where he came flying in, that was such an AWESOME moment.

Amazing tackle. Could have easily took out Sturridge's knee and ruin his career but he was confident that he'll get the ball and went for it.

He was no where near Sturridge's knee. The only way you take out someone's knee is if you are like Balotelli and aiming for it

I know it was nowhere near his knees but his foot position tackling the ball was knee high. Any wrong move it could be dangerous.

Kos is the boss.

"His stats have proved his value to Arsenal where his number of tackles stands at 78 for the season and interceptions at 79 – more than any central defender in the Premier League."

Koscielny is very good. And individually, on paper, our defence does look pretty good.

But as a unit, just like every season, we haven't been good enough. 47 goals conceded, 13 individual mistakes leading to goals, 5 own goals, positionally unaware at the wrong times.

We can buy Vertonghen and M'Vila but approach the game in the same way as we always do then what good will it do? May cut down on the individual errors but not the collective team ones.

To be honest, Vermaelen looked lost today. See Morison and Holt goal, he was nowhere near them.

He did the same against QPR. Both his faults and cost us the game.

Vermaelen is off form. Coaches get the blame, but I can't see how a coach can account for such a good player going off form so badly.

It also shows that having some experience like Arteta in the middle makes a big difference.

Mario Leontiou wrote:Koscielny is very good. And individually, on paper, our defence does look pretty good.

But as a unit, just like every season, we haven't been good enough. 47 goals conceded, 13 individual mistakes leading to goals, 5 own goals, positionally unaware at the wrong times.

We can buy Vertonghen and M'Vila but approach the game in the same way as we always do then what good will it do? May cut down on the individual errors but not the collective team ones.

Absolutely. It might help to buy Vertonghen, M'Vila, Hummels and The Incredible Hulk, but as long as we play the way we do, we'll still concede a lot of goals. I mean, we can certainly add depth, which we've done with Mertesacker. And we might do with a bit more, since Djourou fills nobody with much confidence. But if the system is one where defending is not emphasized and we're vulnerable on the break every time we go forward, we'll still concede goals.

Also, Kos is the best defender in the Premier League outside of Manchester (Vidic and Kompany) in my eyes.

Vermaelen makes too many errors these days. He made a few in his first season, but a year out meant we all forgot about that. Still an excellent defender, but needs more coaching perhaps?