14 Mar 2013 09:31:02
Seeing as Koscielny and Mertesacker seem to play good together and our need for a proper defensive midfielder, just being curious, could Captain Vermaelen be used there? Obviously it'd be a huge risk to play him there this late in the season, but I'm sure he would be able to do a pretty good job there. Thoughts?

1.) 14 Mar 2013
Im interested in what your squad formation would look like

2.) 14 Mar 2013
Think you're right. Verm good on the ball but not disciplined enough as regards in terms of defensive positioning. DM for V not a bad idea at all.

Stewart

3.) 14 Mar 2013
He might do an ok job but its a big risk. Def midfield players need to be able to receive the ball and retain it under pressure from other players, much more than defenders normally have to. Alex Song and Gilberto were great at this. TV is untested for this skill

4.) 14 Mar 2013
Ive been saying this for atleast half a season, the only trouble I find with it (apart from the possability of it not working) is that we have no cb back up if one is injured/unavailable, but tbh say mert gets injured, drop tommyv back and sub on another midfielder solves that for the immediate (during the game) problem

5.) 14 Mar 2013
The danger of having all three on the field at once is we have no central defensive backup.

6.) 14 Mar 2013
I guess it would be some sort of variant on a 4-3-3 with Vermaelen as the defensive mid, Wilshere and Arteta helping build attack and defend.
Or a 4-2-3-1 type of thing. With Arteta and Vermaelen, it would allow Arteta to be involved in creating the attack a bit more than usual.

I don't expect this to happen, just a thought.

7.) 14 Mar 2013
I don't think coquelin deserves to be ousted from his position by an out of form defender. If vermaelen has to be benched as a defender, so be it.

8.) 14 Mar 2013
If you we was to do that I would say it would have to line up like so:
Sczeny-gibbs-pm5-kos-jenks-verms-arteta-jack-santi-theo-giroud.

i would give fabianski a chance to show himself after last nite. jenks should be there ahead of sagna as he dosnt show e wants to play with us anymore. gibbs and monreal is a tough one. santi ahead of gerv or poldi on the left wing. yes if we play verm in dm it does leave us lite at CB if one gets injured but you drop verm back in give miguel the chance to step up.

9.) 14 Mar 2013
I did hear a rumour in the summer that Verthonghen did not come to us because AW wanted him to play dm, and he did not fancy it. TV5 I think is worth a go there providing he is of the right frame of mind which at the moment he doesn't seem to be.
Heybridge Gooner

10.) 14 Mar 2013
Great Idea.

My team would be -

Cazorla - Giroud - Walcott
- Arteta --- Wilshere -
--- Vermaelen ---
Monreal - Koscielney - Merte - Sagna
- Szcz - {Ed027's Note - Rather play Jenkinson over Sagna, and Fabianski over shezz until he mucks up, lets hope he dose'nt

11.) 15 Mar 2013
15 Mar 2013 02:16:44
The post about Coquelin. I like the kid, I personally think he should be playing more as it seems like they think he will be a good defensive mid. He has been impressive the way he goes about it aswell.
However, Vermaelen is the captain. As much as he has had a shocker of a year, I don't believe we should take the captaincy off him because I feel if we do that, we are pretty much going to be selling him. Why would he stay at a club that wouldn't put there trust in him as captain?

12.) 15 Mar 2013
There are too many posting here who play too much football manager or something. Playing Verm as def midfield when he's never played there, at this point in his career, seems like a bad idea to me. Especially when on form he's one of our two best CB (Kos and Mert have had as many bad games at CB as Verm - let's ignore the games he played at LB)

13.) 15 Mar 2013
I think there is a good chance TM may leave in the summer.

14.) 15 Mar 2013
Too much football manager? how hard is it for a cb who regularly pushes too far forward to play a little bit forward than usual, if you think the role is completely different then fair play, but tbh its not. not like were saying play mert as a dm.

15.) 15 Mar 2013
The roles are very different in terms of when your side have the ball. A defender rarely has to receive the ball under pressure, and can always get away with hoofing it away. Good defensive midfielder receive under pressure, a give a pass or spread the play. They make themselves available to receive balls in very tight spaces. Its quite different in that sense and that's why there are few players that can do it. How many defenders have made that move before and succeeded - a few but really not that many.

16.) 17 Mar 2013
I think Vermaelen could do a job there, and add a bit of steel to our midfield.

17.) 17 Mar 2013
Vermaelen could be like luiz, not the best cb but good at getting forward and scoring

18.) 18 Mar 2013
Perhaps he could do a job there but do we really want someone that can do a job there. We really should be having someone who is really good and natural. That means buying someone if Coq is not up to it as he is our only natural in that position.

Leave him as a CB who is occasionally wobbly but good at getting forward if needed.