04 Mar 2013 12:37:07
A lot of people have been talking about Vermaelen's drop in quality, and saying he's one of the worst defenders they've ever seen. I disagree. He's one of the best defenders I've ever seen, playing terribly right now. I believe this is for a couple of reasons -

- His partnerships: when he played with Koscielny on the whole they were both brilliant, however Koscielny is error-prone and his game is based on confidence. He was dropped for no reason and hasn't been the same since. I truly believe as of today, Koscielny should be the first defender's name on the team sheet. Now all we see is Koscielny play here and there and they look rusty together.

However, with Mertesacker it's different. Koscielny may be slightly error-prone (or unfortunate more often than not) but he is unbelievably fast and very strong. At the opposite end we have Mertesacker is is twice the size, half the strength, no aerial presence and a fraction of the pace. Well if you're Vermaelen this instantly gives you a decision-making dilemma because you cannot just focus on your own game when you play with someone who is such an exploitable player. Yes Mertesacker plays better but I think this is a case of Vermaelen is poor because Mert is playing at all. If we had a different CB, for example Williams, Agger, an on-form Koscielny, Kompany, whatever, paired with Vermaelen, we'd have two CBs playing well, not just one.

Coaching: this is the other massive problem. Any pro sportsman will tell you a player's quality will drop without coaching. It's common knowledge defensive coaching happens at a minimum at Arsenal. It's even more common knowledge that when we had a top defensive coach actually doing it, we had the best defence in the league after 2 months. As soon as Wenger stopped this, our defence went into decline. In fact, considering Mertesacker and Verm were our starting pair during that period I would have to say this is by far the most significant problem and the personnel choice is the secondary factor.

Vermaelen came here as an amazing defender and slowly but surely his quality has decreased and now we all expect a weak game from him. This doesn't happen if the coaching is there. Form fluctuates but this isn't a fluctuation, it's consistent.

I would put money on our defence improving tenfold regardless of who plays if Bould was given the reigns again. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if all that stuff about Bould saying 'How many times do I have to tell you' to Wenger is true. Something needs to change with the coaching.

1.) 04 Mar 2013
Good post mate! We can go buy the worlds two best defenders and we will still have a shocking defence. The problem lies in the tactics applied and lack of coaching!
Mark SaGooner

2.) 04 Mar 2013
Spot on metal, what is worrying me is good players that join us get worse now, why!
I don't wanna watch perfect passing around the half way line what is the point of 60%+ possession when we don't score it's the coaching we are no longer prepared for a game.
Sagalout

3.) 04 Mar 2013
Merson always stresses without the ball were one of the worst teams,

Its naievity and lazyness its not hard to do the basics, closing down and making a presence, I think this is why he plays ramsey,

You can have all the talent but you have to aplly yourself correctly

yorkshire gooner Joe :D