Despite a summer turnaround that saw new Arsenal boss Unai Emery bring in a new goalkeeper, a new centre-back and an experienced full-back they still look nervy and vulnerable at the back.

To be fair to the new guys, it’s mainstays Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin and Shkodran Mustafi that have looked a bit shaky defensively so far.

Hopefully Bellerin can learn from experienced new boy Stephan Lichtsteiner and become a better defender in the long run.

At thirty-six years of age, Cech is struggling with Emery’s new playing style which sees the goalkeeper using his feet more and passing it short out of his box. Summer recruit Bernd Leno is more used to that approach and will probably oust Petr as the Gunners number one before the season finishes.

Mustafi is neither young enough to adapt properly nor good enough to continually merit a place in a team that want to challenge for a place in the Premier League’s top four.

Arsenal do have club captain Laurent Koscielny to comeback from his achilles tendon rupture injury but the earliest he’ll be back is probably going to be December. The French veteran has missed plenty of time due to many an injury in the past and if I’m being honest the thirty-three year old wasn’t at his best before his latest injury.

If I were Emery and his Head of Recruitment Sven Mislntat, then I’d look at replacing one German World Cup winner Mustafi with a fellow World Cup winner in Matthias Ginter.

Now Ginter has been to two World Cups without actually playing a single minute but that shouldn’t put The Gunners off.

Mislntat should know the player from his days at Borussia Dortmund. The twenty-four year old decided to leave Dortmund to get more starts at Borussia Monchengladbach. It was a bold move but one that worked out for Ginter as he’s impressed for The Foals.

Playing in thirty-four Bundesliga games, Matthias managed to shine in the opposition penalty area as he grabbed five goals.

So what else would Ginter give the Gunners if the were to sign him?

Well we need to remember what the Spanish coach wants from his Arsenal defence. A key component is that Unai wants his backline to be better in transitioning from defence to either the midfield or attack, by passing efficiently and quickly.

Ginter is impressive with his passing distribution, after four league games so far this term he has an average passing success rate of 89.6%. Last term, the stat was similarly up in the high eighties at 87.1%.

Defensively he’s good at clearing the ball from danger, he’s made around 5.5 clearances per game in this campaign and 3.1 last season. He’s not really a dominating type but you’ve got Sokratis for that type of defensive issues.

Matthias is also renowned for his concentration levels and his ability to remain calm under pressure. Those are two qualities that Arsenal could be doing with this year! At times the Gunners support have had their hearts in their mouths as they seen the ball arrive at the feet of their defenders or the goalie. They’d be calmer if they saw Ginter receiving the ball to feet. He’s also confident enough to bring the ball out with runs into midfield.

The twenty-four year old is also versatile enough to step up and play in defensive midfield or out as an emergency right-back.  Germany’s national manager Joachim Low recently said how pleased he was with Matthias playing on the right when needed:

“Matthias [Ginter] did a very good job on the right side. He saved us a couple of times in battles when we were in dire need.”

What squad couldn’t be improved by a player that can play well in a variety of defensive positions?

As Arsenal still struggle in defence with Shkodran Mustafi not covering himself in much glory, it could do them a lot of good to bring in Matthias Ginter, as the central defender would add much needed composure to the backline.

 

 

Posted on September 22nd, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article