Why A Defender Like Mats Hummels (Or Similar) Is Worth His Weight In Gold

Continuing my theme on why Arsenal need to seriously invest in a better defence I am going to look at why a Central Defensive partnership that people believe in is something that you should be throwing money at constantly. An imposing central defender like Mats Hummels can really allow your team to push on with confidence, because you will just concede fewer goals.

First of all, let’s have a look at Arsenal’s defensive record over the years.

[table id=8 /]

Arsenal have remained fairly consistent, but have finished higher when they have truly commanding centrebacks marshalling their defence. You may think I’m being very kind to Campbell and Toure, but at the time they were very good at their job, although they did benefit from actually having midfield cover in front of them.

More from Arsenal News

• 3 observations from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park

In recent years it’s been a combination of Mertesacker, Konscielny and Vermaelen. None of them are overly brilliant and all have obvious flaws. Vermaelen was caught out of position quite often, Mertesacker is slower than most escalators and Konscielny can’t seem to string 4 games together without making a crazy mistake or getting injured. There’s no command or belief in any of them at the moment.

Mats Hummels

So why did I select Mats Hummels out of all of the possible alternatives? Multiple reasons.

1. He actually has experience playing at the top level and he is still improving despite already being a first choice centre-back for a World Cup winning side. He is only going to get better because he is only 25, very young for a defender.

2. He doesn’t make mistakes. Despite Dortmund being quite poor this season and languishing near the bottom of the Bundesliga, he is still proving a model of consistency. He has only made 1 defensive error all season so far (according to Squawka).

3. He actually wins his confrontations. He has a 63% duel success rate, coming from winning 64% of his headers, 59% of his tackles, succeeding in 70% of his take ons and suffering more fouls than he concedes. He has also only picked up 1 yellow card (take note Calum Chambers).

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 observations from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park

Of course there are other defenders out there who could well do a job for Arsenal, he is by no way the only option. However I think when considering what he could bring to the team, current compatriots at the clubs and how he will improve he is the best option for Arsenal to pursue at the earliest opportunity.

Allowing the defence to strengthen and actually receive some investment would take pressure off the teams going forward, and reap benefits for seasons to come. If we sign two players in the January transfer window with the aim of improving our side the most it has to be a centre-back and a strong midfielder. With those two additions we can actually focus on winning games playing our way rather than scraping through.

If we sign another attacking midfielder who shows lots of promise passing the ball and going forward but doesn’t like to defend…then I don’t know what is going to happen to this club.

Follow Pain in the Arsenal on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.