Arsenal: Shkodran Mustafi has to sort himself out

Shkodran Mustafi made two critical mental errors in Arsenal’s win against West Bromwich Albion on Monday night. Although they went unpunished, he must nevertheless sort himself out.

Arsenal won on Monday night, seeing past West Bromwich Albion thanks to two goals from Alexandre Lacazette. But it was not as comfortable as the scoreline perhaps suggested, especially in the first half when Tony Pulis’ side pushed their hosts hard, creating several good opportunities.

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It was, though, poor defending that created the problems, rather than penetrative attacking play from the Baggies. Specifically, it was poor defending from Shkodran Mustafi, with two critical mental errors made in the build-up.

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The first should have resulted in a penalty. After Aaron Ramsey lost the ball with a loose touch, West Brom broke on Arsenal, clipping a nice pass down the left channel for Jay Rodriguez to run onto. With Laurent Koscielny caught a little too advanced – it was safe possession so the mistake is not necessarily a mistake, just unfortunate –, Mustafi was forced to track the run down the channel, just about keeping pace.

Rodriguez, cleverly, decided to fake the shot, performing a Cruff turn, cutting inside Mustafi. Mustafi had committed himself, however, with a reckless lunge, in an attempt to block an anticipated shot. He caught Rodriguez on the follow through and, had the former Southampton defender gone to grown, would have conceded a penalty. Rodriguez, though, stayed on his feet, shot at goal, only to see his effort brilliantly tipped onto the post by Petr Cech.

But Mustafi did not need to dive in. While he was struggling to recover his position thanks to Rodriguez’s pace, because of the angle, all he had to do was stay on his feet, shield Rodriguez wide and force a shot on goal from a difficult position. The lunge was unnecessary and unwise, and it exposed the German badly.

The second piece of play was equally as reckless. In a similar scenario down the left flank, but with Laurent Koscielny tracking back and Mustafi positioned more centrally, he proceeded to make a truly stupid decision. Rather than hold his position and look to intercept the cross, protecting the area of most danger, the goal, Mustafi came across to close down Grzegorz Krychowiak. There was no need to do so. Although Koscielny could not recover to the point of blocking the cross, he could force a tight enough angle for Mustafi, if he positioned himself correctly, to mark the West Brom attackers.

But Mustafi came across, stupidly, leaving Nacho Monreal, who was covering from the left centre-back position, to mark two different players. It resulted in Jay Rodriguez enjoying a free header, only to see Monreal brilliantly turn the effort over the bar from off the goal line.

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The biggest issues that I have with both of these individual errors from Mustafi is the fact they are mental mistakes. Passes are misplaced, balanced is lost, touches are loose, and speed can be exploited. But mental mistakes are unacceptable, especially for a defender. Mustafi must sort himself out and do so quickly.