Arsenal: Laurent Koscielny shuffling brings key weakness to light

Arsenal have made it clear through their shuffling of Laurent Koscielny’s primary position that he lacks one key attribute that has to be answered for.

Arsenal’s swap to the back three provided a whole new world of defensive questions that had to be answered. It wasn’t as simple as the back four, with a partnership at the back and two fullbacks. That was a defense based on individual skill and a hint of coordination.

The back three was a defense based massively on the coordination of the three centerbacks, led by the center-most defender, who is tasked with leading the communication and keeping everything in line. Literally and figuratively.

Since the installation of the back three at Arsenal, we have used three primary center-most defenders: Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi and Per Mertesacker.

It has been a carousel of personnel back there, mostly due to injuries, but it’s hard to argue that one of the best stretches this defense faced was in September, when they were perfect, both in the Premier League and in the secondary competitions.

In each instance, the beacon in the center of the back three was either Shkodran Mustafi or Per Mertesacker. Laurent Koscielny had been moved out of the role he first had and pushed wide right. It was a direct swap, letting Mustafi take the center and pushing Koscielny to the right.

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That’s a pretty telling switch that hasn’t been too widely talked about. But essentially what it says is that Koscielny doesn’t have the communication to lead the back three or hold them in line. Case in point: the last time that Koscielny was used as the central defender was in the collapse against Liverpool.

Since then, it has been Mustafi and Mertesacker, both of whom have proven to be effective communicators and who have held the defense together.

Which is no harm no foul. Koscielny is a tremendous defender but not a tremendous organizer. There’s nothing wrong with that.

The problem that I see is that Koscielny looks to be here for the next couple years, whereas Mertesacker is moving over to be the academy coach and Mustafi is, well, we aren’t sure. Everyone seemed pretty bent that he would be sold and I wonder if that line of concern will persist in the upcoming transferring windows.

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I would hope that either Rob Holding or Calum Chambers can pick up this crucial aspect of the game, especially seeing as how we need two to hold everything together given the extra competitions that Arsenal will always be a part of.

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