Arsenal: Defensive woes becoming increasingly apparent

Arsenal are trainwreck defensively and it’s showing with every passing game. They need to either move some players on or sign new ones. It needs to be fixed.

Arsenal has always had problems defending, whether it be from corners or just trying to stop a run. On Sunday everyone saw what poor defending looks like and Shkodran Mustafi gave a perfect example.

Between zonal marking and their reliance on aging defenders, it’s a no-brainer why they are struggling. With Laurent Koscielny clearly on his last legs and Per Mertesacker becoming more of a player-coach. There has been more of a reliance put on Mustafi.

He hasn’t shouldered it well.

He is woefully inconsistent and seemingly always out of position. Sunday’s game against Manchester City was dreadful, to say the least. Mustafi didn’t seem to want to help Arsenal through his poor play.

Shkodran Mustafi joined the Gunners from Valencia in 2016 for an astounding fee of £35m pounds. With a fee like that, you would expect something more from him. He did have that amazing run at the beginning of his North London career, going undefeated until he was sidelined by injuries.

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He was a class defender in Spain and for Germany, but when he put on that Arsenal kit he became a different defender. I do know that the Premier League is completely different to any other league in the world and I do know that he could still be classified as a good defender.

Mustafi is the kind of player who feeds off confidence. When he doesn’t feel confident, he shuts down and makes mistakes. Against a player like Sergio Aguero, he should not be pushed off that easily. No defenders should use simulation or any other act of trickery, it’s wrong. You should start by doing your job, and make sure you’re good at that first.

It was just a defensive fiasco on Sunday, despite reverting to a back three that was supposed to cope better with a serious City attack. The back four has had its problems this year too, so it makes sense why they switched it up for the final, ideally it just would have worked better.

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Arsenal needs to revamp their starting XI from back to front, they need to seriously look at what they have. They have the money why not spend it on someone that will shore up our back line?

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