Arsenal: Why the system is failing Shkodran Mustafi more than vice versa

Arsenal’s loss to Manchester City has brought out some of the usual targets of criticism, none moreso than Shkodran Mustafi, but how much is his fault?

Arsenal reverted to the back three against Manchester City and, honestly, I was plenty pleased with how it went…. at first. Once it went bad, everything derailed, but that isn’t anything abnormal. That’s always the case.

Shkodran Mustafi was at the heart of it and he was directly to blame for the first goal which, I don’t care what you say, wasn’t a foul.

Many people were left crying out that Mustafi is not good enough, that he is a failure, that he should be sold or dropped or exiled to Siberia. You know, that old jazz.

I won’t defend his performance, because it was horrible, but as a player, I will certainly defend him, and I will do so by citing the similarities that he has with his center back mate, Laurent Koscielny.

Unlike Mustafi, Koscielny is well-loved no matter what he does. If he has a bad match, people say he’s had a good run and needs to step aside. But for the most part, it’s universal love for the Frenchman.

Mustafi and Koscielny play a very similar style and it’s clear what has made Koscielny such a staple and Mustafi such a wild card – Per Mertesacker. More specifically, the system that Koscielny was raised in.

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Koscielny got away with his aggressive style because if he got caught out, the BFG would be there behind him, ready to mop up the mess. It allowed Koscielny to get away with mistakes that he then ironed out.

These days, Mustafi is making similar mistakes as Koscielny used to make, but without the luxury of having anyone to clean up after him. That’s not an excuse to make mistakes, but it’s a reminder that the learning process for Mustafi may be a bit more dangerous than the learning process that Koscileny had. Doesn’t mean they can’t end up in the same place.

Not just that, but these bone-headed mistakes that Mustafi makes seem to be an “Arsenal thing.” There are few people on this team who haven’t made similar bone-headed mistakes, including consummate professionals like Koscielny and even Petr Cech.

This is why I’m nowhere near the panic button for Mustafi and much closer to the “he’s brilliant” button. The pros far outweigh the cons, he has bailed us out more times than he has hurt us and that ratio is only going to get more in the favor of bailing us out as time moves on.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Manchester City

A lot of the growing process will depend on what system is employed, though. Again, this system that the Gunners are employing is not conducive to Mustafi’s style. So either we accommodate his style or we hope he can change, but honestly, the former is much easier than the latter. Especially seeing as how the current system needs changes anyway.