Arsenal: Defensive overkill must be avoided in transfer market

Arsenal’s defense failed miserably this year, and now rumors are emerging that a whole new back five is incoming. That’s such a silly waste of resources.

It’s a rare year when it’s easy to pinpoint where exactly Arsenal went wrong. Normally it’s a scattering of problems, all contributing in their own small ways. But this year, it was defense. It was all defense. Fix that defense, and this club would be in a whole new world.

This, however, requires a bit of specificity. Because despite the problems that the defense had, the one, main problem was even easier to pick out – individual mental errors. Misjudgments across the board. A complete philosophical collapse.

Arsene Wenger’s insistence on sticking with the back four despite the promise of the back three may have contributed as well, but overall, this club just needs a complete philosophical revamp for the defense.

Some people are taking this as meaning a complete scorched earth policy. Remove everything and start over again. According to some reports, that is the plan, the buy an entirely new back five to build this team around.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

That is textbook overkill. Yes, the defense was the main problem, but that would be like uprooting an entire garden just because you see clumps of weeds. It is unnecessary and it’s a massive waste of financial resources, which always seem to be a point of concern for this club. Maybe it won’t be post-Wenger, but we don’t know that yet.

I’m not opposed to a defender or two being signed. That said, I am opposed to the idea of burning down the house to build a new one when a few renovations can do the trick.

I don’t see the problem with Calum Chambers being called upon to be a regular in the starting XI. I don’t see the problem with Rob Holding and Konstantinos Mavropanos being called upon to play bigger roles, perhaps the starters in the League or FA Cup early rounds.

Even if you don’t think any of them are ready, uprooting it all to cobble together five brand new defenders that have never played together is a risk in and of itself, not to mention how unnecessary it truly is.

There is a top-class defender in Shkodran Mustafi. Get it out of him, don’t bury him. A change in manager should go a long way to fixing this defense, as they will have to wake up and find their best selves if they don’t want to be tossed to the curb.

Next: Arsenal vs Atletico Madrid Player Ratings

There are resources in this defense that don’t deserve to be completely removed. Build around them, not in spite of them.

Home/Arsenal News