Arsenal: Benjamin Pavard the sneaky way to defensive solidity

Arsenal are reportedly in on Benjamin Pavard, who, while not well known, is the right step to take to get back some sort of defensive gumption.

Arsenal’s defense was the talk of the town in the worst way possible last season, surrendering over 50 goals in embarrassing fashion, most of which involved mental failures or complete defensive collapses.

As such, the links to all these different centerbacks isn’t surprising. They need solutions and if that means new players, then the new players need to hit a certain criteria – they have to actually be an improvement over what we already have.

I realize there is no way to guarantee this, but loading up on guys like Sokratis or Medhi Benatia doesn’t strike me as a guaranteed improvement. I’d much rather role the dice on someone like Caglar Soyuncu to try to trigger a bit of internal competition among our youngsters.

And then there is Benjamin Pavard, the 22-year-old French defender that the Gunners have supposedly inquired after. He may cost all of £40m, which would be the most money the Gunners have ever spent on a defender, but it would be well-spent.

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The thing about Pavard is that he would be an improvement over what we already have. He may just be 22, but he was a centerpiece of one of the best, most surprising defenses in Europe – Stuttgart.

The Bundesliga side gave up a league second-best 36 goals, and Pavard played a crucial role in that as the absorbing defender who doesn’t lash out at ball-carriers, but instead reads play, shuts down passing lanes, and blocks shots – all of which he does to tremendous effect.

Most of Arsenal’s defenders share one trait – they are vicious. They strike out at the ball, wherever it is, and while this can work nicely from time to time, given that they all do it is that it can leave them exposed at the back.

Pavard is a solution to that. Better yet, when you look at errors, you see an improvement as well. Our “veteran core” of Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny succumbed to five defensive errors all year, three of which led to goals.

Pavard committed just one error all season, and he played well over 3000 minutes with the first team in Stutgart.

Next: 3 Reasons To Give Danny Welbeck A New Contract

According to the reports, Pavard wants to join the Gunners. Whether that is actually true, who knows, but any sort of crack in the door needs to be pursued. This is the kind of guy you want.

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