Arsenal: Yerry Mina fits missing piece of new-look defense

Arsenal have been on the heels of Colombia defender Yerry Mina, who serves a very set purpose the Gunners currently don’t have.

Arsenal’s defense has nabbed some key reinforcements, while also re-upping on some existing resources that needed a bit of reinvestment. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more, and Yerry Mina is certainly more.

While it’s impossible to know what actually happens behind closed doors during the transfer market, we are here to talk about the potential moves themselves, not whether or not they are fact or fiction.

According to Don Balon, the Gunners have made Mina and his current club, Barcelona, a loan offer, with the option to make the deal permanent. Which, according the the report (and the reason why the report exists), Mina immediately turned and told James Rodriguez about.

Again, fact or fiction be damned, let’s talk about what Mina would bring to this club, because he brings one specific, crucial piece of a defensive puzzle that the Gunners currently don’t have – size.

Mina ranks in at 195 cm and 94 kg, which would make him the biggest defender at the Emirates since, well, Per Mertesacker, but in light of the German’s retirement, this back line has gotten woefully smaller.

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And while these smaller defenders have still showed an aptitude for winning balls in the air, they oftentimes lack the physical presence to enforce the law in their own box.

Mina would aim to solve that.

The 23-year-old won nearly five aerials per game in the World Cup in addition to scoring three goals for his country, making him one of the surprising upstarts, not least of all because he almost broke English hearts with his last second goal.

Currently at Barcelona, Mina needs game time somewhere. His 300 minutes at the World CUp nearly matched what he played at Barcelona all of last year – just 370 minutes. Breaking down the Pique-Umtiti partnership is not going to be an easy feat.

Let’s just say it would be a heck of a lot easier breaking into a wide open defense with the Gunners, who are going to be experimenting with new defensive combos all year.

Barcelona know how to pick their players, but they often get hung up actually finding space for some of those players. Mina is just the latest in that trend.

Next: Arsenal Complete 2017/18 Player Ratings

This is a class no-lose move. Let the man fight for his position like he hasn’t been able to do in La Liga.

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