Arsenal: Well, now that Sokratis has said it, let’s do it

Arsenal brought in Sokratis among a batch of skepticism, but now that the Greek is speaking our language, let’s see this all the way through.

Arsenal gave up 76 total goals last year, over 50 in the Premier League alone. I don’t need to tell anyone how unacceptable that is. I also don’t need to tell anyone what the primary source of the problem was.

But I will anyway. It was unacceptable. And the primary source of the problem was inexplicable personal mistakes. Defenders trying to be too fancy, mentally checking out, completely muffing their position, etc. etc.

Ask anyone what we needed this summer, or last summer or any summer over the past four years and beyond, really, and one of the first things you will here is “some more damn no-nonsense defending.”

Just give us someone who doesn’t get pushed around, who instead pushes people around himself. That is what we wanted. And we didn’t have anyone that was like that.

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Sokratis, to me, wasn’t the answer. Sure, he was gritty, but he made his fair share of mistakes for Dortmund last year in their defensive collapse too. Adding mistakes to mistakes wasn’t a solution that many got behind.

However, while Sokratis hasn’t been able to do much to actually prove himself on the pitch for the Gunners, he is saying all the right things. I don’t normally put too much credence in words, but his words are exactly what I and a lot of other Gunners want to hear.

Here’s what he had to say:

"“I am here to show I am first a defender and after that comes everything else. Of course you have to know how to play with the ball, in the last five or six years football has changed a lot. A lot of coaches and a lot of teams now look at only how to play, not how to defend.”"

Yesssss. Keep talking. Please. That last bit is the best – they look at only how to play, not how to defend. I could not have put it any better myself and I just want him to say more.

Everything that Sokratis just said, needs to happen. Let’s focus on defending, not just playing. Let’s stop the nonsense and defend first.

Words are words. Sure. But these words are at the top of the word totem pole.