Arsenal: Why a new centre-back is not necessarily essential

Last season, Arsenal had a centre-back problem. It has led to many fans suggesting it is the biggest need this summer. Here is why I don’t think one is necessarily essential.

There have been plenty of problems with Arsenal’s defence over the past few years. Arsene Wenger was notorious for not working on the defensive elements of the game in training, instead choosing to implement his attacking philosophies at every turn. The defensive vulnerabilities of the team are one of the main contributing factors as to why Wenger was asked to resign; they were a huge reason for the decline of the team.

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When Unai Emery came in last summer, there was a clear attempt to fix these defensive shortcomings. Five players were signed in his first summer in charge. Three of them were defenders or goalkeepers and the two other two were defensive-minded central midfielders.

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But the defensive problems did not subside. Arsenal still conceded 51 goals in the Premier League last season, the ninth-best record in the division. The year prior, Wenger’s worst at the helm, they also conceded 51.

The continued deficiencies in defence have led many fans to hail centre-back as the greatest positional need this summer. It makes sense, given the record of the team. Moreover, Sokratis and Laurent Koscielny, the best two starters, are both the wrong side of 30, Shkodran Mustafi is hopeless, and the other options are all young and inexperienced. Such arguments are understandable.

However, I come down on these defensive problems slightly differently. They are obviously the crucial issue that must be addressed this summer, but I am not so sure that signing a new centre-back is necessarily the way to go about doing that.

Now, if Arsenal have the chance to sign a Virgil van Dijk-type centre-half, my opinion very quickly changes; if they pursue players of a similar quality to Sokratis, the man they signed last summer, however, decent defenders with some ability but obvious limitations, I am not so convinced that this will make a great deal of difference.

With Calum Chambers returning from his loan deal, Rob Holding returning from injury, and Dinos Mavropanos still developing, there is individual talent for Emery to work with. Are any of them world-class defenders? No, of course not. Some might suggest that they are not even ready for regular first-team football. But how will you know without giving them a chance?

And this is where I struggle with signing a new centre-back. Simply picking up another ball of mud and throwing at the wall in the hope that it sticks does not seem like a sensible thing to do. In Chambers, Holding and Mavropanos, Arsenal already have three fairly sizable pieces that have a good chance of sticking, in the right circumstances. Why not throw them into the fire and see how they handle it?

If you can secure a game-changing defensive piece, this changes, obviously. But to simply add a centre-back for the sake of adding a centre-back makes little sense to me. Arsenal do need to solve their defensive issues, but a new centre-back is not necessarily essential to achieving that feat.