Arsenal: Rob Holding will not solve the defence

Arsenal are on pace to concede 60.8 goals this Premier League season. Many fans are championing the impending return of Rob Holding as a saviour to the defence, but while Holding’s reintroduction will help, it will not solve the defence.

Against Watford on Sunday afternoon, Arsenal’s debacle defensive security came to the fore. They conceded 31 shots, which was a Premier League record for the Gunners and for Watford, had an expected-goals north of three, conceded two actual goals, and were extremely fortunate to come away with a point.

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In all five games, Arsenal have now allowed 96 shots. That is the most in the Premier League, the same number as Chelsea and Manchester United combined. Bernd Leno has made 4.4 saves per game, including eight on Sunday, the third-most in the league, and have two of the top four games for opponents’ touches in the penalty area, Watford (48) and Liverpool (49).

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This all to say one rather obvious — and extremely concerning — thing: Arsenal are not very good at defending. To put all this into context, they are on pace to concede 60.8 goals this season. They have only twice conceded more than 50 goals in a season, which came in the last two seasons, where they were widely regarded as terrible defensively. Only five teams conceded more than that last season.

Last week, Rob Holding returned to full training. This week, he has been declared fit to feature in a first-team match. It is expected that he will play some part of Thursday night’s Europa League match against Eintracht Frankfurt. Holding is returning from an ACL tear he suffered in early December last season. He was in excellent form prior to the injury and his absence certainly curtailed Unai Emery’s plans for the remainder of the season, having to rush Laurent Koscielny back from his ruptured Achilles injury. Arsenal did not lose a match Holding featured in last season.

Holding’s encouraging form, making clear improvements under Emery, as well as the prosperous results the team earned while he was a part of it, have led some to believe that he will be some form of saviour for this diabolical defence. Sokratis and David Luiz have certainly been key parts of the problem at the heart of the backline and Holding, it is believed, would be a direct and substantial improvement on either.

Now, without being too down on Holding and his long-anticipated return, I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but he will not be the saviour of Arsenal’s defence. In fact, very few players would be the saviour of the defence, such is the infecting extent of the problems within the collective unit. You see, simply replacing — and even improving upon — the centre-halves does not solve the defence. There is much more to it than that.

The Gunners’ defensive problems stem from their inability to keep the ball and play with smart territory. That means they cannot press opponents high up the pitch, suffering from turnovers deep in their own half. This is compounded by the lack of protection that is offered from the midfield, with Granit Xhaka a particular culprit in this area, while the defenders themselves are not good enough to deal with such relentless attacking waves. Inserting Holding will not solve all of these problems.

Is Holding better than Luiz and Sokratis? On current form, yes… just. But does that mean he can solve Arsenal’s defensive calamities? Absolutely not. That requires far more than a new centre-half. It requires an entire makeover.