Arsenal: Rob Holding at his worst is still an upgrade

Arsenal may turn to Rob Holding to solve their defensive woes, and they should rest easy if they do. Even at his worst, he’s still better than what we’ve had.

Rob Holding showcased a tremendous individual effort against Nottingham Forest and, right on cue, Arsenal fans are begging for him to get back into the starting XI and carry off where he left the defensive resurgence last year.

Go figure, the biggest question mark still riddling this Arsenal club is their defense. Even as the midfield becomes a veritable carousel, their defense could go for a little bit of the same as they continue to underperform and, worse, forfeit ridiculous goals from awful mistakes.

There is talk around the interwebs that Holding could be the defensive solution, while some are asking for caution as the young Englishman is coming off a serious injury and the potential for a relapse is nothing short of terrifying.

Plus, we have to take rust into account. Laurent Koscielny was incredibly rusty when he returned from the same injury last year (granted, he’s a decade older), and we can’t hide from the fact that Holding only beat Nottingham Forest.

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That said, when you look at the current centerback duo of David Luiz and Sokratis and consider the worst we have seen Rob Holding, I’d still take him as an easy upgrade for one big reason—even when he struggles, he doesn’t have the propensity to surrender penalties or give up laughable individual mistakes.

Sokratis and Luiz both fall into that similar trap of not being able to keep the mistakes away. At his worst, Holding struggled positionally and with holding his own (ha…) against Premier League opposition, but we saw him correct those mistakes last year before the big injury.

So let’s say he’s rusty and relapses physically a bit, struggling to inspire the same confidence he did against Nottingham Forest and in the early going of last year. That’s fine. I would take that over the current options in a heartbeat.

Holding is the solution to this defensive problem. So was Calum Chambers. Dinos Mavropanos would be too, if we could ever figure out what’s wrong with him. Maybe even Shkodran Mustafi, but I don’t want to get too outlandish.

That’s the point. This defensive pairing doesn’t work at the most fundamental level. Change it up at all and it will probably improve. The fact that it’s Holding being counted on just makes it more exciting.