Arsenal: If you’re criticizing Bernd Leno, stop right now

Arsenal fans should be over the moon to have Bernd Len in the net, so if you feel the urge to criticize him, go ahead and stick a foot in it.

There I was, just scrolling peacefully though recent Arsenal news when I stumbled on that familiar click-baity article format: “Bernd Leno‘s dismal record should concern Arsenal fans.” Naturally, my curiosity is piqued. What could they be talking about? Defensive errors? Poor decision making?

I resisted clicking… oh how I resisted, but in the end I gave in and clicked the article. I just had to know what Leno was being criticized for on this most benevolent of international breaks.

His clean sheet record. That’s what this article was drawing attention to. They were drawing attention to the fact that Leno has not kept many clean sheets in the Premier League since arriving. I rolled my eyes so hard that I remembered my much younger self getting scolded by my mother, “roll them that hard and they’ll get stuck in the back of your head!”

Well, I finally proved her wrong, because I couldn’t have rolled them any harder.

Honestly, what kind of ridiculous publication goes off and throws out an article that is so surface value that it required literally no research of any kind.

“Hey guys, let’s criticize Bernd Leno, we just feel like it.”

“Okay. How?”

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“Start with the most basic of goalkeeping stats and don’t go any further, we don’t want to make an actual point, just piss people off.”

“Done.”

And done, because I am pissed. How stuff like that can hit the news waves is beyond me. Remember that time Wojciech Szczesny was criticized for not keeping clean sheets and, shortly thereafter, became one of the best goal keepers in the world in the best defense in the world? Yeah, me too.

Stick prime Buffon behind Sokratis and David Luiz and you’d have the clueless English media, “Well, we should be concerned about Buffon, he can’t seem to keep a clean sheet.”

Here’s a fun fact—a goalkeeper can compensate for a poor defense as much as he wants, it’s still only papering over the cracks. If you aren’t convinced by Leno’s ability by now, I don’t know how to help you. The man is tremendously talented, he just needs a proper back line to protect the goal with him, otherwise it’s all for naught and he’ll end up going somewhere with a proper defense and becoming one of the best in the world.

Utterly baffling. I can’t wait until he’s behind Rob Holding and (hopefully) Calum Chambers so he can start helping people shut up.