A look at Koscielny in real action
If Laurent Koscielny will be Thomas Vermaelen’s first-choice partner, he is definitely an upgrade on William Gallas.
Compared to the former Arsenal skipper, Koscielny has more grit and relishes the ugly, physical side of the game (watch his tangles with Kuyt, Jovanovic and then Torres) while his heading ability is quite as reliable as Vermaelen’s.
Gallas was a decent defender, but only on days he chose to show up, and his lack of persistent physicality (which saw him pushed over by the likes of Agbonlahor and Defoe in the past) often saw his partners Toure and Vermaelen forced to claim the responsibility of being the ‘tough guy’.
From observations of him at Anfield, it looks as though Koscielny’s much-speculated size is of little concern and it actually suits Arsenal’s game because his mobility will occasionally help the team going forward and of course, like his race with Torres showed, quick strikers will not terrorize him much.
Now what he needs is another back-up to join Djourou!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5bjqDxMy9s&w=400&h=300]For those still skeptic about Koscielny because of his average size, I think the talk of Arsenal being ‘bullied pussies’ in recent years has gotten too much into your head that you guys now want giants or nothing.
But I feel in a defender, athleticism and enough physical strength is not necessarily measured by size – Vidic, Verm and Skrtel are not ‘giants’ are they?.
Getting a big, tall, but slow Hangeland or Mertesacker will see us struggle against quick strikers like Anelka and Defoe. So we have to balance size and athleticism here.
If his size is OK and he has bags of strength and pace, I will prefer him over a bullish giant.
The reason why we are being called ‘pussies’ is because we get too many skillful midgets (Arshavin, Rosicky, Walcott, etc.) who like the game pretty or nothing else and we had centre-backs like Gallas who defended better with the ball on the ground or attacking-mindedly.
But you should notice that (not just by their looks) players like Verm and Kos are bringing the ‘Keown’ feeling back. Last season, it took until March for an Arsenal player to get a red card and it was Vermaelen. This year, Koscielny has done it quick.
Red cards are not great achievements, but in our case, it rids that ‘pussy’ tag and Koscielny will only help bring tough back. Because we need it!
he took torres, not many can do that, so it is an upgrade and he looks like a good defender…
dude torres wasnt fully fit…if he was he would have gone passed him seconds ago….time will tell if he is a gud defender or not
What has fitness got to do with a 40 yard sprint?! Torres had been on for 5 minutes at that point, he was fresh, if anything Kos should have been tired. You don’t get slow when you haven’t played for 1 month. You just lose the endurance to sprint over and over again for 90 minutes.
Kos outpaced/muscles Torres. end of.
dude,why are you such a hater?
Torres was not going to go around that guy fully fit or not.
Kos=class defender!
Looks good. Seems he’s gonna sit behind vermalean sweeping up a la Steve Bould.
I was overlly impressed with him on his debut. Once he puts on the weight, he’ll be a monster!!
The sending off was un-called for though, but it will give him time to hit the gym and fully recover from his knock from ‘Jail Cole’
“Put on the weight” for what? I think the talk of Arsenal being ‘bullied pussies’ in recent years has got too much into your head that you guys now want giants or nothing.
But I feel in a defender, athleticism and enough physical strength is not necessarily measured by size – Vidic, Verm, Skrtel are not ‘giants’ are they?. Getting a big tall but slow Hangeland or Mertesacker will see us struggle against quick strikers like Anelka and Gbonlahor. So we have to balance size and athleticism here.
If his size is OK and he has bags of strength and pace, I’ll prefer him over a bullish giant.
what i meant by ‘putting on the weight’, was i maent to say he needs to put some ‘muscle’ on. He needs to bulk up slightly because what will happen when he plays agaisnt a wanabe bully like Drogba or physical teams like Bolton, Blackburn, Stoke and etc
Here here Randy, Kos and Verm are bringing the toughness back. Strong “fighters” who both happen to also look like assassins.
I Must say he looks the part but time will tell, this was a big test for him and alongside the Verminator they both look good just have to stay concentrated throughout the whole game and we will have a good defence on hand, also he seems like he is very good in the air which is a bonus.
G4L
All We Need Is A GK n CB Now:
GK – Mark Schwarzer Or Shay Given
CB – ???
1st Team:
————— Almunia ——————
Sagna — Koscielny — Vermaelen — Clichy —
——————— Song ——————————
——————————– Nasri ——————-
———— Fabregas ———————————
V.Persie ———————————– Arshavin/Rosicky
——————— Chamakh ————————
2nd Team:
———– Fabianski/Mannone/Szchney ——————
Eboue — Nordtveit — Djourou — Gibbs/Traore —
——————— Frimpong ——————————
——————————– Diaby/Denilson ——————-
———— Wilshere/Ramsey ———————————
Walcot ———————————– Vela
——————— Bendtner ————————
Okay he looks good, but lets not get too excited after 1 game. Theres still a whole season ahead. He played most of the game with ngog alone up front and torres obviously isnt fully fit.
No vidic and skrtel arent monsters but both have at least 2-3 inches on our cbs at anfield and both are strong bastards. Actually i take that back, vidic is a monster all round. There were still enough times we looked shaky when they put balls into our box in the air.
Id really like to see a slightly bigger, more physicial defender next to vermaelen tbh. Koscielny looks like hes cut from exactly thame cloth as tv and we saw what happened when chelsea came to the emirates last year.
Still if he puts a bit of bulk on hopefully well be alright.
Err… Vidic is 6’2″ – Kos is 6’1″.
Isnt it funny how things seem so much less when its your own?
“Vidic is a monster but our defenders are midgets”.
Er kos is not 6’1
The guy is class. He is a reader of the game and exeptionally skillfull. Its not as if he bulldozing people over, he is a step ahead everytime.
I severely hope youre judging him having seen him play in france. Because if thats based on one premiership match and a couple friendlies you just sound naive.
Like i say well have to wait and see.
And fair play vidic maybe a similar height but hes also more built and strong as anything. But kos really didnt look that tall when i saw him in the box at anfield next to liverpool players so im surprised at that admittedly.
By the way… I agree with the likeness they both have with keown, but keown nevernplayed with a carbon copy of himself did he?
He excelled next to adams and campbell. Both extremely organised leaders, strong and tall and slower off the mark than keown. Im just not sure that having these two next to each other will be the right combo. Perhaps djourou will fit in better next to either of them.
John Terry is 187 cm
Koscielny is 186 cm
He is tall he’s just a bit skinny which makes him look small
Koscielny looks like one of those defenders who is always one step ahead of the attacker. He’s got everything he just needs to bulk up could be one of the best
This may be true but terry is also an absolute monster in the air. Im not saying koscielny wont be good in the air but that remains to be seen.
I dont know all this talk about Weight, Height and so on.. This guy is way way far better than Gallas. He is calm, cool, collected and can run/pace. Why can’t we just relax for a moment and leave this guy to do his job and let Wenger concentrate on who and who he needs to bring to the club before the tranfer window closes. Wenger has something in his bag …. COMMON GUNNERS!!!
GIVE THE GUY A CHANCE U HATERS. AS A DEFENDER HE DID WELL IN HIS FIRST PREMIER LEAGUE GAME END OF DISCUSSION.
Can I just point out that many a Latin Forward made a monkey out of Keown in the Champion’s League in the early years. He looked out of control and Batistuta, Rivaldo, even Haji and Shevchenko all made he and TA6 look old fashioned. Point? That at the top in Europe you face less Ricardo Fullers than you do Villas, Messis, Millitos and Berbatovs, and Kos will deal with the Villas as well as Gallas and way better than Keown. Kos may even handle Drogba better as he’ll relish the battle more than Gallas did. Although round one might go to the Drog till Kos gets his head around what he’ll have to deal with there.
Now, about those Drogba knock-offs oop norf? We’ll see soon enough as that’s what this article if focusing on.
Mate im sorry but drogba will boss him in his current state. Ive seen carragher running full pelt at drog at literally bounce off him and carragher is a big bastard.
I also think too many people are confusing their dislike of gallas with the idea that he wasnt a very good defender. Put someone like gallas next to big
Sol or rio and youre set.
It’ was his first game in the premiership very impressed.
Samaras didn’t shrug him off he nicked the ball ahead of him.
Gosh vermaelen wasn’t fit, djourou looked tired and koscielny was playin 2 games in a row in day emirates cup.
Samaras only looked good because Celtic av already played in the champions league and had a billion pre season friendliest.
Gosh who’s a better striker samaras or Torres? Yh Torres was unfit in the world cup plus he came on 20 mins he was fresh. He looked slot sharper than in the world cup
he is class!! he got voted best player in ligue2 and for a defender to get a best player award that says sumthing..if he put on 3-5 kg he will be one of the best
Fuck all haters,kos can keep any stiker cool and that’s it,GO KOS!!
To all u haters out there. If u can’t even have a little faith in your own player/players, why hang on? By all means, move on to any club of your choice. You are a disgrace to The Arsenal Football Club. Good Riddance !
Who’s hating? Just read through the replies and no one is slagging the guy off, at worst only saying he needs to bulk up. chill.
ok, i read on.. the hate is being thrown at each other in childish ways. how sweet!
Wow ive never seen a group of people so overly optimistic because a new player outpaced someone on the opposition.
Torres has been plagued with injuries for ages now and hasnt been playing regularly for a while Of course his acceleration and pace isnt going to be what it is normally, especially on the first say of the season.
Like i said, koscielny impresses and on a big stage for his first match but lets not get carried away, it takea time to see what a player is made of. Plus torres has never bullied us in the same way as players like rooney and drogba (and the drogba knockoffs t’up north like my friend above mentioned.
Leta be honest how many of us have actually seen him play a decent number of competive games. Im willing to best most of you hadnt heard of him til he was linked with us. Stop getting so excited you just sound like “sawker” fans.
Go slit your wrist already, you’re boring.
Oh and you’re a lier.
liar*
What exactly did i lie about?
Yea he is a good defender.
MY OPINOIN ON WHAT WENGER SHOULD DO:
Buy at least one center back for arsenal’s sake. WE ALL KNOW THERE WILL BE INJURIES. U CANNOT RUN AWAY FROM THEM. And why not buy one more striker? Trust me we always blame our defeats on the injuries, so we should have a big squad with more players like vpersi arshavin cesc nasri chamkk. players like bendtner walcott (yet) and vela are not goin to win us anythin. And I THINK ALL OF US ARSENAL FANS KNOW DAT DEEP DEEP INSIDE THEM.
For god sakes koscielny hasnt played against Drogba yet.
Just because hes skinny and has a slight figure doest mean drogba will dominate him.
Koscielny seems to be very different we havent had a centre back like him.
Hes seems to have the technical ability with a bit of fight and grit.
Arsenal have dealt well with kevin davies, peter crouch, fuller, kenweyne jones,
Arsenal need to sort out thier defensive stragety.
Arsenal have done quite well against the Northern teams i dont think its as bad as everyone makes out.
Yh 5 years ago we had that problem not anymore.
Our main problem is defending too high up on the pitch and when we are under pressure we crack.
We dont seem to withstand pressure
I also think our full backs need replacing.
Sagna and clichy get us exposed because they cant deliver a proper cross and teams counter attack straight away.
Kieran gibbs should be giving a go and feel we need a more attacking right back.
sup all, weas the guy who said hes krap n and old post??, i told him to talk 2 me after kon plays him in verma gana be the best!!
Why is everyone basing their judgements on whether he can outmuscle DROGBA OF ALL PEOPLE?? Drogba wipes the floor with just about every defender in the premiership, dont get on Kos’ back if he is the same. Its just the way things go, the whole team need to be alert where Drogba is concerned, and thats why he has scored so many goals against us because Denni and Diaby spend most the game chasing butterflies and giggling.
Wenger’s last five buys…. Nasri Arshavin Verminator Cham and Kos ARE GENIUS BUYS! Wake up, you’ve gotta be luvin this season already. What a squad! Even pre-season was serious. With Fabs Nas Van and Song? Come on! That is frightening…. seriously wake up and smell the quality. THIS YEAR IS IT. (lovin the old skool top by the way-it’s an omen) Bring on the twelfth man now. NO ONE IS SLAGGING THIS SQUAD MATE
absolutely!
Kos is BETTER than Gallas… Fast, intelligence, and commited. Time will tell, be patience friends… our Prof. knows what, who, is suitable for the team!!! Sad couse he got a Red Card!!!. Bad start to him…
A couple of quick points:
Drogba and Rooney are two of the best strikers in the world (for my money, Drogba is the best) for a reason. They are going to get the best of any CB from time to time and they will get the best of Kos from time to time also. But, he looks like he will give his all to stand in there with them and can get the best of them as much as they get the best of him–particularly if he adds a bit more muscle.
Kos has said that he believes that he needs to get stronger and, knowing this, I believe that he will do just that. He can easily add 2-3 Kg of muscle to his upper body lifting weights during the course of the season if he doesn’t have to play every game. If he adds just 5 Kg of muscle over the next year or so, he should be plenty strong enough to take on muscular strikers like Drogba without being pushed anywhere.
What stood out for me, though, was his anticipation and his ability to direct headers to teammates rather than just upfield on many occasions. He wasn’t just clearing the ball out, but clearing TO a specific teammate.
I know that it’s only one game and that there are going to be games when he will likely struggle, too, but you could see that the skills are there and that there are things that he does–and can do–that you don’t see from every CB in the EPL. I don’t know if he will achieve his full potential, but he showed that he has the potential to ultimately become a pretty special CB once he gets more familiar with his teammates, adds some more muscle, and gets acclamated to the rough-and-tumble of the EPL.
I’m looking forward to seeing him play more and am hoping that he does, indeed, achieve that potential!
i like this player hes gonna have a great season. very skillfull at what he does and doesnt rush his decisions. great player!