Mertesacker Needs Replacing Because…

Per Mertesacker. Every inch of his 6’6 frame seems to be under scrutiny these days with many of his old detractors crawling out of the woodwork to put him down and proclaim him to be the calamity they had always believed him to be.

I’ve been steering clear of Twitter recently as it has been the only way I can curb my desire to argue the toss with people whose opinions on Per are frankly not worth my time. I’ve found it difficult not to retort and point out the hypocrisy, revisionism and contradictory nature of people who have previously lapped at Per like a thirsty kitten but are now putting him down as the main reason for our capricious form and defensive frailties.

I don’t understand the negativity from some supporters toward Mertesacker. You don’t make over 100 appearances for the German national team if you are an average player let alone a poor one. Germany is blessed with great players so to get the level of caps Mertesacker has you need to have a little something special about you.

These detractors will point to the number of substitute appearances he has made and/or a lack of options but this is Germany we are talking about – not England. The so called worst players in their national set-up would walk into the England team.

I’ve even watched over the years as some of his original detractors saw him adapt to the league and become our defensive leader and hold their hands up and say they were wrong about him only to now say they’ve never been fans! Pah!

Mertesacker has been criticised for a lack of pace however I think it unfair to label him a bad defender just because of a lack of pace. When settled at centre-half (and at a similar age to what Per is now) Baresi, Maldini, Cannavaro, Moore, Adams and Bould were not possessors of great pace, they were possessors of great minds. And since when was pace a prerequisite of being a good footballer? I remember when people said Theo couldn’t play football and he was only a professional because he was fast!

To me, a great defender doesn’t need to fly into tackles all over the shop with British Bulldog spirit or clatter into people to “let them know they’re there” with their eyes screaming “Up the Alamo!”. Excellent reading of the game, superb positioning and the ability to force the opposition to move into closed space is more important than tackling and pace.

Mertesacker

Our defending this season has been shambolic at times, especially when you compare it to our overall defensive performance from last season but as in 2012 we have suffered from over-rotation. Lack of personnel through injury, suspension and recruitment (which is a separate issue entirely) has seen some players overplayed and others played out of position. In 2012 we had over 18 different versions of our back four and our first choice back four of the time did not play together until match 26!

Last season we had a largely settled defence which goes some way to enforcing the view that the chopping and changing of the team has affected the quality of our defending more than the poor form of any one individual. And that doesn’t even take into account the varying degrees of protection offered in front of the defence either.

We’re 19 matches in and we are yet to see what is generally accepted as our first-choice back four playing together. We have had 11 back four combinations already with 5 different centre-back pairings and no defensive combination has played more than 4 games on the trot which is eerily the same amount of consecutive games in 2012 that we managed to put out the same back four.

I think to some degree people accept that but then they ruin the argument by making the asinine opinion that players should be able to play with anyone. What!?

First, it’s insane to expect any player to immediately adapt to a new defensive combination and expect them to perform at their usual level. Second, what game have these people been watching? Football is full of examples of players not working with certain other players. We all know that Vermaelen and Koscielny didn’t work but I’ve never heard anyone put Koscielny down by saying “he should be able to play with anyone”. No, they just put it down to the fact that the players were too similar or that Vermaelen just wasn’t a good enough partner for Koscielny.

Where is this logic in regards to Per and why isn’t it being applied in the same manner?

Why didn’t Koscielny and Vermaelen work? Or Gerrard and Lampard? Why can’t Cesc and Ozil play together? Why was Toure immeasurably more fallible when not partnered with Sol? Why was Keown – one of the best defenders Arsenal have had – often second fiddle to Bould and latterly (to a degree) Sol to partner Adams?

Because football is all about partnerships and relationships. Ozil was better at Real Madrid because he had partners he understood and is yet to get the chance to form those relationships at Arsenal due to injuries to himself and the players best suited to his talents. Lampard and Gerrard didn’t work because they both wanted to occupy the same space. Bould was picked ahead of Keown because he was a better partner for Adams. Toure was let go in favour of Gallas because Gallas was a better partner for Vermaelen. Vermaelen was frozen out (injuries aside) because Koscielny and Mertesacker were the better partnership.

The display of torpidity is astounding from those who believe Mertesacker should just be able to adapt to play with anyone. Or that any player can play with another at the drop of a hat. Partnerships are either come naturally or need to be worked on. What chance has Mertesacker had to work on a partnership with any other player this season? And even if he could would he have been given the opportunity to develop that understanding before people started readying their nooses?

Players are meant to complement each other so Per being exposed for pace is as much someone else’s fault as it is his. Being slow isn’t an individual error so it should/could be seen as a team weakness not a personal weakness but if the right-back and other centre-back are making up the pace then the weakness is covered and they can benefit from Per’s positioning, marshalling of the defence and defensive leadership.

Yet how can young players like Bellerin or Chambers be expected to offer returned protection when they are still learning their trade? How can Mertesacker be expected to do his role effectively whilst helping his right-back give him the protection he needs and dealing with an out of position partner who also needs help to adapt to his role? How can the left-back be expected to immediately adapt to covering Per’s lack of pace when they are used to having Koscielny next to them?

This adaptation doesn’t happen overnight and the greatest irony is that Per’s detractors believe that we’d be better served by replacing him with Winston Reid or Tyrone Mings. How ironic is it that the players touted as his replacement are playing for “lesser” teams and are not guaranteed to be able to make the step up yet when this minor detail is pointed out the response is “they’ll be playing with better players at Arsenal”?

How ironic that the answer to the question of why replace a player struggling without his usual partner with one from a less demanding environment is that the new player will benefit from better partners.

Like all players Mertesacker will eventually need replacing but deciding that the reason he needs replacing is because he has struggled to cope with a lottery defence and complementary talents of his usual partner is ridiculous reasoning in the extreme.

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