Arsenal long-serving manager Arsene
Wenger will have to choose between a centre-back who has speed and don't speak the language or one who doesn't have the speed to keep up with pacy striker
Jamie Vardy when the North Londoner take on Leicester in a crucial Premier League
clash on Sunday. "None of the two [Gabriel and Mertesacker] is a real commander. I ask Petr Cech to lead a bit more, because they don't talk too much," Wenger said. "Koscielny is a silent leader, and Gabriel at the moment doesn't master [English] well enough. And I don't think as well he's a natural extroverted defender."
"Gabriel has always done well. He adapted slowly to the Premiership, but today I think he has adapted," Wenger said. "He's still a young central defender but he shows big potential."
His language skills are still an issue and left-back Nacho Monreal said Gabriel still relies on Spanish to communicate with his teammates.
As for Mertesacker, Wenger said the German has enough other qualities to overcome his lack of speed, and said pace isn't crucial for a central defender.
"Per Mertesacker is a great leader, a very respected one in our dressing room, but I have three centre-backs and it depends a bit on their level of form, the number of games they've played and the opponents we play against.
"What are their strengths and where can they hurt us?" Wenger queried. "There are many centre-backs that are not pacey. John Terry is not super pacey. You need at least one of the two [to be quick]. It depends as well, if I play right centre-back and I have on my right side a full-back who is very quick and on my left side a guy who is very quick, it's not so much damage done.
"Because he can be covered from the right and from the left. Playing centre-back is also about reading the game, and anticipation, and Per Mertesacker is very strong at that.
"Let's not forget that he played all the games until now, and we won against Man City against Man United, they all have good strikers."
And while containing Leicester's quick breaks will be one of the keys on Sunday, Wenger said Arsenal must still focus on playing their normal attacking game.
"We will try of course to stop their counter-attacking. But you have to play at home by thinking 'how do we express our strengths?' And our strength is to have the ball. We have to try to express our strength and as well try to stop them from getting us on the break."
0 comments:
Post a Comment