Has Vermaelen been released yet?

[Jenko -EE27]

[Monty91]

[PSRB]

not a great captain either

[Maravilloso Marvo]

[Nicosia Gooner]

[redgunamo]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[Monty91]

any team in the world would love to have him in their squad.

The problem is that he's too good to be on the bench, but needs to improve to return to first choice, so is currently in a bit of no man's land.

[Nicosia Gooner]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[Brentwood]

[Luis Anaconda]

you are not Brighton Gunner by the way are you?

[PSRB]

but he's just not very vocal on the pitch. Not really an inspirational type

PJ is not a huge fan of all the stuff that comes with being captain but also recognises it's a big honour

[Nicosia Gooner]

[gco40203]

He has been too error prone this year and sadly not shown much leadership either. If you are a centre back and the captain there must be an onus on you to organise the back four. Far too often we have been in disarray at the back and conceded soft goals which was epitomised by the poor defending vs spurs. I hope he stays because he is a whole hearted player and when at his best is solid. But sadly his days as first choice maybe gone.

If anything I would try him as a holding midfield player sat in front of the back four. He can tackle and head and distribution is adequate if he keeps it simple and could provide good protection for the defence and the attacking midfielders.

[The Tony]

[Doublespeak]

Defensive work is tricky, you can't have different bosses. For example, making Gallas captain was purely to show everyone that he organized the defence (and not Kolo).

But I can't see that being a problem. The individual and unit mistakes are more a matter of concentration and focus.

I think the simple fact is that Vermaelen is exposed without a decent defensive midfielder in front of him. He is the kind of defender who likes to get in front of his attacker, and wants one-on-one situations. Now he is swamped with opponents, and gets no help from Mick, and that doesn't suit his style.

Maybe this also is a possible reason why we defend so poorly off dead balls. Zonal marking doesn't suit him.

[Monty91]

[Nicosia Gooner]

[Doublespeak]

now we have none. I remember the frustration seeing Vivas chosen ahead of Hughes or even Parlour.

Quite a change of defensive structure.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

except that he scored lots lots of goals early on.

[PSRB]

[Alexism - Atheoist]

is it his performance last year? Oh yeah. Okay the year before when he scored eight goals for us. But do you remember even then there were concerns about the defensive side of his game? When you look at it, for at least half of his Arsenal career he's been "out of form"

I'm not saying he's terrible, but he's had more moments of dodginess than moments of greatness when for a "very good" defender it should be 10:1 in favor of greatness.

I've always thought Kos was a better player.

[The Tony]

when he filled in at left back and f**ked his knee up.

[Luis Anaconda]

he was injured for most of it

[Luis Anaconda]

[Nicosia Gooner]

[redgunamo]

[Pokster]

[Nicosia Gooner]

the ball when other players are in better positions. I remember at least on two occasions when he made a brilliant run but went one step too far and eventually lost the ball. Wenger wasn't happy on both occasions.

[Brentwood]

[redgunamo]

[Pokster]

[Nicosia Gooner]

[Nicosia Gooner]

[SOLMAN(read by millions)]