New Arsenal star Mertesacker found woefully lacking

Surly after his international showing aoc is gonna get a run out gotta say the kid looks like he go something very impressed with him this wk and should no long be compared to theo this kid has final ball

Mertesacker was for year a regular in the German national team, and as far as I remember, that’s one of the most exciting teams on the planet since at least 2 years. At the same time, his role in that team is – what? TO DEFEND. How do you defend excitingly? The best defenders are those that are hardly noticed.
The game against Poland was a friendly, I watched it, and with trepidation, cause I’m Polish. The Poles were fighting for life, as they should do in any game, but the games against Germany are always special. Did you know we failed to net against Germany for over 30 years? This game was supposed to be our historical turning point, and it was, in a large part due to the fact that Germany approached this game as just another friendly.
Mertesacker is not Usain Bolt, granted. He tends to be sluggish. But you have to remember that Poland played a highly aggressive defence, hijacking the ball almost every minute. I’m sure if you look through the stats for the game, most German players get a poor efficient for passes. Most of the attempts made by Poland came through the left channel. You know Mertesacker is not a full-back, right? The first goal was conceded after a mass scuffle, involving 4 or 5 players from Germany and 2 Poles, and I have to say that the crucial mistake here was made by the German DM, who let Dudka pass and then failed to stop him from entering the box. The second goal was a penalty after a mad charge down the right channel. Mertesacker played the opposite part of the centre, so it’s again not his fault. Overall, he looked rather confident and was more or less composed. Plus, he came close to making it during several charges by the quicksilver Peszko.
If Clark Whitney is in any way related to Whitney Houston, tell him to cut that dope.

“A chap called Clark Whitney, supposedly a keen observer”

Wow, if ever that’s a reference to an authority on the game!  Bit of a doomer article this one.  Perhaps we should start re-quoting Tony Adams: Vermaelen is the wrong type of signing for the Arsenal.

I’m wondering why you choose to quote some bloke saying bad stuff when you could have quoted plenty of well respected people saying good stuff about Per?  Time for a rethink.

No offence but since when have Americans been authorities on Soccer???

The guy clearly has an anti Arsenal agenda or something because everything I’ve seen from people who watched the game said that he’s talking crap and that Mertesacker was ok in a very much weakened german side and that the player who stood out as being poor in the German defence was Boeteng. Apart from Muller (does he get in the starting line up nowadays?) every other players for germany was second choice.

Also Per was the captain on the night.

Eldo – Since when has some twat writing a story on goal.com been news?? Its one of the least trustworthy sources of “news” in the world and mostly has copied articles from tabloids. And the writers, even the editors don’t seem to know anything about football. Its only popular because it has a load of bullshit made up gossip.

the whole speed thing is bollocks made up by lazy press. check the last world cup stats
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/southafrica2010/statistics/players/distanceandspeed.html

seems that there is not to many players quicker than him.

maybe they mean turning speed rather than speed. either way I think that the same people would start going on about cahills lack of european experience, vidic’s inability to cope with pace, carvalho’s lack of height, Lucio’s lack of premier league experience etc etc etc if we signed any of them.

same old moan moan moan shit

Wow – he had one bad game – he must be rubbish. 
People should base a players ability over a duration of games not just one. 

If that was the sole criteria Julio Baptista would be seen as a world beater after scoring 4 scores for Arsenal against Liverpool all those years back and we all know how that turned out. 

This story echo’s lazy journalism. 

Mertesacker was never any good. Werder Bremen were poor last season with him in their defence. Nevermind what the stats say – if you ask anyone who has watched him play they’ll tell you that he’s not great. People assumed that because he’s a tall German he must be a great defender…. WRONG! Cahill was the signing required & we failed to bring him in.

Why Are so  many Arsenal “supporters” so willing to knock anything the club do.

People have been moaning for a couple of seasons about lack of investment in the team.  The club buy players and all the “supporters” can do is denigrate the quality of those players.

Mertesacker has yet to pull on an Arsenal shirt yet already he is being written off, I can recall several people on this website calling out for the club to sign the very same player.

Now all we hear is “we should have signed Cahill”, well we didn’t!  Bolton wanted too much money, maybe Cahill wanted too much money.

This is the real world!  It’s not fantasy football!  Just because a club wants a particular player it doesn’t mean they can just have him.

The transfer window is closed.  It doesn’t open until January.  The players we have got are the players who are going to play for the club, regardless of how much some “supporters” wish Arsenal had bought some different players.

Get behind the squad, get off their backs and support the club whole-heartedly, that’s what real supporters do.

People who are saying we should have signed Cahill ….and thought that PM was bad in the germany international…….did you see how the engaland defence played at wembley……Wales got through the english defence far too easily….and missed an open goal…….i didn’t think Cahill had a monumental performance either …..so let’s support PM ….

The guy hasn’t even kicked a ball for us yet. give him a chance for fuck sake!