Saturday, August 25, 2007

Wenger to sign a new defender

I'm not going to lie, I completely made that up, but one can always hope right? I wasn't able to watch today's game as I was dropping my sister off at college, but a 1-0 win against the undefeated league leaders is never bad right? Not exactly. We won the game, but it proved that we have a very thin back line. I was always against Djourou's loan move, and the reason why was shown today.

Our defense at the end of today's game consisted of Kolo Toure, Clichy, Gilberto, and Flamini. Thats right. Half of our defenders were actually midfielders. It's nice that Gilberto is back, and I'm sure that he stood in well for the injured Gallas and Senderos, but he plays best as a defensive midfielder. Flamini, who's inclusion in the first team I already doubted, has no place in the back line.

It's great that we have Sagna the line-up, as he can play at left-back, center-back or, where Wenger has been playing him so far, right back. I also like the inclusion of Senderos (even at Gallas' expense) because his height is helpful in defending set pieces and he seems to form a better pairing with Toure than Gallas does. But with Gallas set to be out for more than a month, our back line looks decidedly thin. We should have kept Djourou, but I think the best move now would be to go for another versatile defender like Sagna. That way we can keep Gilberto and Flamini where they belong, in the midfield and on the bench respectively. - on the bench.