Jul 08
Koscielny reveals his strengths and weaknesses + more
Laurent Koscielny has spoken for the first time to the French media since joining Arsenal and admits “everything has gone quickly for me”.
The 24-year-old, who made made 40 appearances for the Ligue 1 side last season, completed his £10 million + bonuses move from Lorient yesterday.
Speaking to RMC Radio, ‘Kos’ said:
“Everything has gone quite quickly for me, maybe a bit too quickly. I’ve had some bad times before so I’m enjoying what’s happening to me now.
“The contract is for 4 years. The transfer is worth 12 million euros + bonuses. I knew at the last game of the last season that Arsenal were interested. I wasn’t aware Gilles Grmandi was watching me during all those games.
“Lorient wanted the right price so there’s been long talks with Arsenal.”
Other than the small YouTube compilation below, there’s very little evidence of Koscielny’s defensive ability. The player himself admits that he does need to improve on some aspects of his game.
“My qualities are that I read the game very well. I’ve got a good heading ability, my passing is very good as we use to pass the ball well from the defence at Lorient.
“My weakness is my physical strength, but I’m confident that I’ll work on that at Arsenal.
“I have no guarantee to play, it’s up to me to fight for my place in the team. I know there’ll be 3-4 players fighting for the same position. There’s already 3 centre backs at pre-season training.”
Many thanks to Vince from ASCFR for translating this interview.
Na, on a more serious note, If all four defenders & DM’s get stuck in then we should be well solid at the back & also ppl gotta remember that wengers gone with this 433 formation which has obviously left our fullbacks a bit more exposed (which then gives the cb’s a bit more of a hard time.)
If you ask me the start of a solid backline would be going back to a 442 formation like we have always known wenger to play with cesc & song in the middle of midfield & rvp & chamakh leading the line.. Then the back four is more protected & we can defend as a team & attack as a team!
I was going to point out, his physical strength doesnt seem that good looking at his upper body but thats his style I suppose. I cant believe Sol Campbell is deciding to leave though, especially when he swore to stay and thanking Arsenal for their reselection of him…and now hes off to sunderland…what is wrong with him?…unless Arsenal dont want him obviously but thats not the way it sounds.
It is true that the 4-3-3 did leave our fullbacks more exposed, but Clichy’s problems are two-fold. He has the lazy Arshavin not tracking back to help him and the injury really took him a long time for him to recover from, but if you look at the 2nd leg of the Barca matches on, Clich was one of Arsenal’s top performers; playing well while most of the others became injured or mediocre.
I don’t know if others noticed but in the last few matches of the season Sagna was cutting in more and more in the attacking third. We’d all like to see our fullbacks whipping in crosses, but that’s unfortunately Sagna’s only real weakpoint. Cutting in allows him to participate with his above-average passing instead of wasting possession on one of his many lofted and wayward crosses.
Thank u gunner4life and all, I’ve been avoiding certain arsenal blogs recently cause theres beeen a bunch of whiny fake bitches posting ignorant non-sense with no regard for reality or a smidgen of football knowledge, I’m actually extremely happy that we finally got him. C’mon guys if we’ve been negotiating for him all summer ignoring other more popular opportunities (cahill??? why do people rate him so highly??? I haven’t seen that much to prove the price) do u really think that he’s gonna be this shitty weakling???? I don’t know how stupid u think our scouts are but i can guarantee that they know a little more then all u rocket scientists out there talking shit. Anyway, the Handanovic signing would be my top pick, that and Akinfeev or Steklenberg, but if that happens there’s really no need for shwartzer other than for experience and competition for places i guess.
AmeriGoon good call on the wingbacks, I agree that clichy really stepped up after the few sloppy EPL games when he came back from injury and he was deffinitely one of our best performers in the barca games, also arshavin deffinitely defends very rarely but I’ll forgive him cause he was struggling with injury half of last season and still scored some nasty goals, plus nasri doesn’t play much d eaither on the other wing. They’re currently two of my favorite arsenal players, but they need to find some consistently and heart to really go for the next level
i really hope da melo clichy swap deal iz not true clichy iz 2 good 2 lose 4 melo! against barca he plyed wiv more freedom n got bak 2 da old clichy we all know n love i really hope dat wenger doesnt sell any of our top plyas!
Why not swap clichy for melo?? Dont get me wrong, im not saying i want clichy to go as i would like for him to stay & to bring in melo but we could really do with a good DM like melo who i believe is suited to the epl & the fact that we have keiran gibbs there who is good enough to be as good as any LB in the country if given the playing time so imo this swap wouldnt be so much of a bad idea when you think about it.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_6255879,00.html
great no midfielders coming in !!!!!! he’ll just get a gk n think we’re sorted! no wonder cesc wants to go !!!
Hello i would just like to say i think Wenger is decieving you all. I have a feeling he will swap Clichy for Melo and buy Van Der Weil he is a fantastic LB.Dont get me wrong i really love Clichy he is great, but if he has it in him to do somthing like this then theres no stopping Le Professor hes a genius i think we will come out stronger nomatter what.
Paul
One problem. VdW is a RB not a LB. Bringing in a new LB for a young’n ahead of Gibbs is unlikely and irresponsible.
[...] his bravery, determination and athleticism were clear. Watching Koscielny, it was obvious why he called his “physical strength” his biggest weakness. He is about the same height as Vermaelen, but so much more wiry. His build and gait are akin [...]