Is Laurent Koscielny the next great Arsenal defender?

Adams, Dixon, Winterburn, and Bould. These are names that are held in high regard in all corners of Arsenal fandom. Together the “famous four” were the back bone of a defence that was well known and renowned for its defensive ability and the way they played their off-side trap. They are considered the model and standard by which all future Arsenal defenders have been measured. Thomas Vermaelen widely considered the best of Arsenal’s current crop of defenders is often talked about as being from the same steely cloth as the members of Graham’s four were. A year and half after signing him, I think it’s time to start considering Laurent Koscielny as quite possibly the next great Arsenal defender.

Unlike his teammate Vermaelen, Kosicelny didn’t start his Arsenal career crowned in glory. It only took a few weeks into playing that Vermaelen was crowned the “Verminator” for his on the field prowess. It only took one game for Arsenal fans to wonder what the hell Wenger was doing by bringing in Koscielny for £10 million from Ligue 1 side Lorient. His first game was against Liverpool at Anfield and in no time he was quickly carted off at the end of the first half only to come back in the 2nd half and leave the game for good under his second yellow. Not the most auspicious starts to a career in the Premier League. Especially, when the club you play for, Arsenal, has received much criticism for its defensive ineptitude.

Laurent Kosicleny coming to Arsenal surprised a lot of people. This was a kid who 4 season prior had been playing in Ligue 2 and had one season in Ligue one. But in hist first season he became regarded as one of the promising young talents of that league. Still, when Wenger went in for a £10 million purchase you had to forgive Arsenal fans for saying – Koscielny who? But as the saying goes Arsene knows best and having gone to the French well 19 times before with a lot of success maybe in this instance we should’ve trusted him.

We were clamoring for experience though. Especially in the Premier League. And it is my opinion that originally Kosicelny was brought in as a rotation back up player who would gain experience through the reserves and Carling Cup matches. Unfortunately as is often the case with Arsenal things don’t go according to plan. First, I believe it was widely assumed that Sol Campbell would stay on another year at Arsenal and give the defence a veteran voice. I also think Wenger thought quite sure they would sign Blackburn’s Chris Samba last summer adding the experience to the defence that fans had wanted. Those two things didn’t happen. Campbell left and mistakenly signed with Newcastle. Blackburn was stubborn (of course) and wouldn’t part with Samba. And since it was all left late, Arsene and Arsenal were left signing aged defender Sebastien Squiallaci and also hoping Johann Djourou and Vermaelen would be enough with the two new frenchmen.

Well, Djourou got injured in pre-season and Squillaci wasn’t exactly ready. So Arsene deputised the young frenchmen Laurent Koscielny on opening day. This was a position Koscileny was never meant to play. He was meant to be tutored and brought along. It got even worse when early in the season the heart of Arsenal’s defence, Thomas Vermaelen would go down with a season ending injury to his achilles. What happened next for Kosicelny was a roller coaster of partners along with successes and failures.

The failures would come and go and it was evident at times that Koscielny wasn’t physically ready for Premier League strikers. I say at times because other times he showed glimpses of success. Like in the 2-0 loss to Chelsea. For most of the match Koscielny handled both Nicholas Anelka and Didier Drogba. Which is no ordinary feat. It should be mentioned that Drogba scored – on Squillaci’s side. Still there were enough downs to make you wonder. But for much of the season, he would ride the wave with Johann Djourou as his partner and much of the drive towards the club’s midseason success was in part because of the stabilisation of the defence in the middle. This glorious run that the club found themselves on was capped off by Koscielny owning the best forward in the world, Lionel Messi when Barcelona came to the Emirates.  Frankly it was a defensive performance of epic proportions. Kosicenly is a very agile and quick defender and he uses this along with his ability to read the game very well. It allowed him to handle Messi quite well. In fact to say he locked down the world’s greatest player wouldn’t be far from the truth.

But when talking about last season it will be very hard to look past the debacle that started the epic slide downwards of the club. I am talking about the mistake between Szczesny and Koscielny that led to Birmingham snatching the Carling Cup away from Arsenal in the last minute. As with any player – you take the bad with the good.

This brings us to this season. In the summer a lot of us – myself – included were clamoring for the likes of either Christopher Samba, Gary Cahill or Phil Jagielka to come in. They didn’t. We got Per Mertesacker which essentially left us with Vermaelen, Merte, Koscielny, Djourou and Squillaci as our CB choices. Djourou went south at the end of last season and the start of this. Squillaci is well, Squillaci and Merte needed time to adapt. But Vermaelen got hurt and Mertesacker and Koscielny started. To mixed results.

But as things have stablized I wanted to take a good look at how Koscielny is faring against other CBs in the league. Because as I have been watching him play this season, I see a player who has developed and learned from last season. He has added some bulk (re: muscle) to his frame. He is still the same positionally aware player he was last season but he looks to have improved in other areas as well. He has played in 13 of the 14 matches this season (the lone absent match was the Manchester United nightmare). He has been rotated out on the right side to fill in for the injuries to Sagna and Jenkinson. And frankly he has been good wherever he has played.

Statistically Speaking.

Statistics only make a part of how we gauge how successful someone can be. But it does give us a benchmark to measure against a peer set.  In this case I’ve looked at Koscielny against the following defenders – Vermaelen, Cahill, Jagielka, Vidic, Kompany & Lescott.  In virtually ever category Koscielny is on par with this peer set. In fact when you look over the stats he is BETTER (read that again) than Gary Cahill the defender many so crave. (Vermaelen and Vidic may not be a fair comparison as they have played half the games of the other players in the comparative set)

(statistics courtesy of http://eplindex.com  twitter: @eplindex)

I’ve been arguing that Koscielny is probably the best situationally aware defender in the league right now. He reads the play better than any of his compatriots and the stats bear that out in the both the interceptions category and dribbled past category. In each one he leads the set. The dribbled past means how many times has an offensive player been able to beat and get around the defender. In this case next to his teammate Vermaelen he is the best out of some great league defenders.

Additionally, he is on equal footing or better in the aerial and ground 50-50 category. Only Jagielka and Vidic are better on the ground and in the air he is only behind Lescott. Last season I felt he wasn’t as good in the air. He had some games where he showed he had the aerial ability but over all in watching him I felt that he wasn’t that good. This is definitely one of the areas he has improved in my opinion.

Where he needs to work is in his tackling his success rate is on the worst of the set at approximately 61%. I offset that however against his positional play which allows him to be in a better position to intercept the ball where he is the best by a large margin than these other highly regarded defenders.

He could also do better on the ball but I am wondering if that stat is high because of his move to the right wing where he getting forward more.

When you look at the passing stats and other stats for Laurent he is on par or better than this group. He is only second behind Lescott in terms of overall pass success and open play pass success rates. Statistically speaking he is one of the best defenders in the league as of today.

Intangibles.

You need to look at the intangibles to complete the picture for Koscielny. And right now his biggest intangible is his constant improvement. It is clear that Koscielny is a player who learns from his game and sets out to improve it. You don’t become one of the hottest talents in France but not improving your game.  You don’t become statistically better by not working on how you play. His learning curve is only upwards when it comes to this kid and if the current model is correct then he could become one of the top 5 defenders in the league.

What I also like about this guy is he has a sense of the occasion. He shows up for the big games. Barcelona, Chelsea, Champion’s League must wins. Whatever the occasion he has been pitted against the best and so far hasn’t come away on the bad side of it. With the exception of the blunder at Wembley. He has been rock solid in each of the big matches he has played.

We had players like Nasri and Arshavin, playing who were more highly touted but when the glare of the big game shone – they shied away. They are not in my opinion nor will the be big game players. We are lacking that. We are guaranteed a multitude of big matches each season. We need to have more players who can show up. Koscielny is definitely one of them.

I like Laurent Koscielny because he plays the game in determined, quiet and unassuming way. He knows where he needs work and he goes out to do it. He plays the game so well. He he lets the play develop and when it starts to get deep in his end he plays tight to his opponent often forcing errors. He very rarely comes away from a duel on the loosing end. He is aggressive, uncompromising and energetic.He  is a quick-thinking defender who positions himself well and shows good anticipation of danger. He also has aerial presence despite a lack of height and is a strong tackler.

All in all as he develops he is building a skill set that has already resulted in his first call up for the French National Team. If it continues the way I believe it will I think it will result in Koscielny leaving Arsenal being talked about in the same reverence as some of the best defenders to wear the red and white.

Coming up later this week – Why Andre Santos should be our first choice LB.

Until then stay Goonerish!