Sentences with phrase «central defensive pairing»

It was clear from last season that we needed a better central defensive pairing.

The club's first choice central defensive pairing of Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker proved very capable last term and Manolas may be an intelligent option to bring in as back - up.

In front of Ospina, Arsenal have the first choice central defensive pairing of Mertesacker and Koscielny, who will be hoping to stop some of the criticism with a solid showing and a clean sheet.

Jose Giminez at Athletico Madrid, one half of this season's best central defensive pairing in Europe - hardly conceded any goals in La Liga or the Champions League this season.

We need to start thinking about integrating a new central defensive pairing because although monreal and debuchy try their best when per and kos are out they're both approaching 30, we need to partner chambers with another younger centre back so he can develop a better understanding of his strengths and form a partnership as fruitful as the current one.

Arsene Wenger's interest in the defender is a little hard to fathom given the Gunners boss snapped up Brazilian Gabriel Paulista in the January transfer window, with the former Villarreal man offering strong support for first choice central defensive pair Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny.

One major positive is that our makeshift central defensive pairing of Chambers and Gabriel survived that horrible first half against Liverpool.

However, beyond first - choice central defensive pairing Samuel Umtiti and Gerard Pique, there is a lack of quality depth at Ernesto Valverde's disposal with Yerry Mina and Thomas Vermaelen available.

Marquinhos may well struggle to cement a more prominent role at the Parc des Princes given that Blanc's decision to use Luiz and Silva as his first - choice central defensive pairing appears to be working very well indeed.

Arsenal have had some very strong central defensive pairings over the years, perhaps more notably back in the days when that was seen as the strongest part of our game, which gave rise to the famous chant of «1 - 0 to the Arsenal».

Apart from the scoring situations, Lukaku was very good in running the channels, holding up play and giving the Liverpool central defensive pair lots to do in the game.

Barca were hampered by another injury to one of their central defenders as Gerard Pique limped off after 12 minutes with Alex Song coming on the make his European debut for the Catalans in an unlikely central defensive pairing alongside Javier Mascherano.

Most alarming for Rovers fans will be the fact that defensive deficiencies haven't been addressed, even though these — and the ill - judged January sales of central defensive pairing Christopher Samba and Ryan Nelsen, compounding the loss of Phil Jones — were instrumental in the club's relegation.

There is no Per Mertesacker, even on the bench, so Gabrieal and Koscielny continue their new central defensive pairing and they could have their hands full, as Pedro has recovered to make the starting XI and Hazard will surely start to redicover his form sooner or later, while Costa is always difficult to play against.

Manolas, who represented Greece at this summer's World Cup finals, will offer Wenger a strong back - up to his first choice central defensive pairing of Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker.

Using some statistics, and some thinking, I try to determine Arsenal's best central defensive pairing.

For some time now the first choice central defensive pairing for Arsenal was Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny.

We do have some good news with the return of our summer signing Shkodran Mustafi who comes staright back in to renew his central defensive pairing with Koscielny.

Mourinho has seen his side concede seven goals in their opening three Premier League fixtures and has chopped a changed his central defensive pairing on a number of occasions.

For some reason, though, Varane has dropped down the pecking order under first Rafa Benitez and now Zinedine Zidane, with Sergio Ramos and Pepe the preferred central defensive pairing and with Nacho starting to get more game time.

The frustration of seeing Sergio Ramos and Pepe nail down the central defensive pairing was compounded by Varane picking up an injury right at the end of the season.

When Pires scrapped home a goal in an FA Cup final in 2003 when our central defensive pairing of Martin Keown — who required injections in every bit of him to play — and Oleg Luzhny played a blinder.

And he reckons that the whole defensive side of the Arsenal team are in great form, as he told Arsenal Player after the Bournemouth match made it three clean sheets from four games and his central defensive pairing with Gabriel showed more signs of improvement.

But he has found first - team opportunities harder to come by in the Premier League this season, appearing only 10 times in the league as Adrian Mariappa and Alex Pearce have been the central defensive pairing preferred by manager Brian McDermott.

Currently Mourinho appears to see Cahill and Kurt Zouma as his first - choice central defensive pairing and the Blues boss may well see Manolas as a longer - term alternative.

I expect Koscielny and Mustafi to be our central defensive pairing and I think they may be perfectly suited to handling Costa but any mistake could be very costly.

I suggested a while ago that Arsenal needed to start the Brazilian centre back Gabriel next to Laurent Koscielny a bit more, in order to get the defender up to speed and the central defensive pairing settled in preparation for the very difficult looking double header against Barcelona in the Champions League.

We should soon know what our manager has up his sleeve and barring any more calamities on the injury front he should have no problem with the left side of the central defensive pairing, with Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny.

The good news is that we have our first choice central defensive pairing of Mertesacker and Koscielny back, which will hopefully mean a clean sheet as a platform for an Arsenal win.

Carvalho could have been a beast for us and Manolas and Socratis would have been more experienced backups for the central defensive pair of Koscielny and Per.

Otherwise they might have to look at deploying someone like Francis Coquelin as an emergency defender, or switch to a back four, but a central defensive pairing of Monreal and Holding would leave Arsenal fans very pessimistic indeed.

In a slow and boring first half, two of the best chances went to Sunderland as Defoe tore apart the central defensive pairing of Vertonghen and Alderweireld only to hit the post.

This season Arsene Wenger prefers the duo of Mustafi and Koscielny as his central defensive pairing.

The pair have worked well for England and with Phil Jones injured and Chris Smalling not favoured by the manager for the central defensive pairing, the duo of Cahill and Jagielka have little to worry about in terms of job security.

Wenger will be hoping that his central defensive pairing can sort out their obvious communication issues for tomorrow's match.

The rest of the backline comprised of the more solid of Zenit's central defensive pairings, in Garay and Lombaerts, with Criscito at left back.

When you look at the 2003 - 04 team, the central defensive pairing was Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure (pre-bout with weight - loss pills).