Sentences with phrase «choice central defensive»

While Carrick's absence has been adequately covered in midfield, Mourinho can call up Chris Smalling, Victor Lindelof and Marcos Rojo in place of his first - choice central defensive partnership, with the latter likely to be on the bench once again on Tuesday.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Portuguese international could be surplus to requirements at the Santiago Bernabeu this year as new manager Rafael Benitez has reportedly decided on his first choice central defensive partnership for the season and Pepe is set to lose out to the highly - rated French youngster Raphael Varane for a place alongside Ramos.

Not exact matches

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will allow Thomas Vermaelen to leave in the summer but only once he has brought in a central defensive addition to offer back - up to first choice pair Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker.

If Arsenal stick with three centre backs then Mustafi must be considered a far better choice for the third birth alongside Kos and Holding rather then Monreal.Kolasinac has to come back in at left eing - back and Bellerin revert to the right.Midfield is a very different matter.Arsenal still desperately need a proper defensive central player.Ozil in this current side can not be considered anything more than a luxury.All of Bournemouth's creativity will come down the flanks so it's necessary to put players on to the pitch who are prepared to fulfill their defensive duties.This also means that unless Ramsey can work out that he's playing in midfield not as a number 10 he has no place on the team either.

Bring in Ospina for Cech; Gabriel for Koscielny (Kos is 31 and its time we start testing Gabriel and Holding beside Mustafi to see what our long term first choice defensive partnership will look like); Gibbs for Monreal (Wenger needs to start rotating these 2 more frequently as we need to ascertain if Gibbs can adequately produce the quality to hold that position from next season for a few years as I'm thinking this might be Nacho's last or penultimate season with Arsenal, it will also give a hint as to the type of Left - back to target in the summer — first teamer or backup and age as well); I'll like to see an Elneny — Xhaka partnership in this fixture as we might just never know, this might be our replica of the Kos Mustafa partnership in the centre of the park, Two disciplined (positionally, i mean) central midfielders who can play box to box; Chamberlain for Iwobi, and Perez for Alexis should do the work.

So the Frenchman has a tough choice to make in his central defensive line up, although I am sure that it is a choice he is glad to have after seeing our Big Flipping German Per Mertesacker limp off with an ankle problem against Reading last weekend.

Smalling did not start the season as the preferred choice for the central defensive duties, but as the season has progressed, the Englishman has managed to capitalise on his chances.

Likewise, Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk have been the preferred picks in the central defensive department, but with the former sidelined, Dejan Lovren is an automatic choice to slot alongside the Reds» record signing.

Currently Argentina's first - choice central defender, Nicolas Otamendi demonstrated (on occasion) his defensive prowess for Manchester City last season and he could grow into a leader for the next generation of stars.

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