Laurent Koscienly was the main stay of Arsenal’s defense last season, after establishing himself among the best in premier league in 13-14, he reaffirmed his status and is now among the League’s top 3 Center Backs.
After selling Thomas Vermelaen to Barcelona, the club were left with only two senior center backs for the grueling season up ahead. The manager signed Calum Chambers from Southampton as a cover for right back/Center Back but still it was a challenge nonetheless proceeding into the league with only 2 regular CB.
After having to play all of the matches in the first two months and also having participated in the Brazil World cup for France, took its toll and the Frenchman had to be rested for several weeks after his Achilles tendon issues. His absence from the Gunners defense, badly hit the defensive performance of the side. Though Calum Chambers performed well enough, he could not complement the big German the way koscienly does.
Since making his way back into the team, he has performed consistently and admirably. He has chipped in a few goals vs Stoke and Leicester City. His performance away at Monaco helped the team to almost make amends to the first leg performance. Though Alexis Sanchez was undoubtedly the star man in our side last season, Statistics show that Koscienly was equally important for this Wenger machine to function. The North London club have conceded fewer goals, had more clean sheets and had a far better win percentage since he came back.
His proactive defending is thrilling to watch. The way he reads the opposition’s movements and nullifies them so effectively either by cutting off their runs or nipping the ball in front of them makes him so much harder to deal with. He compares well with Terry and Fonte in terms of numbers considering the last season. He has been our best defender this season and really makes a strong defensive unit with Mertesacker. He rarely had a bad game and maintained that level for the rest of the season.
Looking ahead, he forms the key cog of the Arsenal’s defensive unit next season and could feature occasionally wearing the arm band in the coming season. If he can keep his niggling injury issues at bay, it would greatly aid Arsenal’s cause in title race.
