End of Squad Assessment 2009-2010, Pt 2.

Defenders

3. Bacary Sagna. "There is still lots of room for improvement, his crossing has been very bad all season, if there is no one in the box, don't cross." Again, he has fallen short from improving this side of his game, his crosses are still awful and he still puts up crosses when we have midgets in the box, he must vary his crosses and learn when not to cross. This has also seen him relegated to the bench when we need to attack more with Eboué coming in for him. Defensively, solid at times, although the GA column shows everyone can improve.

Grade C.


5.Thomas Vermaelen. "hopes are that he is here to put one of the central defenders on the bench, as that shows squad improvement." Well that was never really put to the test, Kolo Toure was sold so he could not compete with him, and Senderos was obviously not an option for the coach. Has been consistent, scored goals, and initially had hunger we really neeeded in the team. However in the crunch games, he hasn't proved to be the man we really need at the back, failed to contain Drogba twice, failed to contain Rooney, confused by Messi showed that he has a long long long way to go. Also some questionable positioning and choices by him for key goals we have let in. Our GA column is still to big, and he must take some responsibility of that as well.

Grade C.

6. Philippe Senderos. " Returning from an injury ravaged season at A.C. Milan, the Swiss defender is rumoured to be looking for a transfer." 2 league cup games is all he could muster, and we only let in 1 goal. What was the point of sending him out on loan in January when we knew that injuries, suspensions could kick in? Good luck to him in the future, and possibly our best player due to only playing 2 games, which we both won and looked solid at the back in.

Grade B.

10. William Gallas. "This season which may be his last, in a World Cup year where he will hope to lead the France defence, he should be inspired." Easily our best defender this season, and once he became injured, things began to look scary at the back. Again, in the crunch games, he hasn't performed to the high levels we needed, and lets be honest, our GA column stinks, so he must also shoulder responsibility. However his quality was shown we risked him vs Barca and he is now out for the count.

Grade B-.


18. Mikael Silvestre. "Consensus is that he had a disastrous début season at Arsenal." Make that 2 disastrous seasons at Arsenal. Again, look at the games where we have let in large numbers of goals and he is there, Barcelona 4, Spurs 2, Wigan 3, Stoke 3, he is always there. Remember our 4-4 draws with Spurs and Liverpool last season, guess who was there?

Grade D.

20. Johann Djourou. "he hasn't delivered killer performances that will consign one of the other senior defenders to the bench, and thus remains just another of the squad players." Injured before the season started, he hasn't had the chance to play any games.

Grade N/A.

22. Gael Clichy. "Despite his all energy performances, there are some serious defensive cracks in his game, still loses concentration, and his crossing doesn't lead to assists." Another under par season from one of our elder players. He was injured and when he returned mid season, he was a big liability. Still the same deficiencies, still the same improvements needed.

Grade D.

28. Kieran Gibbs. "at this rarefied level, mistakes are punished, and his ultimate mistake was to slip in the Champions League semi final for Man Utd to score and take the advantage." 7 games this term, and his campaign ended by injury in December. I'm still not sold on Gibbs. He looks steady, but against the big teams, he will be exposed, and he is not good enough yet to dislodge Clichy.

Grade C.

30. Armand Traore. "His defensive and offensive work needs a lot of refinement as does his dribbling stance that makes it easy for the ball to be taken away from him." 11 games this season, and he has to say it hasn't been a success. He had a big chance to stake his claim when both Clichy and Gibbs were out injured, poor vs Chelski where Drogba sent him into orbit with a shoulder barge, poor vs Everton in the 2-2 draw, he still needs a lot of work.

Grade D.

31. Sol Campbell. Came back in January, and has helped the team, adding experience and a vocal presence. However we have also let in many goals under his watch, 2 vs Porto, 3 vs Stoke, 2 vs Spurs, 3 vs Wigan, so he cannot be lauded as a messiah. For his age though, he has been good, and it is a shame most of our young squad don't follow his example, at 35, he still fights to win despite having won a lot already.

Grade B-.


Verdict.
Individually, we have some decent defenders, but we can now see that we went into the season with too few numbers, and we also have not learned a clear defending philosophy that works. We have let in 39 goals in the league, way too much if you want to win anything these days. The defence as a collective has failed.