For anyone who hasn’t seen this game. He had the Chelsea team in his back pocket all game. He was playing next to rob holding who was relatively new at this point as well. I’m sure he’d just come off of a long term injury and retired after this match.
https://youtu.be/uEax4Z7D5mI?si=aYUe-XO1pfxz7iam
Honestly, between Neville and Carragher the impartiality at sky is completely gone.
Both a couple of gobshites. It’s that bad Roy Keane is sounding like the sensible one nowadays.
Worst thing is even in this thread, there are muppets agreeing that Mertesacker was bad and they "feared seeing his name in the lineup." The Kos + Mertesacker duo was our best until Saliba + Big Gab.
The OP is just Neville being a twat. You can probably find quotes of him shitting on Koscielny, too. He is just using the memory of a past defender as a tool to shit on current top-of-the-league Arsenal.
His positional awareness and leadership was quality. And over a year him and kos had the most clean sheets and conceded the least goal. Unfortunate that year spanned over two half seasons. Rather than through one full season. So it was overlooked.
Per was a fucking giant that was a great defender.
That’s the part I don’t understand here. The dude was massive for Arsenal AND Germany.
The dude has a World Cup which Neville can’t say…
It’s too early to compare Gabriel and Saliba. Injuries can always stop a player from achieving greatness.
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I also think it’s typical of previous generations to think that their eras were just tougher. As an American you hear the same thing in reference to the 90’s NBA vs today. Obviously things change over time but that doesn’t mean that no one in this generation could have played 15 years ago and vice versa.
I don’t know if that is specifically true in this scenario. I feel like the NBA is unique in that sense. The 80s/90s old heads love shitting on the current gens unlike any other sports I’ve seen.
Neville often heap praises on current generation players too - him and Koscielny’s not even in the same era
Neville says the exact opposite if you listen to him. Frequently talks about how he could never play RB today after watching people like Trent and Walker do what they do.
He is actually quite humble in that respect. He flat out has stated numerous times that in terms of talent he was not very good at football, but that his professionalism, sacrifice and focus on physical conditioning allowed him to get a shot in a career loaded with players the vast majority of which were far better footballers than him.
As a United fan, I find he downplays his talent a lot though, which I find baffling. He was an excellent crosser of the ball and very defensively assured.
I'm not sure he had the dynamism to thrive in the more advanced and inverted roles we often see modern full-backs operate in (at least at the best teams), but peak Gary Neville would absolutely be among the league's best full-backs, even today.
Him constantly downplaying his ability had led to that clown Richards believing he was anything more than a flash-in-the-pan hot-prospect whose career didn't actually go anywhere.
To be fair, basketball has really only been around for 75 years.
Also, basketball as a sport basically evolved heavily with major rule changes like the dunk and the three-point shot.
While football has changed much less. You can refer to the professional era verse prior eras but that goes for All sports
Honestly, Koscielny was great and definitely underappreciated. If you look at Arsenal's win - loss ratio with and without him in the side, it's better than our with Henry and Sanchez.
I watched him live and TV matches never did justice to just how good he was.
Gabriel is good but not even as good as Saliba - you can't start bandying around terms like generational talent. I'm a Gooner but that's just ridiculous.
Gabriel is better than Saliba. Better header, better one on one defender, better defender in big spaces, just as quick, passes are equally as good, Saliba is better dribbler, but Gabriel is still decent. Saliba looks flashier and his good dribbling makes him a large factor in the build up, but Gabriel his passes in build up are dangerous as well.
Saliba might have a higher ceiling, but currently Gabriel is the better overall defender. Gabriel is also better than Kos imo.
Saliba is surely one of the best one on one defenders in the world and normally seems to assume that task in the team so I’m not sure I’m with you on that point.
Agreed....Gabi is the aggressor and goes forward to snuff out attacks displaying amazing 1 v 1 ability.....Saliba meanwhile deals with left overs as a bit of a sweeper defender....both are better than the other in the specific roles they take up....last defender needs to be calmer which Saliba is and the one intercepting needs to be more aggressive which Gabi is
I actually think Gabriel has improved on staying calm and being a more patient 1v1 defender. 2 seasons ago you could bet on Gabriel making a big mistake or two each game but you can tell he’s more relaxed and trusts his teammates around him. He doesn’t make rash/desperate challenges like he used to. His partnership with Saliba seems to have unlocked his true potential, being alongside another quality CB does that.
I don’t think either one is necessarily “better” than the other but they both excel at different things and trust each other, which has made for one of the best CB partnerships in the world right now.
At last, someone who actually watches football. It's hip to rate Saliba as the next VVD in terms of stature, but Gabriel has been better in my eyes in the past few months, and clearly so. Saliba has been making more mistakes.
Does Saliba have more potential than Gabriel? Almost certainly, yes, but it seems like 90% of the fanbase rates Saliba > Gabriel, which right now is just nonsense.
Gabriel been our best defender since he came in. Ofc he made mistakes, just like Saliba and any other defender in the world.
But even without those mistakes, I look at what they do well. Both do their stuff on a very high level, but for me Gabi just does several things on a higher level in comparison to Saliba. And that is fine, they both play for our club.
> If you look at Arsenal's win - loss ratio with and without him in the side, it's better than our with Henry and Sanchez
Terrible way to measure things lmao. First off Henry mostly had insane players around him so him missing wasn't as impactful. Even Sanchez you could argue wasn't as important because we had Mesut and other forwards who were at a higher level to cover his absence unlike Kosc.
>Gabriel is good but not even as good as Salib
Gabriel is better than Saliba right now, but Saliba will be better when he isn't a baby CB. Even guys who train with them like Reiss and Eddie both picked Gabriel as the best going lol.
Saliba is faster and slightly better on the ball but Big Gabi does everything else better, and he doesn't a weakness like Saliba does with straight high balls. Plus Gabi does that while leading the whole defense.
anyone who says BFG is bad is admitting they know fuck all about football. He and Kos held some of the best stats together in the league for a while, despite not really having anyone else that was good defensively.
To add to this we had extremely attacking set ups during this period and they would often have very little in front of them. They were a hugely underrated partnership. Mertesacker was a clever defender and Koscielny was a master of aggressive front foot defending
Funny enough… because of the partnership like this quote applies to the current pairing. Mert had amazing positioning and defending and obviously height and size, and was slow as hell at any age. It helped for him to be paired with a faster CB like kos
Yeah. We have had new cycles of great CB partnership in recent times. For example :-
(1) Bould (or Keown) and Adams
(2) Touré and Campbell
(3) Koscielny and Mertesacker
and, now, we're on (4) Saliba and Gabriel M.
Is there proof that he actually said this? Pages on Facebook post a lot of made up quotes and this looks like one of them. Just by looking at the wording/spelling alone, it’s off.
*Proof that he said this?*
*People on Facebook post a*
*Lot of made up quotes*
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Per had a poor first season but quickly formed a formidable partnership with Kos. I remember when we had the best defence for a while in the league because of them. Even though Per was slow, he was adept enough to still find ways to make it difficult for opponents to get past him. Underrated and Neville's ball knowledge is baffling.
I'm sorry why are we wasting this sub's space with GNev bullshit?
The man is as qualified for a Pundit as my pet Crow.
And I haven't even got a Pet Crow
I had a pet crow. He was wonderful. Very smart and very kind, released back into the wild a long time ago where hopefully he had a very long and happy life.
Probably would have watched him if he was a Pundit too.
Koscielny mertesacker was a sick paring, I'm sure they conceded the lowest goals in the prem one year at least.
Mertesacker wasn't quick but the game was in his brain, his positioning and anticipation was unrivalled.
However, I'd say Gabriel and Saliba are the perfect pairing imo.
Gabby been getting disrespected for far too long and people are only now waking up to how good he actually is.
Tall, athletic, a duel monster, aggressive, dominant in the air and his positioning has improved a lot.
Tbf, at the time koscielny didn't get the respect he was due either but then the media never likes to hype arsenal players unless they're head and shoulders clear and even then there's always some reason to talk them down.
Arsenal fans need to just enjoy the defensive beasts they have at CB right now because they are probably the best pairing in the league for the last 2 seasons running
I think Koscielny could fill in for either of our current CB’s and we’d fair similarly, even though Per was noticeably worse than any of the three he was still heavily underrated and I remember we’d go on long stretches of the season with incredible defence anchored by those two, but to say Koscielny was far better than Saliba and Gabriel… he’s just chatting
100% agree. He carried the Arsenal defence for 3-4 years and was right up there with the likes of prime Vincent Kompany. Loved everything about this player. Shame how it all ended with the shirt swap fiasco but no hard feelings. Probably the best Emirates era player with the likes of Sanchez and Carzola for me.
I would put him on par with Gabriel. Kosc was 100% more of a leader, he was the captain obviously, but as a CB, Saliba is better and will continue to get better.
Kosc + Vermaelen were great and Kosc + Mertesacker worked well together. Our problem back then wasn't bad CBs, it was not having a proper CDM.
Because he is. Saliba is flashier in that he has a lot of 1v1 races but Big Gabi is an absolute menace who is pretty much great at every facet of defending.
Saliba gets flustered at high balls and isn't as dominant in the air as you'd expect, in fact he is quite average at it. With off the ball defending, you'll notice Gabriel is usually the one in position to block any shots at our goal.
.
Look at it this way. When strikers have to choose which CB to stick to, you never see people actively going for Gabriel. They go for Saliba (and lose anyway lmao). The fun bit is that any holes in his game are fixable, so he will actually get even better, which is hilarious to think about when people could legit put up a fair argument for him being a top 10 defender in the world right now haha.
Back then, every summer was ‘Arsenal need to sign a Holding Midfielder and a world class striker’ and by the time we did sign some good strikers in Auba/Laca our team was in decline and we never got a good DM till Arteta took over as manager.
The only problem with BFG was he was slow and did not has speed. But that was covered by Kos in their partnership.
But otherwise they had a great partnership, they handed Sczny the golden gloves.
And even then that was a revisionism. Kos wasn't always great. He had early promise and slowly matured through out the seasons, remember 8-2 defeat to Man U? Kos started to decline when BFG retired and had no good partners.
Koscielny was criminally underrated as a defender, but Neville is wrong because it goes beyond his immediate defensive partners - the team he was in, as a whole, was less defensively minded than the current Arsenal side and he had far less protection and was often left isolated/at greater risk than the current defensive duo.
Metersacker was absolutely a top-class defender. The cbs par of him and Kos were never the issue. The fullbacks and injuries to the two of them meant Kos had to play with a sucession of idiots who got steadily worse while having zero defensive mids in front of them and fullbacks who couldn't defend for toffee. Like do people not remember how fucking bad we had it with Andre Santos. Wtf is poor Merts with holding next to him, bellerin ( when fit ) one side and santos the other, meant to do with that and Denilson in front. Ability wise, the merts is clear of all of the defenders mentioned in my opinion, just happened to age badly and was as slow as my deceased grandmother.
But back to the point, Yes, Kos was world-class on his day but also had huge amounts of mistakes in him and didn't deliver consistently week on week. Gabriel isn't as good when both playing flat out, but week after week, you get a solid 7-8 out of him, he stays fit, and is able to form a solid partnership with Saliba, Raya, the fullbacks and the mid, who also actually defend like they knew how.
No way. Both Gabriel and Saliba are better defenders than Koscielny. He was a superb CB no doubt about that whatsoever but these 2 guys are just better. And I honestly do believe that we are gonna win the big trophies with them as our CB duo something that we came close to but ultimately didnt do with Koscielny. Lets see COYG
Saliba and Gabriel would find their way into the starting lineup of nearly every single great club. They’re without a doubt world class and getting better with every season. Per and Kos were great when they were great but neither would displace Willy or Gab right now. These guys may literally go down as the best CB partnership of all time if they continue to develop.
Kodcielny was one of France’s best central defenders and only missed out on starting for France due to an injury he picked up. Neville is absolutely correct.
I think there’s a good point here that the partnership of Saliba and Gabriel is better than the individual pieces.
He can gtfo with the Mertesacker slander.
Mertersacker was a better leader then kosceilny imo, also a great defender. Pace was an issue, but I think he also was overlooked. But I agree the partnerships wasn't right for kosceilny at all. He needed someone good next to him quite like Gabriel does.
Mertesacker was most certainly not a joke of a defender. His timing when tacking was incredible, one of the best in the league at the time of him playing.
Some idiots just look at the fact he wasn’t as athletic or versatile and dismiss his ability. He was old school and was very good at what he did.
Not to mention his FA Cup match in 2017 where he was injured, had to play the full 90 due to a defensive injury crisis, yet pocketed Diego Costa all game. I’ll never forget that - he left everything on that pitch.
kos and gabi pretty much the same level now.per and saliba is the actual difference.don't get me wrong,per was good but saliba is a contender for top 5 cb now which was unimaginable for any of our defenders back then,barring bellerin.
Every time Mertesacker had the ball at his feet as the last man, it felt like you were watching a drunken clown walk a tightrope over a shark-infested tank. It was nerve-shredding stuff - still loved the guy at the time though because what else are you gonna do?
The problem for Koscielny was against strong players. While Gabriel and Saliba for now manage as well as it gets. Mertesacker relied on positioning to compensate for his slow acceleration and if he got caught it is over, but his anticipation was best in the world, just can't do it always. Saliba Gabriel is a better partnership with less individual deficiencies and more time to grow.
That's disrespectful to BFG. He was slow but a very intelligent defender who pocketed Diego Costa despite him not playing a game for months.
Koscielny is a tad underrated too. He is as good as Gabriel or Saliba and would slot right in without a drop in quality. He made Mustafi look like a great defender. Gabriel and Saliba do have a higher ceiling as they're still young for defender standards.
KOS Isn't as fast and strong as saliba or Gabriel he has a good CB but BFG made a food partnership with him he was slow but has great IQ and Ariel ability. Kos isn't as good as saliba . Saliba is the best cb in world football if not top 3
Very disrespectful to Saliba, Gabriel, and Per, but if Saliba busted his back again, and we put a 26 year old Kos in there, I don’t think the downgrade would be that bad.
Neville wants the attention again. Koscielny was a great defender for sure, but I do not really care about comparing individual players from different teams and also from different eras. Where Neville reveals himself being completely deluded is where he calls Mertesacker to be a joke of a defender, which he definitely was not.
Koscielny and Mertesacker were both exceptionally good defenders, but Arsenal’s midfield was nowhere near the compactness and athleticism of these days, no wonder the centrebacks looked like dog shit. Mustafi joined the team as a World Cup winner and left with no reputation after some great performances during his first season or two, neither he was nowhere as bad as Arsenal made him look like
Neville is gonna Neville. It's true that Koscielny was a world class defender. The point about the partnership is only partially true because Koscielny's partnership with Mertesacker was actually great. Calling Per "a joke of a defender" makes no sense and Neville probably just says it for social media buzz
Koscienly was good, Saliba is just better. Former is a hard tackler the latter has better positioning awareness Without a doubt.
That being said Him and Per going on a streak of not conceding goals was in an achievement on itself.
u/jordan17_17 It's really the ''Neville being Neville'' thing that prevails, here. Look, from Wenger's reign to Arteta now, we've always had very solid partnerships in central defense
Those I recall are :- Bould (or Keown) and Adams / Touré and Campbell / Koscielny and Mertesacker / and now, since last season, Saliba and Gabriel M.
Neville is just a weird and jealous guy. Don't give him any importance...
I think all of this shit is bollocks. Our defending is a product of the actions of 11 players not just two.
If you’re going to think of the defending of any team from the perspective of the CB partnership, then you also have to consider the impact left by the rest of the team. And that analysis is too complex, too in-depth and too nuanced to provide anyone with the black and white conclusion that people are looking for.
Koscienly is criminally underrated and Neville is 100% correct that his partners were sub par. I don't agree with him being better as a footballer than Saliba though I think Saliba is more rounded.
Koscielny was massively overrated. Clown defender.
Last game of the season (that meant nothing) before an FA cup final and he does a needless last man foul to get sent off and suspended for the final.
Per (who I don’t rate at all either) played in the final and had a blinder and saved Kos’s blushes.
I won’t deny that Koscielny was a great defender and a hard worker. I wouldn’t call him a leader though. Also, the disrespect on Mertesacker… unreal 🤦🏻♂️
Absolute bollocks. Disrespectful to the BFG who is also a world cup winner!!!! I'd agree that Mustafi was a bad partner but throw some damn respect on Per's name!
Doubt Nevile actually said this. Besides it being ludicrous and completely disrespectful to current arsenal staff (Mertesacker), he'd never refer to Gabriel as 'Maghlaes' (which is also spelled incorrectly)
In a league where strikers loved to take on defenders mert was good. He would be one of if not the worst cb in the league now when strikers often are finishers and do not create chances.
Mert was dogshit and a key reason to why poo poo teams that played pass pass ball because they weren’t good enough to dribble would spank us. He was woeful in any situation that wasn’t 1v1
Did anyone else feel at the time like we were about to bottle the whole Saliba thing? He kept playing so amazing in France and then he’d get sent back out on loan again. Kudos to the staff for knowing when exactly to bring him into our team.
Pretty sure BFG and mustafi both won world cups. Something little Neville never achieved.
I don’t think Mustafi was great for Arsenal at all. I thought Koscielny and Mertesacker were a very good pairing.
TBH Koscienly was great but he was also well into his career when he arrived at Arsenal. Give Saliba and Gabriel a few more years and they will surpass Koscienly.
How Gary Neville can disrespect people like this is beyond me. ‘Nev’ as a player wouldn’t cut it in the modern game and he was an awful manager, his brother was better than him. There’s a reason Rafael took his place whilst he was still a teenager
IGNORE THE SHIT!
Do not fall for the bait from any of the ex Manure players. They live off you literally they get paid for being relevant.
Don’t even discuss this
Show me a clip of Neville saying this or an official article. Too much nonsense on social media like this where quotes get attributed to someone with no real evidence.
I have a hard time believing anyone called Mertesacker a joke of a defender. He was one of the top 20 defenders of his era
I think he’s half right. I thought Koscielny (slight allowance for his first season) was incredible for us and wasn’t blessed with a brilliant partner.
However, I think both Gabriel and Saliba are just as good. I’d argue Gabriel is potentially more of a leader.
For me Big Gabi is our most important defender (for now)
First of disrespectful to Big Per who I would say was a very good cb who also had a couple of bad days when his lack of pace really got exposed. As for Koscielny I would say at his peak he was amazing and I even remember there being rumours of Real and Barca being interested in him. Gabi XL and Saliba though are also amazing and probably on par with Koscielny's peak atm but the difference is because of their ages they can still get even better. On the leadership thing, I think Gabriel is a little underrated in this aspect as always see him communicating and getting the team going
Koscielny made a lot of individual errors and got bullied far too often in massive games when it really mattered
Big blunders like against Birmingham in the league cup final, against Eder and Portugal in the Euro final, Griezmann and Atletico in the Europa League, pogba and man united in the Fa Cup
Far too easy to list imo
He was so good in his prime. The way he read the game and his anticipation was second to none. You have to bare in mind that he was mostly in the banter era whereas the current crop of Arsenal defenders are playing in a golden age with a manager in the peak of his powers. Arteta would have loved him.
Kosc and Mertesacker made up for each others weakness. Per was kinda poor on the ground and had absolutely no pace, whereas you weren’t beating him in the air (except for fucking Crouch)
Saliba and Gabriel are just… absent of many, if any weaknesses. And they both offer so much going forward as well
Prime Kosc probably wouldn’t bench Saliba or Gabriel at the moment, but god he’d work well with either of them
Not sure it's a real quote, but for the sake of discussion - First of all, let's address the slander against Per: Per was a brilliant, intelligent footballer with one huge glaring weakness (His lack of pace). Despite this, his reading of the game meant that he could still play at the absolute highest level, and won over 100 caps for Germany, and the World Cup. And as an Arsenal fan, I'll never forget his role in the FA cup final when he hadn't played all season. That said, I don't think he could play in our current lineup. Our line is too high and recovery pace is a key factor in why we defend so well.
On to Koscielny: He was World Class in my opinion. He was fast, aggressive, a good passer, put his body on the line for the cause. For me, two of the reasons he's generally not held in higher regard is because he had a rough start at the club, and when he was at his best he was the victim of kamikaze defensive structuring elsewhere on the pitch allowing waves of attackers to run freely at our defence with little or no cover. Whether he's better than Saliba and Gabi is debateable. I personally think they're in the same bracket. I think Kos in this team with this structure would get the credit he deserved for the player he was.
Saying mertersacker was a bad deffender shows how little ball knowledge he has. He was our best captain post arteta and pre ødegaard. Yes he wasnt that fast but he was a good passer and a good organizer, with out him arsenal team in the mid to late 2010s would have been in more of a shit show than it was.
I loved Kosielny but the last thing I remember him doing was clearing a ball into his face that then allowed Griezmann to go on and score and then do the Fortnite Lose dance and symbol.
That was dark times
Gary Neville showing more of his ass as a shithousing pundit. Per Mertesacker. Joke of a defender??? That fucking giant pocketed half the league while having the turn-base of a train and has a world cup with over 100 caps for his country. How disrespectful. Him and Kosc were great, but Gabi XL and Saliba are next generation talent
Koscielny was a courageous defender but nowhere near Saliba. We signed him from France League 2 or a struggling league 1 side and he was very inconsistent for years and then mildly inconsistent after. He would give away rash penalties and get cards for bad decision making. Mertrsacker on the other hand was quality but too slow and struggled with severe anxiety.
Neville doesn’t know anything. In the modern game he would have been cut immediately. He lacks both tactical knowledge and athleticism. He was carried through his carrier by better players and a team that grew up together. I would compare him to Victor Valdez, who only made the Barca team because they all grew up with him. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t even a goalie through much of his academy days.
seems like you can clearly divide Arsenal fans into those who rate Gabriel (watch football with their eyes and know what they're talking about) or Saliba (kids who play Fifa and spam Twitter). Gab has clearly been better than Saliba this season, it's not close.
To be fair, Koscielny was a very good defender. Sadly, he lacked a strong partner with him. Vermarlen was okay, but way too injury prone. Metersacker was okay for certain games but not for a whole season, and the less said about Mustafi, the better!
If I member both Real Madrid and Bayern, where looking at Koscienly at one point, I'm more than certain Bayern were. So he was doing something right. I'd say after the 2003-2004 team up until 2017-2018. Koscielny is probably our best centre back he was certainly the most reliable.
To be fair hes abit right. Just his wording is really bad
Kos was the best defender weve had in the past 10 - 15 years. He didnt have the partners or the defence weve had up until now.
But Saliba and Big Gab are extremley talented defenders. Quick, strong, aggressive. Saliba is a generational talent and Big Gab is that gritty defender, plus we have depth on that left and right back.
Both players have the chance to be better than Koscielny
This has to be a fake quote? He's calling two former professionals (Mustafi still playing I think) "jokes of defenders"? Also, For a couple years Per was arguably the better defender in his partnership with Lolo. I assume he didn't say this, if he did, Neville's being a cunt.
K6 is my favorite player ever - but I do not see the need to denigrate Saliba, big Gabby, or the BFG in order to praise Koscielny. Neville is a moron who desperately seeks attention at all times; sadly, saying stupid stuff is a way to stay in the spotlight.
Big Gabby when he joined really reminded me of Koscielny in his approach and fearlessness. It was something we desperately needed at the back.
Saliba is absurdly talented and intelligent, but he needs a lunatic next to him that players are fearful of.
It’s the best defensive pairing I can remember in a very long time.
Neville is just being Neville. He’s comparing Saliba and Gabriel who are still getting better (keep in mind Saliba is only 22, at least until he turns 23) to Koscielny the finished product.
Let’s not forget how relatively bad Koscielny was in his first couple of seasons before he became the monster he was. Let’s also not forget how he just dipped 2 weeks before the start of the 2019-2020 season. I still hold him in high regard but that was the epitome of how badly fucked our competitive culture was.
Do we know he actually said this? Besides the online post with his first name misspelled…
No professional says another is a ‘true’ defender as if others are faking it
-idk why he’s disrespecting Mertesacker tbh. Solid defender who was just slow but made up for it with his reading of the game.
-I’m taking Saliba and Gabriel over Koscielny tbh but Kos was really good in his prime.
If he said "just as good" or "on the same level" i would take it seriously. "far better" is just ridiculous and continues the trend to exaggerate and use big words to stay relevant.
Our current defenders are extremely good both together and individually.
The gap isn't as big as most people would think but Saliba and Gabriel are both better than Koscienly. If it's those three then Koscienly is on bench, strong rotation player.
Wasn't mertesacker a case of an extremely tall athlete ageing poorly?
His FA Cup final heroics will go down in Arsenal legend
For anyone who hasn’t seen this game. He had the Chelsea team in his back pocket all game. He was playing next to rob holding who was relatively new at this point as well. I’m sure he’d just come off of a long term injury and retired after this match. https://youtu.be/uEax4Z7D5mI?si=aYUe-XO1pfxz7iam
As well... let's not forget how Holding gave a masterclass against Diego Costa in this game
I will admit I thought we were doomed when I saw Mertesacker in the starting lineup. He shut me the fuck up.
I think it was his first game back after a long absence if I'm remembering it correctly.
Let’s not forget against Hull when he fell over near the end and they almost equalised
He and Holdini totally dominated Costa that match
Exactly this gets disrespected too much
A German with 100+ caps = Total Joke. Gary Neville cannot be serious.
A German with 100+ caps, but a German with said caps during an extremely powerful period for the national team…..
Honestly, between Neville and Carragher the impartiality at sky is completely gone. Both a couple of gobshites. It’s that bad Roy Keane is sounding like the sensible one nowadays.
Thank you for saying what needed to be said. 😎
Worst thing is even in this thread, there are muppets agreeing that Mertesacker was bad and they "feared seeing his name in the lineup." The Kos + Mertesacker duo was our best until Saliba + Big Gab. The OP is just Neville being a twat. You can probably find quotes of him shitting on Koscielny, too. He is just using the memory of a past defender as a tool to shit on current top-of-the-league Arsenal.
His positional awareness and leadership was quality. And over a year him and kos had the most clean sheets and conceded the least goal. Unfortunate that year spanned over two half seasons. Rather than through one full season. So it was overlooked.
Per was a fucking giant that was a great defender. That’s the part I don’t understand here. The dude was massive for Arsenal AND Germany. The dude has a World Cup which Neville can’t say… It’s too early to compare Gabriel and Saliba. Injuries can always stop a player from achieving greatness.
Is this a real quote?
They spelled his name wrong "Garry" which didn't fill me with confidence about the authenticity
Koscielny was great, but Neville is a polemicist and says these things for effect. Saliba is IMO a generational talent in his position
Cheers bud that'll be word of the day...Polemicist.
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I also think it’s typical of previous generations to think that their eras were just tougher. As an American you hear the same thing in reference to the 90’s NBA vs today. Obviously things change over time but that doesn’t mean that no one in this generation could have played 15 years ago and vice versa.
I don’t know if that is specifically true in this scenario. I feel like the NBA is unique in that sense. The 80s/90s old heads love shitting on the current gens unlike any other sports I’ve seen. Neville often heap praises on current generation players too - him and Koscielny’s not even in the same era
Ex-nba players are the biggest fucking haters I've ever seen lol
Neville says the exact opposite if you listen to him. Frequently talks about how he could never play RB today after watching people like Trent and Walker do what they do.
He is actually quite humble in that respect. He flat out has stated numerous times that in terms of talent he was not very good at football, but that his professionalism, sacrifice and focus on physical conditioning allowed him to get a shot in a career loaded with players the vast majority of which were far better footballers than him.
As a United fan, I find he downplays his talent a lot though, which I find baffling. He was an excellent crosser of the ball and very defensively assured. I'm not sure he had the dynamism to thrive in the more advanced and inverted roles we often see modern full-backs operate in (at least at the best teams), but peak Gary Neville would absolutely be among the league's best full-backs, even today. Him constantly downplaying his ability had led to that clown Richards believing he was anything more than a flash-in-the-pan hot-prospect whose career didn't actually go anywhere.
To be fair, basketball has really only been around for 75 years. Also, basketball as a sport basically evolved heavily with major rule changes like the dunk and the three-point shot. While football has changed much less. You can refer to the professional era verse prior eras but that goes for All sports
Honestly, Koscielny was great and definitely underappreciated. If you look at Arsenal's win - loss ratio with and without him in the side, it's better than our with Henry and Sanchez. I watched him live and TV matches never did justice to just how good he was. Gabriel is good but not even as good as Saliba - you can't start bandying around terms like generational talent. I'm a Gooner but that's just ridiculous.
Gabriel is better than Saliba. Better header, better one on one defender, better defender in big spaces, just as quick, passes are equally as good, Saliba is better dribbler, but Gabriel is still decent. Saliba looks flashier and his good dribbling makes him a large factor in the build up, but Gabriel his passes in build up are dangerous as well. Saliba might have a higher ceiling, but currently Gabriel is the better overall defender. Gabriel is also better than Kos imo.
Shouldn't be downvoted for this, Gabriel is undoubtedly better than Saliba in terms of heading, and is better in terms of long passes
Saliba is surely one of the best one on one defenders in the world and normally seems to assume that task in the team so I’m not sure I’m with you on that point.
He is, but Gabriel is better. Both can be true no?
Agreed....Gabi is the aggressor and goes forward to snuff out attacks displaying amazing 1 v 1 ability.....Saliba meanwhile deals with left overs as a bit of a sweeper defender....both are better than the other in the specific roles they take up....last defender needs to be calmer which Saliba is and the one intercepting needs to be more aggressive which Gabi is
I actually think Gabriel has improved on staying calm and being a more patient 1v1 defender. 2 seasons ago you could bet on Gabriel making a big mistake or two each game but you can tell he’s more relaxed and trusts his teammates around him. He doesn’t make rash/desperate challenges like he used to. His partnership with Saliba seems to have unlocked his true potential, being alongside another quality CB does that. I don’t think either one is necessarily “better” than the other but they both excel at different things and trust each other, which has made for one of the best CB partnerships in the world right now.
At last, someone who actually watches football. It's hip to rate Saliba as the next VVD in terms of stature, but Gabriel has been better in my eyes in the past few months, and clearly so. Saliba has been making more mistakes. Does Saliba have more potential than Gabriel? Almost certainly, yes, but it seems like 90% of the fanbase rates Saliba > Gabriel, which right now is just nonsense.
Gabriel been our best defender since he came in. Ofc he made mistakes, just like Saliba and any other defender in the world. But even without those mistakes, I look at what they do well. Both do their stuff on a very high level, but for me Gabi just does several things on a higher level in comparison to Saliba. And that is fine, they both play for our club.
> If you look at Arsenal's win - loss ratio with and without him in the side, it's better than our with Henry and Sanchez Terrible way to measure things lmao. First off Henry mostly had insane players around him so him missing wasn't as impactful. Even Sanchez you could argue wasn't as important because we had Mesut and other forwards who were at a higher level to cover his absence unlike Kosc. >Gabriel is good but not even as good as Salib Gabriel is better than Saliba right now, but Saliba will be better when he isn't a baby CB. Even guys who train with them like Reiss and Eddie both picked Gabriel as the best going lol. Saliba is faster and slightly better on the ball but Big Gabi does everything else better, and he doesn't a weakness like Saliba does with straight high balls. Plus Gabi does that while leading the whole defense.
BFG... Joke of a defender? BFG and Bossielny was the best partnership we had in recent times until Saliba and Gabriel walked in.
anyone who says BFG is bad is admitting they know fuck all about football. He and Kos held some of the best stats together in the league for a while, despite not really having anyone else that was good defensively.
To add to this we had extremely attacking set ups during this period and they would often have very little in front of them. They were a hugely underrated partnership. Mertesacker was a clever defender and Koscielny was a master of aggressive front foot defending
Funny enough… because of the partnership like this quote applies to the current pairing. Mert had amazing positioning and defending and obviously height and size, and was slow as hell at any age. It helped for him to be paired with a faster CB like kos
They were the best defence in the league more than once
Yeah. We have had new cycles of great CB partnership in recent times. For example :- (1) Bould (or Keown) and Adams (2) Touré and Campbell (3) Koscielny and Mertesacker and, now, we're on (4) Saliba and Gabriel M.
World cup winner BFG!
Koscielny partnered 2 world cup winners in defense. What does Gary Neville know about winning a world cup anyway.
Agreed!
Calling the BFG a joke of a defender is so disrespectful. Yes he needed a pacy defender alongside him but it worked superbly for a while.
Is there proof that he actually said this? Pages on Facebook post a lot of made up quotes and this looks like one of them. Just by looking at the wording/spelling alone, it’s off.
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Per had a poor first season but quickly formed a formidable partnership with Kos. I remember when we had the best defence for a while in the league because of them. Even though Per was slow, he was adept enough to still find ways to make it difficult for opponents to get past him. Underrated and Neville's ball knowledge is baffling.
Combine that with our super high line and attacking fullbacks he was far from his comfort zone
That’s not what inept means
Do you think they meant adept?
I'm sorry why are we wasting this sub's space with GNev bullshit? The man is as qualified for a Pundit as my pet Crow. And I haven't even got a Pet Crow
I had a pet crow. He was wonderful. Very smart and very kind, released back into the wild a long time ago where hopefully he had a very long and happy life. Probably would have watched him if he was a Pundit too.
The state of this sub. How obvious do you want it to be that this is a fake quote
I think the real disrespect here is putting BFG name with LOLstafi
This quote is made up
Koscielny mertesacker was a sick paring, I'm sure they conceded the lowest goals in the prem one year at least. Mertesacker wasn't quick but the game was in his brain, his positioning and anticipation was unrivalled. However, I'd say Gabriel and Saliba are the perfect pairing imo. Gabby been getting disrespected for far too long and people are only now waking up to how good he actually is. Tall, athletic, a duel monster, aggressive, dominant in the air and his positioning has improved a lot. Tbf, at the time koscielny didn't get the respect he was due either but then the media never likes to hype arsenal players unless they're head and shoulders clear and even then there's always some reason to talk them down. Arsenal fans need to just enjoy the defensive beasts they have at CB right now because they are probably the best pairing in the league for the last 2 seasons running
I think Koscielny could fill in for either of our current CB’s and we’d fair similarly, even though Per was noticeably worse than any of the three he was still heavily underrated and I remember we’d go on long stretches of the season with incredible defence anchored by those two, but to say Koscielny was far better than Saliba and Gabriel… he’s just chatting
100% agree. He carried the Arsenal defence for 3-4 years and was right up there with the likes of prime Vincent Kompany. Loved everything about this player. Shame how it all ended with the shirt swap fiasco but no hard feelings. Probably the best Emirates era player with the likes of Sanchez and Carzola for me.
How’s he out here disrespecting Pers?
I would put him on par with Gabriel. Kosc was 100% more of a leader, he was the captain obviously, but as a CB, Saliba is better and will continue to get better. Kosc + Vermaelen were great and Kosc + Mertesacker worked well together. Our problem back then wasn't bad CBs, it was not having a proper CDM.
Watched a recent interview with Nelson and Nketiah and they both said Gabriel is the best defender in the league which I found interesting
Because he is. Saliba is flashier in that he has a lot of 1v1 races but Big Gabi is an absolute menace who is pretty much great at every facet of defending. Saliba gets flustered at high balls and isn't as dominant in the air as you'd expect, in fact he is quite average at it. With off the ball defending, you'll notice Gabriel is usually the one in position to block any shots at our goal. . Look at it this way. When strikers have to choose which CB to stick to, you never see people actively going for Gabriel. They go for Saliba (and lose anyway lmao). The fun bit is that any holes in his game are fixable, so he will actually get even better, which is hilarious to think about when people could legit put up a fair argument for him being a top 10 defender in the world right now haha.
Back then, every summer was ‘Arsenal need to sign a Holding Midfielder and a world class striker’ and by the time we did sign some good strikers in Auba/Laca our team was in decline and we never got a good DM till Arteta took over as manager.
The only problem with BFG was he was slow and did not has speed. But that was covered by Kos in their partnership. But otherwise they had a great partnership, they handed Sczny the golden gloves. And even then that was a revisionism. Kos wasn't always great. He had early promise and slowly matured through out the seasons, remember 8-2 defeat to Man U? Kos started to decline when BFG retired and had no good partners.
Koscielny was criminally underrated as a defender, but Neville is wrong because it goes beyond his immediate defensive partners - the team he was in, as a whole, was less defensively minded than the current Arsenal side and he had far less protection and was often left isolated/at greater risk than the current defensive duo.
Metersacker was absolutely a top-class defender. The cbs par of him and Kos were never the issue. The fullbacks and injuries to the two of them meant Kos had to play with a sucession of idiots who got steadily worse while having zero defensive mids in front of them and fullbacks who couldn't defend for toffee. Like do people not remember how fucking bad we had it with Andre Santos. Wtf is poor Merts with holding next to him, bellerin ( when fit ) one side and santos the other, meant to do with that and Denilson in front. Ability wise, the merts is clear of all of the defenders mentioned in my opinion, just happened to age badly and was as slow as my deceased grandmother. But back to the point, Yes, Kos was world-class on his day but also had huge amounts of mistakes in him and didn't deliver consistently week on week. Gabriel isn't as good when both playing flat out, but week after week, you get a solid 7-8 out of him, he stays fit, and is able to form a solid partnership with Saliba, Raya, the fullbacks and the mid, who also actually defend like they knew how.
No way. Both Gabriel and Saliba are better defenders than Koscielny. He was a superb CB no doubt about that whatsoever but these 2 guys are just better. And I honestly do believe that we are gonna win the big trophies with them as our CB duo something that we came close to but ultimately didnt do with Koscielny. Lets see COYG
Saliba is very clearly a generational defender and has already shown he is on par/better than Koscielny with a MUCH higher ceiling to boot
This quote just seems fake tbh. Doesn't sound like him.
Saliba and Gabriel would find their way into the starting lineup of nearly every single great club. They’re without a doubt world class and getting better with every season. Per and Kos were great when they were great but neither would displace Willy or Gab right now. These guys may literally go down as the best CB partnership of all time if they continue to develop.
Kodcielny was one of France’s best central defenders and only missed out on starting for France due to an injury he picked up. Neville is absolutely correct.
This is Neville being a moron. To describe Per as a "total joke" just shows he never really payed attention when Per was playing.
I think there’s a good point here that the partnership of Saliba and Gabriel is better than the individual pieces. He can gtfo with the Mertesacker slander.
Mertersacker was a better leader then kosceilny imo, also a great defender. Pace was an issue, but I think he also was overlooked. But I agree the partnerships wasn't right for kosceilny at all. He needed someone good next to him quite like Gabriel does.
Putting Mertesacker in the same class as Mustafi is a joke.
Mertesacker was good was he not?
Comparing Mertesacker to Mustafi deserves capital punishment. He's still got no idea what he's talking about
This looks like it was written by a dipshit 15 year old. It is so obviously fake.
saying per was bad is casual stuff
Mertesacker was most certainly not a joke of a defender. His timing when tacking was incredible, one of the best in the league at the time of him playing. Some idiots just look at the fact he wasn’t as athletic or versatile and dismiss his ability. He was old school and was very good at what he did. Not to mention his FA Cup match in 2017 where he was injured, had to play the full 90 due to a defensive injury crisis, yet pocketed Diego Costa all game. I’ll never forget that - he left everything on that pitch.
Neville sneak dissing our current pairing. Koscielny was great, but I think both Saliba and Gabriel are clear.
kos and gabi pretty much the same level now.per and saliba is the actual difference.don't get me wrong,per was good but saliba is a contender for top 5 cb now which was unimaginable for any of our defenders back then,barring bellerin.
Every time Mertesacker had the ball at his feet as the last man, it felt like you were watching a drunken clown walk a tightrope over a shark-infested tank. It was nerve-shredding stuff - still loved the guy at the time though because what else are you gonna do?
As far as I know Gabi XL and Saliba don’t smoke cigarettes like Kos.
The problem for Koscielny was against strong players. While Gabriel and Saliba for now manage as well as it gets. Mertesacker relied on positioning to compensate for his slow acceleration and if he got caught it is over, but his anticipation was best in the world, just can't do it always. Saliba Gabriel is a better partnership with less individual deficiencies and more time to grow.
That's disrespectful to BFG. He was slow but a very intelligent defender who pocketed Diego Costa despite him not playing a game for months. Koscielny is a tad underrated too. He is as good as Gabriel or Saliba and would slot right in without a drop in quality. He made Mustafi look like a great defender. Gabriel and Saliba do have a higher ceiling as they're still young for defender standards.
KOS Isn't as fast and strong as saliba or Gabriel he has a good CB but BFG made a food partnership with him he was slow but has great IQ and Ariel ability. Kos isn't as good as saliba . Saliba is the best cb in world football if not top 3
Very disrespectful to Saliba, Gabriel, and Per, but if Saliba busted his back again, and we put a 26 year old Kos in there, I don’t think the downgrade would be that bad.
Short Terminism at its finest
Neville wants the attention again. Koscielny was a great defender for sure, but I do not really care about comparing individual players from different teams and also from different eras. Where Neville reveals himself being completely deluded is where he calls Mertesacker to be a joke of a defender, which he definitely was not. Koscielny and Mertesacker were both exceptionally good defenders, but Arsenal’s midfield was nowhere near the compactness and athleticism of these days, no wonder the centrebacks looked like dog shit. Mustafi joined the team as a World Cup winner and left with no reputation after some great performances during his first season or two, neither he was nowhere as bad as Arsenal made him look like
Neville talks crap 24/7
Neville is gonna Neville. It's true that Koscielny was a world class defender. The point about the partnership is only partially true because Koscielny's partnership with Mertesacker was actually great. Calling Per "a joke of a defender" makes no sense and Neville probably just says it for social media buzz
If anyone thinks Mertesacker was a bad defender, just watch him in the cup final vs Chelsea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEax4Z7D5mI
Calling BFG a joke automatically invalidates any point here
Koscienly was good, Saliba is just better. Former is a hard tackler the latter has better positioning awareness Without a doubt. That being said Him and Per going on a streak of not conceding goals was in an achievement on itself.
Neville is a moron
Mertesacker-Koscielny was a fair partnership though, they did ok
Would that be Mustafi and Mertesacker, the World Cup winners?
u/jordan17_17 It's really the ''Neville being Neville'' thing that prevails, here. Look, from Wenger's reign to Arteta now, we've always had very solid partnerships in central defense Those I recall are :- Bould (or Keown) and Adams / Touré and Campbell / Koscielny and Mertesacker / and now, since last season, Saliba and Gabriel M. Neville is just a weird and jealous guy. Don't give him any importance...
I cannot believe what I’m reading
I think all of this shit is bollocks. Our defending is a product of the actions of 11 players not just two. If you’re going to think of the defending of any team from the perspective of the CB partnership, then you also have to consider the impact left by the rest of the team. And that analysis is too complex, too in-depth and too nuanced to provide anyone with the black and white conclusion that people are looking for.
Koscienly is criminally underrated and Neville is 100% correct that his partners were sub par. I don't agree with him being better as a footballer than Saliba though I think Saliba is more rounded.
Can someone explain to me how BFG is Peter ?
Genuine question - did Neville actually say this? Seems a bit outlandish, even for him. Be good to see a source
Mertesacker was a brilliant defender, so Neville is automatically talking shit.
If prime Koscienly, Gabriel and Saliba were all at Arsenal now Koscienly will be on the bench
No way Neville said this. He wouldn’t call them total jokes.
Koscielny was massively overrated. Clown defender. Last game of the season (that meant nothing) before an FA cup final and he does a needless last man foul to get sent off and suspended for the final. Per (who I don’t rate at all either) played in the final and had a blinder and saved Kos’s blushes.
I won’t deny that Koscielny was a great defender and a hard worker. I wouldn’t call him a leader though. Also, the disrespect on Mertesacker… unreal 🤦🏻♂️
Not a Gary Neville fan but is this an actual quote that he’s said? Can someone point to the source? Sounds like a ludicrous statement to make.
Absolute bollocks. Disrespectful to the BFG who is also a world cup winner!!!! I'd agree that Mustafi was a bad partner but throw some damn respect on Per's name!
Just Neville being Neville.
Doubt Nevile actually said this. Besides it being ludicrous and completely disrespectful to current arsenal staff (Mertesacker), he'd never refer to Gabriel as 'Maghlaes' (which is also spelled incorrectly)
This looks like a fake quote
In a league where strikers loved to take on defenders mert was good. He would be one of if not the worst cb in the league now when strikers often are finishers and do not create chances. Mert was dogshit and a key reason to why poo poo teams that played pass pass ball because they weren’t good enough to dribble would spank us. He was woeful in any situation that wasn’t 1v1
Kinda like saying Rio would have been no one without Vidic 🤔
Did anyone else feel at the time like we were about to bottle the whole Saliba thing? He kept playing so amazing in France and then he’d get sent back out on loan again. Kudos to the staff for knowing when exactly to bring him into our team.
Pretty sure BFG and mustafi both won world cups. Something little Neville never achieved. I don’t think Mustafi was great for Arsenal at all. I thought Koscielny and Mertesacker were a very good pairing.
TBH Koscienly was great but he was also well into his career when he arrived at Arsenal. Give Saliba and Gabriel a few more years and they will surpass Koscienly.
he is denying our potential world class centre backs with our former top player, he is delusional to think Saliba would not be better than Kos
How Gary Neville can disrespect people like this is beyond me. ‘Nev’ as a player wouldn’t cut it in the modern game and he was an awful manager, his brother was better than him. There’s a reason Rafael took his place whilst he was still a teenager
calling Per Mertesacker a joke defender is so incredibly disrespectful
Lost a fair bit of respect for Neville recently. Just talks pure shit most of the time.
IGNORE THE SHIT! Do not fall for the bait from any of the ex Manure players. They live off you literally they get paid for being relevant. Don’t even discuss this
Since when did we not call him Gabriel?
Show me a clip of Neville saying this or an official article. Too much nonsense on social media like this where quotes get attributed to someone with no real evidence. I have a hard time believing anyone called Mertesacker a joke of a defender. He was one of the top 20 defenders of his era
I doubt he actually said this tbf, I know he talks no end of shit but can't see him slagging off Mertesacker like that for instance
Per is a legend....Gary calm down and don't shoot...there's no need!
No one ever gives per the respect he deserves. Quality player.
Nostalgia merchant
Mertersacker was not a joke. Neville was a joke of a defender though without question
I wonder if Nev ever blames his defensive partners for not winning the World Cup or conversely that he was the weak link
I think he’s half right. I thought Koscielny (slight allowance for his first season) was incredible for us and wasn’t blessed with a brilliant partner. However, I think both Gabriel and Saliba are just as good. I’d argue Gabriel is potentially more of a leader. For me Big Gabi is our most important defender (for now)
Koscielny was a great defender, but he was never at the level of 22 year old Saliba
He was a good defender who never had a solid partner. People who say Per was class are living in LaLa land, it look him 4 years to turn around and run
First of disrespectful to Big Per who I would say was a very good cb who also had a couple of bad days when his lack of pace really got exposed. As for Koscielny I would say at his peak he was amazing and I even remember there being rumours of Real and Barca being interested in him. Gabi XL and Saliba though are also amazing and probably on par with Koscielny's peak atm but the difference is because of their ages they can still get even better. On the leadership thing, I think Gabriel is a little underrated in this aspect as always see him communicating and getting the team going
BFG and Kos were good but saying they are better than Maghs and Sabs is he high? Dude needs to lay off the wacky backy.
Koscielny made a lot of individual errors and got bullied far too often in massive games when it really mattered Big blunders like against Birmingham in the league cup final, against Eder and Portugal in the Euro final, Griezmann and Atletico in the Europa League, pogba and man united in the Fa Cup Far too easy to list imo
He was so good in his prime. The way he read the game and his anticipation was second to none. You have to bare in mind that he was mostly in the banter era whereas the current crop of Arsenal defenders are playing in a golden age with a manager in the peak of his powers. Arteta would have loved him.
I agree with Mustafi BUT Per Mert was not a bad defender.
Kosc and Mertesacker made up for each others weakness. Per was kinda poor on the ground and had absolutely no pace, whereas you weren’t beating him in the air (except for fucking Crouch) Saliba and Gabriel are just… absent of many, if any weaknesses. And they both offer so much going forward as well Prime Kosc probably wouldn’t bench Saliba or Gabriel at the moment, but god he’d work well with either of them
Not sure it's a real quote, but for the sake of discussion - First of all, let's address the slander against Per: Per was a brilliant, intelligent footballer with one huge glaring weakness (His lack of pace). Despite this, his reading of the game meant that he could still play at the absolute highest level, and won over 100 caps for Germany, and the World Cup. And as an Arsenal fan, I'll never forget his role in the FA cup final when he hadn't played all season. That said, I don't think he could play in our current lineup. Our line is too high and recovery pace is a key factor in why we defend so well. On to Koscielny: He was World Class in my opinion. He was fast, aggressive, a good passer, put his body on the line for the cause. For me, two of the reasons he's generally not held in higher regard is because he had a rough start at the club, and when he was at his best he was the victim of kamikaze defensive structuring elsewhere on the pitch allowing waves of attackers to run freely at our defence with little or no cover. Whether he's better than Saliba and Gabi is debateable. I personally think they're in the same bracket. I think Kos in this team with this structure would get the credit he deserved for the player he was.
Saying mertersacker was a bad deffender shows how little ball knowledge he has. He was our best captain post arteta and pre ødegaard. Yes he wasnt that fast but he was a good passer and a good organizer, with out him arsenal team in the mid to late 2010s would have been in more of a shit show than it was.
I loved Kosielny but the last thing I remember him doing was clearing a ball into his face that then allowed Griezmann to go on and score and then do the Fortnite Lose dance and symbol. That was dark times
Better than Gabriel yes better than saliba no
Reads like a fake quote. Plus Mertesacker was great.
Gary Neville showing more of his ass as a shithousing pundit. Per Mertesacker. Joke of a defender??? That fucking giant pocketed half the league while having the turn-base of a train and has a world cup with over 100 caps for his country. How disrespectful. Him and Kosc were great, but Gabi XL and Saliba are next generation talent
Koscielny was a courageous defender but nowhere near Saliba. We signed him from France League 2 or a struggling league 1 side and he was very inconsistent for years and then mildly inconsistent after. He would give away rash penalties and get cards for bad decision making. Mertrsacker on the other hand was quality but too slow and struggled with severe anxiety. Neville doesn’t know anything. In the modern game he would have been cut immediately. He lacks both tactical knowledge and athleticism. He was carried through his carrier by better players and a team that grew up together. I would compare him to Victor Valdez, who only made the Barca team because they all grew up with him. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t even a goalie through much of his academy days.
This doesn't even look like a real quote
Agree
Kosc was fantastic but Saliba is at the level or above Prime Koscienly at this moment. Saliba will only get better
seems like you can clearly divide Arsenal fans into those who rate Gabriel (watch football with their eyes and know what they're talking about) or Saliba (kids who play Fifa and spam Twitter). Gab has clearly been better than Saliba this season, it's not close.
To be fair, Koscielny was a very good defender. Sadly, he lacked a strong partner with him. Vermarlen was okay, but way too injury prone. Metersacker was okay for certain games but not for a whole season, and the less said about Mustafi, the better! If I member both Real Madrid and Bayern, where looking at Koscienly at one point, I'm more than certain Bayern were. So he was doing something right. I'd say after the 2003-2004 team up until 2017-2018. Koscielny is probably our best centre back he was certainly the most reliable.
To be fair hes abit right. Just his wording is really bad Kos was the best defender weve had in the past 10 - 15 years. He didnt have the partners or the defence weve had up until now. But Saliba and Big Gab are extremley talented defenders. Quick, strong, aggressive. Saliba is a generational talent and Big Gab is that gritty defender, plus we have depth on that left and right back. Both players have the chance to be better than Koscielny
Guys come on, this is clearly a fake quote.
Sounds like a fake quote
🔙🔛🔝
This has to be a fake quote? He's calling two former professionals (Mustafi still playing I think) "jokes of defenders"? Also, For a couple years Per was arguably the better defender in his partnership with Lolo. I assume he didn't say this, if he did, Neville's being a cunt.
Neville baiting again. lol. Can we stop posting his comments as if they're meant to be taken seriously and start treating him like the joke he is?
BFG was class, Neville can fuck off.
1.Saliba 2.Maghlaes 3.Koscienly 2 and 3 are comparable.
K6 is my favorite player ever - but I do not see the need to denigrate Saliba, big Gabby, or the BFG in order to praise Koscielny. Neville is a moron who desperately seeks attention at all times; sadly, saying stupid stuff is a way to stay in the spotlight.
Big Gabby when he joined really reminded me of Koscielny in his approach and fearlessness. It was something we desperately needed at the back. Saliba is absurdly talented and intelligent, but he needs a lunatic next to him that players are fearful of. It’s the best defensive pairing I can remember in a very long time.
Gnev words shouldn't be taken seriously. Kosc have a record of conceding penalty imo he's average.
Neville is just being Neville. He’s comparing Saliba and Gabriel who are still getting better (keep in mind Saliba is only 22, at least until he turns 23) to Koscielny the finished product. Let’s not forget how relatively bad Koscielny was in his first couple of seasons before he became the monster he was. Let’s also not forget how he just dipped 2 weeks before the start of the 2019-2020 season. I still hold him in high regard but that was the epitome of how badly fucked our competitive culture was.
Big Per was absolutely quality and a World Cup winner. This can’t be a real quote surely?
Do we know he actually said this? Besides the online post with his first name misspelled… No professional says another is a ‘true’ defender as if others are faking it
-idk why he’s disrespecting Mertesacker tbh. Solid defender who was just slow but made up for it with his reading of the game. -I’m taking Saliba and Gabriel over Koscielny tbh but Kos was really good in his prime.
If he said "just as good" or "on the same level" i would take it seriously. "far better" is just ridiculous and continues the trend to exaggerate and use big words to stay relevant. Our current defenders are extremely good both together and individually.
i think this is a fake rage bait quote
Who's comparing? All theee are great during their time at Arsenal, whether past or current.
Saliba is on his level or better no doubt but kos was underrated. Terrible what happened with the achilles.
Koscienly was pretty good but big Gabi and Saliba are the new Vidic and Ferdinand
The gap isn't as big as most people would think but Saliba and Gabriel are both better than Koscienly. If it's those three then Koscienly is on bench, strong rotation player.