Will Mertesacker’s arrival affect a tactical change at Arsenal?

After six years of being in and out of Arsenal’s radar, Per Mertesacker finally sealed his dream move to north London on deadline day this summer.

Though I feel Arsene Wenger was never keen on the German international, the 8-2 demolition at Old Trafford and Thomas Vermaelen’s ankle surgery forced the manager into signing the former Werder Bremen captain.

Arsenal fans would have loved to seen Gray Cahill or Chris Samba come in, but at just £8 million, Mertesacker represents an astute buy, given his experience, quality and physical presence.

But will the German international succeed at Arsenal?

The overwhelming answer is ‘Yes’, but will he really fit into Arsenal’s style of play?

Our high defensive line regularly leaves the centre-backs exposed and given Mertesacker’s lack of pace, it is certainly a risk to continue with the same tactics. So are we in for a tactical change?

Arsenal’s style of football places a lot of importance on passing, movement and pressing opponents when possession is lost, and for such a style to be effective, it is natural for the defence to push higher up in order to pin opponents in their own half and to provide the midfield with passing options. As long as possession is retained, this is highly effective. But when possession is lost and opponents launch a counter-attack it leaves the centre-backs scrambling back to defend.

In his initial years at Arsenal, Wenger used a solid, deep back four while allowing them to express themselves more and move forward when the occasions demanded. Over the years, that successful tactic has given way to a high defensive line that is shaky and has resulted in a number of goals being conceded on the counter

Last season we mostly played with Laurent Koscielny, Johan Djourou and Sebastien Squillaci at the back.

Squillaci is absolute crap and although Koscielny and Djourou are technically sound and good tacklers, both are really poor at reading the game. This regularly leaves them out of position or moving in the wrong direction and given our style, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

But with Mertesacker coming in and Vermaelen out of action for a few weeks, Arsenal has two excellent readers of the game. It’s extremely unlucky that Vermaelen is out for 2 months and with Koscielny likely to partner Mertesacker until his return, Arsenal need to adopt a defensive back four where by the centre-backs sit deep. This will allow the full-backs to attack more while also getting the best out of Mertesacker and protecting Koscielny’s evident weaknesses.

The 26-year-old German lacks pace and will be caught out easily by agile and fast strikers, especially given that he is new to the quick English league. But he has shown with Germany that if he is allowed to sit deep, he is extremely hard to beat with his imposing figure.

He reads the game in advance and his tackling and distribution make up for his lack of speed. It would give the adventurous Koscielny more freedom and will reduce the pressure on him and when TV5 returns, it would be a mouth watering partnership at the back for fans to behold.

With Mertesacker set to provide the physical edge in set-pieces for Arsenal, his success in open play depends largely on Wenger’s tactics.

With him sitting deep and Vermaelen eventually joining him, they will be able to reduce the goals conceded. That means our forwards have more freedom and one or two goals will generally be enough to secure three points. And we’ll be less dependent on our young keeper to save the day for us every week – It was such tactics that Borussia Dortmund used as they won the Bundesliga last season.

Perhaps Wenger needs to take a leaf out of Klopp’s book for Arsenal to succeed.

Written by Vivek Arulnathan for Gunnersphere.com. Like what you read? Then follow me on Twitter – http://twitter.com/gunnerviv

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