Arsene Wenger Is Wrong and Must Target Top-Tier Defenders This Summer

Arsene Wenger has changed, perhaps not as a person but as a coach over the past two years. While the Frenchman still maintains his footballing principles, he has started to compromise somewhat—adapting to the uncomfortable truths of the modern game and the post-Invincibles era.

For instance, the club record £42.4 million signing of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid illustrated that Wenger was willing to pluck from the transfer market’s top shelf, despite his reluctance to do so in years gone by. The capture of Alexis Sanchez the year after underlined Arsenal’s elite status, which had been lost for quite some time.

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There has also been signs of tactical adaptation from Wenger, best demonstrated by the statement 2-0 win over Manchester City—when Arsenal arrived at the Etihad Stadium with a game plan and executed it perfectly. On more than one occasion, Wenger has been shrewd enough to counter opposition threats, rather than ignore them and naively look to crudely impose his own style on top-level teams.

Arsenal have made real progress over the past year, with the Gunners preparing for another FA Cup final and challenging City for the Premier League’s runners-up spot. Wenger has been vindicated in many of his assertions, which not so long ago drew widespread derision.

And so this could prove the most important summer in Wenger’s 19-year career as Arsenal manager. For the first time in a decade, the Gunners are primed for a sustained tilt at the Premier League title. But they need new recruits.

The Gunners’ front line is well stocked, as is their midfield—particularly following the unexpected emergence of Francis Coquelin as an exceptional central anchor. Some claim that Olivier Giroud, for all his undoubted improvement over the past two seasons, still isn’t good enough to lead a title-winning front line, but it is at the back where the north London club need to be strengthened.

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Despite their progress and development as a team this season, Arsenal remain defensively suspect. The Gunners have conceded just four more goals than recently crowned Premier League champions Chelsea this term, but Wenger’s side have lost too many of those goals in big games.

Even when fully fit, how many of the Arsenal back four—Nacho Monreal, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker and Mathieu Debuchy—would get into the Chelsea lineup, for instance? There might not be much between Monreal and Cesar Azpilicueta, but most probably not one.

However, Wenger doesn’t seem to recognise the need for better defenders. With the likes of Mats Hummels and Nicolas Otamendi reportedly on the market, the Frenchman should be going all out to secure the players he needs this summer. Going on his comments on the subject, he isn’t.

“Four is enough,” insisted Wenger when asked whether he would be adding to his defensive ranks this summer, as per Matt McGeehan of the Evening Standard. “[Mathieu] Debuchy can play there, [Nacho] Monreal can play there, so you can say we are not out to buy a central defender. And Gabriel will be a great central defender, believe me.”

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The faith placed in his players is both Wenger’s biggest strength and his greatest weakness. Sometimes it pays off—most notably in the case of Aaron Ramsey, Robin van Persie and, to a certain extent, Giroud. But it means Arsenal spend a lot of time waiting around for players to eventually turn good.

Wenger would be wasting the opportunity he and his players have created should he refuse to sign at least one top-tier defender this summer. Arsenal are a genuinely attractive proposition in the transfer market right now and must use that to their advantage. They cannot afford Manchester United and City—who will be very active this summer—to steal a march on them.

“It looks to me like they are on the market because every player I’m offered I’m told Man United are on the case,” said an exasperated Wenger when questioned over his potential transfer strategy this summer, as per Jonathan Green of the Daily Star.

“It looks like they are very active and you expect them to come back with some strong buys. They have already got a very, very strong squad and it is top quality already.”

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Competition for the top four places in the Premier League is so stiff that one poor summer of transfer business can significantly set a team back. Look at Liverpool, for example, who are still counting the cost of their shoddy transfer strategy in the post-Luis Suarez age. 

But it’s not just that Wenger needs defensive reinforcements but the right defensive reinforcements. Arsenal actually have depth at the back, however their first team—even when everyone is fit—isn’t strong enough. Some ruthless decisions need to be taken on the futures of Koscielny and Mertesacker, who simply aren’t good enough for the elite of the European game.

Too often Wenger makes signings on the basis of what players could be in the future, rather than what they are now. Calum Chambers, for instance, will likely be a Premier League starter in years to come, but is he experienced enough to be a first-teamer for a side at the top end of the league? Arsenal need players who can win titles now, not in years to come—when Wenger might not even be at the club.

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Arsenal need to improve their starting lineup, not their bench. The only way the Gunners can mount a serious Premier League challenge is by bolstering the team that is on the pitch, and Wenger must target players who can do that—Hummels, Otamendi and any other top-level defensive options on the market this summer.

Wenger deserves credit for the way he has taken on criticism over the past few years, changing himself as a football coach for the benefit of his team. But that’s to say that he should now return to his stubborn ways. He must recognise, as everyone tells him, that Arsenal need defensive reform.