Considering Gibbs, Djourou, most of our other young defenders, I wouldn't be massively enthusiastic about it, our younger defenders are pretty awful. Who has a clue if he'll do well, his job isn't about organising defence, he's the assistant manager, maybe he'll help there, maybe he won't.
Some defenders turn into great attacking coaches, because they can tell a striker how to play against a defender, some defenders make great defensive coaches, some great defenders make awful coaches.
having a competant left and right back will do more for our defence than a new coach, but good coach and good players is the only way to a great defence.
What we lacked was a proper DM, Arteta was good but still not good enough, the fact that we barely won(but for the last game of the season) without Arteta as DM suggests we have no suitable backup. While I like Arteta and he's FAR better than Song there, its not his best position and we can certainly improve there, a new DM to cover the defence and organise the midfield, with Arteta/Wilshire alongside said new DM would give us an incredibly capable defensive midfield. Arteta/Wilshire both great at winning the ball, closing, and covering runs/blocking gaps, but great at going forwards as well
Look at Barca, overall not particularly good defence with only one player in Puyol who I'd call a top defender(and he missed a huge portion of the past 2 seasons), their defence comes from Xavi, Busquets, Fabregas/Iniesta being great defensively, with the attacking players also being awesome going forwards. Midfield is KEY to a great defence, and Song/Denilson/Ramsey/Theo/Gervinho are all basically rubbish at the defensive side of their game.
One specialised defensive player with a couple great attacking players who are also great defending would give our back four immense protection.
Priority would be DM, right back, left back at this point, we don't have an out and out DM in the squad, we need a top left and right back but money wise we spent big wages and a fee on Santos and likely can't get rid of him. DM though, Wenger said no to M'villa because "Diaby should be coming back and is first choice for France".... I'm not sure if he realises that M'villa is fairly defensive and Diaby is attrocious defensively or not, but I think that is going to screw our season, Wenger thinking Diaby will both play a part(he won't) and be good enough(he's not).
First proper preseason game today, however afaik Podolski and Giroud aren't with the team yet, and won't be ready for the start of the season probably. So thanks to Wenger's prannying around we'll likely start the season with Chamakh or Gervinho upfront, neither of which fill me with confidence. We really should try and get good value from the RVP deal by getting Berbatov in exchange, would be awesome, is a great player, is ready for the start of the season and good in this league. 15mil + Berbatov or something would be fantastic for us.
I doubt many people watched Indepeniente much. I'm not sure how you could call Forlan world class at that point either...
