Laurent Koscielny

[Cripps_orig]

Arsène Wenger insists there is more to come from Laurent Koscielny following his “immense” performance against Borussia Dortmund in midweek.

The French defender has taken responsibility as Arsenal’s defensive leader in the absence of Thomas Vermaelen and turned in a near-faultless display to help his side to a battling draw in Germany on Tuesday.

After quickly becoming the Club’s first-choice centre back and making 43 appearances last term, it is all too easy to forget that Koscielny is only embarking on his second season in the Premier League.

His growing maturity has been evident since his move from Lorient last summer and Wenger believes Koscielny has all the makings of an outstanding central defender.

“The fact that he has such a short experience at the top level makes his improvement potential bigger,” the manager told Arsenal.com. “I believe he will be a great central defender.

“I have always thought there is a massive potential in this player. That is why he has already grown this season and I felt in the last 20 minutes he was immense against Dortmund.

“He keeps things simple, he is quick and he reads [the game] well. Like every central defender who comes to England, he was surprised by the intensity of the game but he has adjusted now and adapted.”

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-arc...ter-and-better



Has either Wenger or Arsenal website ever seen Koscielny play? Immense v Dortmund would suggest no

[Flavs]

Like song he is a man of 2 half's. Shite in the first and awesome in the second.

And as Arseblog says he looks like an early drawing of Bart Simpson.

[fakeyank]

Like song he is a man of 2 half's. Shite in the first and awesome in the second.

And as Arseblog says he looks like an early drawing of Bart Simpson.

Agree about the 2 halfs there.. he was fuckin clueless in the first half and was the most dangerous player for Dortmund! 2nd half, he cleaned up his act and did a solid job.

[Cripps_orig]

Theres always a mistake in him and at 26, i doubt he'll improve much.

Sooner the Verm is back, the better

[Joker]

Don't rate him tbh. Looks a bombscare who's capable of a mistake at any moment.

[alexander]

this is just wenger building him up.

he is pretty shit tbh.

[Darth Vela]

Bizarrely it was his distribution that was so bad in the first half, usually he doesn't give it away much at all but in the second half he showed what a good defender he is when he isn't paired with a clown at CB, looks like he's going to take the brunt of a lot of the criticism this season, warranted or not.

[Cripps_orig]

Tbf, every critisism hes had from the day he joined us til now has been warranted cos well hes a bit shit

[7sam]

Its only when he is paired with Djouro or Scitchy shits happens, I partly agree with Arsene and think that if he put on some good performances such as Barca's retrun leg he would great to watch... Well, its his second season and I think this is his year to show his true quality.

[Marc Overmars]

The biggest problem is that we never seem able to keep the same CB pairing together for an extended run. The amount of injuries we get there means Djourou who is probably 4th choice now, will probably play as much as the first choice Vermaelen.

Frustrating.