Forget Mertesacker – Why This German Tank Would Be The Perfect Partner For Koscielny At Arsenal

The biggest news to come out of the Bundesliga is not the fact that Bayern Munich are to take on Atletico Madrid in the Champions League but the fact that Mats Hummels might be willing to leave his beloved Borussia Dortmund club at the end of the season.

The 27-year-old, who has been a mainstay for the side since the days of Jurgen Klopp was actually on the books of Bayern Munich before making it big on the Dortmund side. A host of clubs will now be chasing the signature of the extremely talented German but there should be another club trying to land him.

Arsenal are one club that needs a lot of steel in defence. Ever since the days of Sol Campbell leaving the club, the London side have not been able to bring in someone who can be as commanding as the English defender.

Laurent Koscielny might be a great defender on his own but he needs someone to step up and on the days the French centre-back goes missing and who is better than the German tank to fill the void.

Hummels is known for his no-nonsense defending and this shows when we look at the stats using Squawka.com. The 27-year-old German defender from the Bundesliga has 1.79 tackles per 90 minutes in the German league this season.

Compare this with Laurent Koscielny who comes in with just 0.87 tackles won and 1.04 for Per Mertesacker this season in the league and you can see just how much better Mats is with this skillset. Even when it comes to aerial duels, he is miles ahead of Koscielny.

Hummels wins 71% of all his aerial battles while Koscielny only manages a success rate of 62%. Mertesacker, however, leads this stat with a staggering 78% success rate. The Borussia Dortmund defender also is great at interceptions with 3.04 every 90 minutes but it is Koscielny who leads this stat with 3.98 interceptions per 90. Mertesacker struggles in this facet of the game with just 1.58 interceptions per 90.

All in all, Wenger does need to plan for the future as well, while he has brought in quality in the goalkeeping department this season and in the attack with the likes of Petr Cech, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, the side has missed proper leadership in defence and Hummels is someone who can provide bag loads of that.

Arsenal does not really have someone who can step up in case Koscielny goes missing, Calum Chamber and Gabriel don’t really provide a lot of confidence to the side. Arsene should be looking at Hummels to not only fix a leaky defence but also ensure that they have quality for a number of years to come, time to break the bank again next season.