It seems that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, more importantly, are going to take care of their defensive problems and are linked with a move for Valencia’s defender, Shkodran Mustafi. The German international has been one of the best players in the Spanish League and even for the German national squad and it comes be a time that Valencia cash in on their star player.
Mustafi though would have to probably replace another German in the side, Per Mertesacker and a pairing of Mustafi with that of Arsenal’s French defender Laurent Koscielny could be great for Arsenal over the coming years.
But just which player is the more aggressive defender and is willing to be a leader at the back? We look at the stats of both these players during their respective league campaigns from last season and come to a conclusion.
The per 90 minutes stat would be considered taking some help from Squawka.com
A German on the way to the Emirates
Passing from the back will always be a huge requirement for the Premier League team and Mustafi isn’t the worst when playing the ball out. The German had a pass completion of 81% last season but he was beaten to that by the French defender who notched up an 87% pass completion rate.
Koscielny also had a greater number of passes made per 90 minutes with 45.5 while Mustafi came in with 36.5. Mustafi though seems to be one who does not take things lying down and he won 1.71 tackles per 90 minutes for Valencia last season compared to 0.82 for Koscielny.
Not only that The Valencia star won 72.5% of his aerial battles every 90 minutes compared to just 64.4% for Koscielny. The German also intercepted the ball more every 90 minutes with 4.46 interceptions compared to 3.99 for Koscielny.
These stats just prove the fact that the Valencia defender actually was more aggressive than Koscielny but the French defender also has his stats which put him on top with 0.85 blocks per 90 minutes which is greater than Mustafi’s.
The Arsenal centre-back also came in with 6.14 clearances per 90 minutes compared to 5.64 for Mustafi, which again shows that he is willing to play a little deeper and clean up the mess that the Arsenal defenders do more often than not.
The stats show that a pairing of Mustafi and Koscielny would actually complement each other and that can only mean good things for the Gunners, should they actually close the deal.
There have been too many such transfer rumours linking Arsenal with big name players and it could be time for the Gunners to clinch a deal and ensure no more jokes are made on their lack of transfer activity in recent seasons.