Why This German (Not Khedira) Can Fix Arsenal’s Midfield Problems

Arsenal or rather Arsene Wenger has a major problem that he seems to overlook and has overlooked constantly for the past 3-4 seasons. The Frenchman may be bringing regular Champions League football to the London club but his Arsenal team suffer from being very soft in the middle like a gooey doughnut, shiny glazing on the outside but a soft, runny inside which is always lapped up, easily.

Wenger has never replaced the likes of Vieira and Petit which has had a lot of Arsenal fans tearing their hair out, even pundits have been baffled as to why Arsene does not replace one of the major weaknesses of his team, something which can actually make Arsenal serious title contenders rather than the joker in the pack, every season.

The likes of Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini have been tried in midfield with some average amount of success, still the Arsenal midfield does not have that steel that can be provided by a proper defensive midfielder or a destroyer. Abou Diaby, the perennially injured player has more chance of retiring from Arsenal having played more minutes on his Playstation than on the field, so bringing him into this debate is as futile as trying to buy Cristiano Ronaldo when you are a Football League Two club.

The answer lies in Germany

Arsenal have been tracking a German world cup winner, who is the answer to all their defensive issues. They have been tracking the player for a while and he did feature in the final and no it is not Sami Khedira.

The Real Madrid player might be staying in Madrid a bit longer due to Luca Modric’s injury; the other German who can do the job for Arsenal is Borussia Monchengladbach’s Christoph Kramer. Kramer did not have the best of World Cup Finals, doubt he remembers much from that game but he has risen fast in the ranks in the Bundesliga and has been on the radar for a lot of clubs.

Currently on loan at Monchengladbach from Bayer Leverkusen, Kramer’s contract ends in June 2015 and he could be the perfect midfielder for Arsenal to cure their defensive problems.

Kramer averages 3 interceptions per game for Monchengladbach which is just a little more than Flamini who averages 2.6 per game. Kramer also wins more tackles on average per game at 2.27 compared to Flamini’s 2 per game. Kramer also wins close to half his duels in a game while Flamini is just a little below 50% and Kramer has 0 defensive errors this season when compared to the Frenchman. (All stats from Squawka.com)

More importantly Kramer is only 23 years old and will have time to grow and hone his skills while Flamini at 30 is entering the twilight of his career, the German is priced around £20 million and signing him has to be one of Arsene Wenger’s priorities to fix his weak midfield.