Arsenal manager Unai Emery knows that his side is fragile at the back, with a few defenders who haven’t been at the peak of their powers, while captain Laurent Koscielny’s season was hampered by injuries and inconsistency. Just a few days ago, the Gunners were linked with Argentine defender Walter Kannemann, but following his injury, Emery may turn his attention to another player.
The Premier League side is rumoured to be interested in Roma defender Kostas Manolas, as per a report on Calciomercato. The 27-year-old central defender has been a key part of the Italian side over the last few seasons since joining them in 2014 for €15 million from Olympiacos. Manolas could link up with his Greek national teammate Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who currently plays for Arsenal since he joined them last summer.
But Arsenal have competition in the form of Serie A champions Juventus, who are also keen on signing the Greek central defender.
Will Manolas strengthen the Arsenal defence?
Manolas will be a big upgrade on the current defenders that Arsenal has in its ranks. He averages 1.9 interceptions in the Serie A this season while averaging an impressive 1.2 tackles per game. Manolas is a player with several qualities – from being aggressive and on the front foot while defending, and also possessing the ability to quickly close out counter-attacks with his pace. The 6’2″ central defender is physically strong with and without the ball.
Arsenal manager Unai Emery preferred Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi mostly in the Premier League but a formation used frequently with three at the back saw Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal also feature at the heart of the Gunners defence this campaign. Emery’s side finished 5th in the league, and while their attack scored bucketloads of goals, their defence let them down, conceding 51 goals in the season, which was 29 goals more than Liverpool, who conceded the least in the 2018-19 campaign.
Another issue with the Arsenal backline is that Monreal and Koscielny are both 33 years of age, while Sokratis is 30. It is true that defenders usually peak around the age of 28-30 but the form and inconsistency shown by the options available to Emery means that he cannot go into the new season with the same bunch of players. Rob Holding has looked a promising prospect, but an injury to him early in the season put him out of action.
Emery needs an experienced centre half who can marshall the defence and Manolas could rise up to the challenge if he does make the switch to the Gunners next season.