Graeme Souness is convinced that having Laurent Koscielny play against Liverpool on Sunday could have prevented a couple of goals and therefore Arsenal’s 4-3 loss.
The former Liverpool man was perplexed as to why the likes of Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud didn’t play in our Premier League opener. Although they’re still technically resting from Euro 2016, if they’re not injured, they should be on the pitch, or at least that’s what Souness and Thierry Henry reckon.
‘[Koscielny] is their best defender,” he said.
“He’ll organise those around him and maybe one or two of those goals they wouldn’t have been conceded.
“If there’s a position on the field where if someone is carrying a slight knock or is not quite fit, then the centre-back position is the one where you can get away with it.
“I would have played.”
Good for you?
Souness is right, Kos is our best centre-back by a mile and, you know what? Maybe we wouldn’t have lost if he’d been there. However, what if he had picked up an injury, just like Aaron Ramsey, because he was still to fatigued. Then where would we be? Without our best defender for weeks if not months longer than anticipated. I don’t like it but at least by resting him now, we’re minimising that risk.
Also, it’s easy to use our inexperienced defence as a scapegoat when there were issues all over the pitch, especially in the second half.