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Arsenal star changing positions?

By Rucker Haringey

LONDON, ENGLAND - February 14: N'Golo Kante of Leicester City in action with Francis Coquelin of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Leicester City at Emirates Stadium on February 14, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - February 14: N'Golo Kante of Leicester City in action with Francis Coquelin of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Leicester City at Emirates Stadium on February 14, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images) /
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Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin may be poised to move to centre back to cover for the injured Per Mertesacker

It’s safe to say that Arsenal are in a bit of a panic over the injury to starting centre back Per Mertesacker. His extended absence might even disrupt the Gunners enough to cause midfielder Francis Coquelin to move backwards in Arsene Wenger’s starting 11.

The French midfielder set off a mild Twitter firestorm yesterday with his Snapchat declaration that he’s currently training at centre back. You don’t need to have the football acumen of Arsene Wenger to understand that his potential positional switch is an effort to cover for Per Mertesacker’s injury.

The German is set to miss significant time for Arsenal after suffering a preseason knee injury and the Gunners are scrambling to make contingency plans. Of course, Wenger’s first choice would be to purchase a quality centre back in the transfer market, but evidently he isn’t comfortable counting on just that.

As such, he’s teaching Coquelin the finer points of the back line just in case he needs to deploy him as Laurent Koscielny’s partner early next season. Coquelin has the defensive chops to hold up against most Premier League attackers, but that sort of positional move could have serious negative effects on the Arsenal midfield.

The purchase of Granit Xhaka was intended to provide real steel to the Gunners’ midfield, but he was purchased to partner with Coquelin. He isn’t ready to shoulder the entire defensive load for an entire Premier League season. If Coquelin is forced to play centre back, it could lead Arsenal to suffer from the same defensive midfield weakness the plagued the club at times last season.

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Coquelin was the bright spot in Wenger’s defensive midfield last season. He gave the club a real physical option in the middle of the pitch which freed up the Arsenal attackers to rush forward without a worry of tracking back. His performance was good enough to earn a Whoscored.com player average of 7.10 in 26 Premier League matches. At just 25 years of age, Arsenal would reasonably expect his performance to take another step forward this season.

Moving him to centre back may derail his development as a midfielder at a very crucial point in his career. He’s only got a few seasons left of his prime, and Arsenal need him to be at his best if they want to end their Premier League title drought. They could very well be taking an above-average defensive midfielder and turning him into a below-average centre back.

Arsenal fans should hope that Wenger’s foray into the transfer market for a centre back is successful. If it isn’t, it could cause the Gunners’ old defensive midfield weakness to haunt them once again.

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