Shkodran Mustafi
Nationality: German Position: CB
Age: 24 Preferred Foot: Right
Weight: 161 lbs Height: 6′ 0″
For years Arsenal has had three gaping holes in their team that has stopped them from mounting a serious title challenge. Arsenal has been missing a centre-back, a defensive midfielder, and a striker. With the arrival of Granit Xhaka at the beginning of the transfer window Wenger stated his intent to fix these problems. And now Arsenal have signed Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez in a deal reported to be in excess of 52 million, finally addressing the problems in the Arsenal squad. At 24 years old Mustafi will be a wonderful signing for Arsenal. He is a proven centre-back who has been capped 12 times for Germany and has won the world cup with them. He joins from Valencia, spending 2 years with the La Liga club, featuring for them 78 times and scoring 6 goals.
Mustafi is a strong and athletic center back who is very comfortable on the ball, an important attribute to any Arsenal player. Mustafi is not afraid to make a tackle and frequently slides in for the ball. He reads the game incredibly well, making 226 interceptions in his 2 years with Valencia more than any other player in La Liga. In an interview with Arsenal, Mustafi explains how his previous experiences in England, Italy, and Spain have helped develop his playing style; he learned how to be an “aggressive player. [Who goes] into everything,” in England, a “tactical [player]. [Who tries] to read the game,” in Italy, and in Spain he learned how to “play out and enjoy having the ball, not just giving it away as soon as you get it.”
During the 15/16 season, only 5 players managed to make more interceptions then Mustafi, who made 133, and he made more tackles, clearances, blocks, and won more aerial duels than Diego Godin, Gerard Pique, and Sergio Ramos. But, Mustafi also managed to get more yellow cards than these three, picking up 14 yellow cards over the course of the season. Although Mustafi is not as prestigious as Godin, Pique or Ramos he more than holds his own when compared against some of the best centre-backs in the world.
Compared to Arsenal’s current centre-backs he is a major improvement. While Laurent Koscielny is one of the best centre-backs in the league, he has not had a world class centre-back to partner him that would enable Arsenal to form a formidable defence. Per Mertesacker is too slow to keep up with the pace of the Premier League anymore and Gabriel Paulista is too inconsistent to be counted on. The arrival of Mustafi will be a huge upgrade on Arsenal’s defense options, with Mustafi outclassing Mertesacker in every category except for passing accuracy and percentage of aerial duels won.
Although Mustafi is not as prestigious as Godin, Pique or Ramos he more than holds his own when compared against some of the best centre-backs in the world. While Mustafi is not cheap at 35 million, at the age of 24 Mustafi will have many years to improve his game and will surely prove to be a shrewd signing for the Gunners.
The Armoury 