Saturday 1 May 2010

We could do worse than Hangeland

Watching Roy Hodgson's magnificent Fulham side dispose of Hamburg on Thursday night, I took a brief peek at Brede Hangeland and he did not disappoint. In all honesty I have not seen enough of him to give a definitive judgement, but there is no doubt that he does possess some of the ingredients that we lack at the back.

He leads the team, he talks, he is commanding in the air and he dominates. Physically he is powerful and will not often be out muscled. He knows the Premier League and he has done well at a European level. He passes the ball very nicely for a big man. He may not have the speed of some but you can't have it all, very few 6 foot 5 centre backs have lightning pace, but he is certainly no slouch. Of course he'd occasionally be skinned by the trickiest players, but frankly which centre back isn't?

Hangeland and Vermaelen could be a very very decent combination. Hangeland is also in his prime, he is 28 and will improve into his early thirties, he is also experienced. The word on the street suggest that if Arsene were to move for Mr Hangeland, he would be keen to come to the Arsenal, I would suggest that this could be a very decent move for both parties.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hangeland would be awesome at Arsenal. Buy him even if we have summer.

Anonymous said...

Gallas

1979gooner said...

Gallas?

He looks likely to leave and I don't think he complements Vermaelen that well.

Anonymous said...

Oh no

He may be suitable for Fulham but we need a defender who can play ball

Yes this tower of a Norwegian farmer could help us in the air but he does not have the pace nor technical skills to be at Arsenal

Unknown said...

If Wenger was gonna buy Hangeland he would have done it last summer.He got a good look and didn't like what he saw. He had the money. BTW, I do think Brede is exactly what we need. I just don't see it happening.But yes, we need some steel badly

Harris1985 said...

We need Steel!! Some dirty def who loves a tackle