Arsenal get philosophical and sign Sokratis

“The only true wisdom consists of knowing that you know nothing.” – Socrates.

David Ornstein is reporting that Arsenal are set to announce the signing of Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of £16m. Arsenal are making this signing because he’s a senior player who is ready to step into the Arsenal first team and provide guidance for Arsenal’s center back protege Mavropanos.

Sokratis is coming to Arsenal off a horrible season at Borussia Dortmund where his team let in a collective 47 goals in just 34 league matches. That’s 1.4 goals allowed per match and the equivalent of letting in 53 goals in the Premier League. That’s two more goals than Arsenal let in this season!

Dortmund’s defense allowed the second most goals off counter attacks in the Bundesliga with 7 (Koln was first with 8) and as Sean Keyser described in his excellent post season defensive breakdown the main problems at Dortmund were the high defensive line, fullbacks pushing all the way up the pitch, and lack of midfielders to cover. Sean describes Dortmund’s 6-0 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich as the defenders “being hung out to dry” but gives respect to both Sokratis and Akanji for their performances in that match despite the lack of midfield.

The main problems at Arsenal last season were the high defensive line, lack of pressing, fullbacks pushing all the way up and lack of midfielders to cover. And the result of that was that often Arsenal’s defenders were hung out to dry. So, it’s safe to say that Sokratis already has vast experience playing football the Arsenal way.

Sokratis has never played a full league season in his last ten years of football. Last season he played just 39 full 90 equivalents (across all competitions) and the season before just 41. In fact, he has quite a long history of injuries throughout his career. No shit, he missed four days with “gastric problems” last season and the season prior he missed 9 matches with 8 different injuries. (Source: transfermarkt).

Sokratis is a June baby and will be 30 years old in just a few days. Per Mertesacker retired when he was 33. Koscielny will be 33 in September and Nacho will turn 33 in February. These are merely facts.

As for why the brain trust picked him over nearly any other footballer in the world, my guess is because his stats look pretty OK.

He was an 89% successful tackler last year, allowing just 8 dribbles to his 65 successful tackles. This is a much better stat than you think because the Bundesliga is a “dribble-happy” league. Also, remember above that he was often exposed at the back and that his team let in the 2nd most goals off counters. So, when he does tackle, he’s pretty successful at it. His tackling has been getting better every season and last season’s 89% was a career high.

He also won 67% of his aerial duels which is pretty standard for a center back. It will be interesting to see what his aerial duels win rate changes to when he comes to the Premier League. Mertesacker went from 74% in the Bundesliga to 68% in his first season at Arsenal. In his last real season at Arsenal (2015/16) Mertesacker climbed that number back up to 78%.

Sokratis is also a good short passer completing 93% of his short balls but a terrible long passer, completing just 43% of those last season. Mertesacker was also a 93% short passer and a 45% long passer. Koscielny was a 92% short passer last season but a 67% long passer. Mustafi is also a 42% long passer. I guess what I’m trying to say is that when Mustafi and Sokratis play together, at least we won’t have two center backs who can pick out long passes.

The really good news about Sokratis is that he had zero individual defensive errors last season. But that’s also perhaps because he isn’t a very “active” center back. He only had 30 interceptions and 25 blocked passes last season. This is compared to Koscielny who had 55 interceptions and 15 blocked passes and Mustafi who had 57 and 8. This aggressive attacking of passes in to the forwards was a feature of Wenger’s defensive scheme and his center backs typically led the League in interceptions per game. When Sokratis was at Werder Bremen he won 101 interceptions in 2011/12 and 73 in 2012/13. Of course, back then he was also in his early 20s.

He did, however, average 1.4 fouls per game last season. Koscielny averaged 0.6 fouls per game and Mustafi just 1 per game last season. That means Sokratis fouled almost as much as Koscielny and Mustafi combined! There could be a silver lining here in that he only received 5 yellow cards and 1 red card last season. He averaged nearly 2 fouls per game in 2016/17 but only picked up 2 yellow cards. That means that when he fouls he may be fouling at the right time to break up play.

Sokratis will be announced soon at Arsenal and at a reported £16m will eat up 1/3 of Arsenal’s “transfer warchest”. Jokes about his playing style and how he will fit in at Arsenal aside, I should give him a chance. Perhaps he will shine for us under our new coach.

As an added bonus, all of the Arsenal podcasters can call him “so-crates” using the Ted voice from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. A movie that was made back when Sokratis was just 1 years old. People can also now bust out the Socrates quotes, so in that regard this is an “Excellent” signing.

I can’t wait for the brain trust to sign the entire Borussia Dortmund team. Which sounds better? Borussia Arsenal or Arsenal Dortmund?

Qq

13 comments

  1. Aren’t we also linked with Soyuncu? It will be funny if him and Mavrapanos end up being our two future CBs. A Greek and Turk working together to defend a common cause? Pretty sure that’s going to a first and we will once again be hailed as pioneers.

  2. So the stats show that there’s a Sokratic method to his madness? Sorry.

    Happy with this signing. Not sure how he’ll get along with Mustafi as defensive partner because both seem similar enough in their madness. I think the plan might be to get Soyuncu (or even Benatia?) as well and sell Mustafi.

    Are we taking the 50m transfer warchest as fact? Wasn’t it reported it would be stretched to 70m? Anyway, doesn’t matter.

    I’m going to play fantasy transfers and come up with

    IN:
    Sokratis 15
    Soyuncu 35
    Torreira 20
    Leno 20

    OUT:
    Mustafi 20
    Ospina 5
    Sundry 10

    1. I don’t think it’s going to happen, the figures quoted are ridiculous, I mean 35m for a guy that played 26 games in a team that nearly got relegated. He’s maybe worth half of that, and definately not readymade to help us short-term.

      1. Depends on how much we like him and how high we think his ceiling is. This is a world where CBs like VVD cost 75m. Mustafi cost 35m and while most here say he was overpriced, I think that is roughly the going rate for young talented CBs.

        Soyuncu is younger than that and hence more of an unknown, but prices just keep rising. So, it’s possible.

        1. Mustafi is not as bad as everyone thinks he is, in as much as he can be awful but ‘better’ defenders have looked a lot worse in the Arsenal system.
          Actually having a defensive system (which looks to spread the ball wide and congest the centre) will make our defence a lot more secure.

          1. Disagree.
            Mustafi’s ‘stats’ are camouflage for an undisciplined, error-prone, and at times, uninspired defender.

            (If I were able? I’d have him diagnosed. From related professional and personal experiences? I would almost expect ADD or ADHD.)

            Two points about Mustafi.
            First, twice in 2.5 seasons his value has dropped by 20% per Transfermarkt. Buoyed by his £30M resale to Arsenal– or he’d likely be at the same valuation as Sokratis (£16M)– only Mustafi is 4 years younger.

            Second, Joachim Low has dropped him from Germany’s WC squad. He’s not featured for Germany since October 2017.

            A 24-to-26 year-old CB whose performances have worsening year-over-year for 3 years (with a 1/2-season exception upon arriving at Arsenal)? Whose value keeps dropping by large percentages? Who had been dropped by a WC winning manager?

            Sell him now.

            jw1

  3. Holy crap, the movie is that old?! Jeez.

    All I hope is that the Arsenal fans and the Arsenal team, regardless of we sign, be excellent to each other.

  4. as a dortmund fan, i can tell you that papastathopoulos is not the way forward. he can not make arsenal better. the bpl will be way too fast for him. his fouls, cautions, and sendings off will definitely increase and arsenal will concede more chances. this is almost as foolish a signing as paying £35 million for mustafi when valencia only wanted £16 million for him.

    please understand, that was my gripe with the mustafi signing. wenger was so silly in the transfer market that he paid more than twice what valencia even asked for because he dallied. apparently, wenger doesn’t have a good poker face.

  5. “Dortmund’s defense allowed the second most goals off counter attacks in the Bundesliga with 7 (Koln was first with 8) and as Sean Keyser described in his excellent post season defensive breakdown the main problems at Dortmund were the high defensive line, fullbacks pushing all the way up the pitch, and lack of midfielders to cover. Sean describes Dortmund’s 6-0 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich as the defenders “being hung out to dry” but gives respect to both Sokratis and Akanji for their performances in that match despite the lack of midfield.

    The main problems at Arsenal last season were the high defensive line, lack of pressing, fullbacks pushing all the way up and lack of midfielders to cover. And the result of that was that often Arsenal’s defenders were hung out to dry. So, it’s safe to say that Sokratis already has vast experience playing football the Arsenal way.”

    Brilliant writing sir!! Made me laugh so much …..

  6. Looking at the calebre of players we are bringing in thus far, to supoort an exciting new manager it seems either a)they are being cautious and sussing him out or b) realigned ambition to europa league, hopefully nick 4th

    Maybe a bit of both.

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