Goonerred wrote:KG3 wrote:I find it funny that people comment on how bad Holding is and yet praise White, to me they have the same level of defensive ability, honestly if Ben white wasn’t good at passing and building from the back, can most of say you’d rate him highly or rate him at all?
I've never praised White or said he was bad, I'm giving him a chance.
So far he's done well - as part of a back 5 that has made us far more difficult to break down and far less prone to error.
It's a team game and the unit of the back 5 is a critical one within that team.
How good (or bad) he is as an individual matters far less than the collective.
If he's right for the role in that back 5 that Arteta wanted and it's working well with Gabriel and Tomiyasu either side of him (and Ramsdale behind him) then he's good and shares in the credit of the group.
I've seen the best defenders in the world look rubbish in games because collectively the back 5 was all over the place - and I've seen a back 5 of decent defenders (but not stars) be brilliant collectively.
You only need to look at our best defence ever of Dixon, Winterburn, Adams and Bould/Keown. None of them were individually brilliant. They operated as a unit with great understanding, superb character and great communication.
As for Holding? I think he's suffered in the past from playing in a back 5 that was simply all over the place and he looked awful. To his credit he's actually looked better on the occasions he has played this year, but still our defence doesn't look quite as good with him in it as compared to White and Gabriel in the middle. IMO that is because Gabriel is one tough SOB and his no BS approach works well with White's more ball playing approach. Holding doesn't offer the same balance when playing with White.