Speaking on The Stand with Eamon Dunphy, John Giles has been discussing Arsenal’s squad and Gabriel Magalhaes.
The Gunners are sitting pretty at the top of the league having only dropped five points all season, and yet, there are still some holes being picked within this squad.
Giles has admitted that Arsenal are a brilliant all-round team, but he did state that he’s not too sure about Gabriel, labelling the South American defender as a ‘liability’ claiming that the defender is often far too aggressive and can give goals away.
GABRIEL SLAMMED
Giles gave his, rather harsh, verdict on Gabriel.
“They’re a good all-round team, the only one is Gabriel. I always think he’s a bit of a liability, he’s too aggressive at times, he gets into trouble and he gives goals away, but in terms of the overall team, the young players have come on well and Mikel Arteta has done a huge job there,” Giles said
NOT QUITE MUSTAFI
Let’s be real here, Gabriel isn’t that bad.
Is he as good as William Saliba? Probably not, but Arsenal fans know what a liability of a defender looks like, and Gabriel isn’t it.
The likes of Philippe Senderos, Shkodran Mustafi and Sebastien Squillaci – those have been the liabilities in Arsenal’s defence in recent years, not Gabriel.
Yes, he can be rash and he can have the odd shaky moment, but he’s not going to cost Arsenal long-term.
There’s a reason Arsenal are top of the table with Gabriel in their defence and that’s because he’s a very competent defender.
Teams have won Premier League titles before while relying on defenders worse than Gabriel and while that could be seen as an area for improvement for Arsenal, it’s not necessarily the most pressing matter.
