UK Edition
Unai Emery leaps to Shkodran Mustafi's defence after barrage of criticism aimed at Arsenal defender
Unai Emery has launched an impassioned defence of Shkodran Mustafi after the Arsenal defender faced a barrage of criticism for his role in Sunday’s loss to Crystal Palace.
The Arsenal head coach insisted that Mustafi has the required quality to play for his team and said that the error for Palace’s second goal, when Wilfried Zaha was allowed a free run at goal, was a tactical mistake rather than an individual blunder.
Mustafi has consistently failed to convince since his £35m move from Valencia in 2016, and Arsenal have tried in previous summers to move the German on. Emery said the 27-year-old must learn to stop diving to the ground when he is defending but made clear that the club will “need him” for the rest of the season.
In a wide-ranging answer that lasted well over four minutes, Emery said the defender needs to improve his defensive decision-making and be “clever” about when he should go to ground. The Spaniard said Mustafi becomes the defining image of a match if he loses a challenge.
“I want to protect the players,” Emery said. “Mustafi is a very good player, a very good centre-back. He has the habit of doing a tackle and going to ground, using his anticipation against the opposition.
“He can win one [tackle], win two, win three, win four - but if he loses one he is the picture and if we concede a goal he is the big picture. I have spoken to him: ‘you are young, you can improve and you need to work hard because you have a big quality for a centre-back.’
“For example, against Watford, he was the best of all the players, he won all the balls in the air with his head and that is a very good statistic for him. On Sunday against Christian Benteke it is more difficult to win every ball in the air but it was 50-50.”
Emery, whose side face Wolves on Wednesday in another crucial match in the race for the top four, said Mustafi is better suited to a three-man central defence because there is more protection when he dives into tackles.
“When we use three centre backs, we protect them more,” Emery said. “You can anticipate, and you can lose one [tackle] but we have two who are covering. When we have only two, if you lose the anticipation, there is only one behind. That is happening a lot with Mustafi, but I want him to not do the tackle on the ground every time.
“You have to be clever in your mind about what is the moment to go [to ground] and what is not the moment, but that is part of the process.
“He is young, he is improving and Sunday he is in the big picture because of the second goal. But it's not his mistake. The mistake was tactical because we need to protect him with two centre-backs against Zaha. I protect him because I believe in him.”