Arsenal To Target Centre-Back Who Completed 97% Of His Tackles

Arsene Wenger was adamant that he had three of the strongest centre-halves in European football last season, with Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny and Thomas Vermaelen in his backline. Fast forward a few months and it's all gone wrong. Vermaelen is yet to play a game as a result of injury, and Koscielny has had a remarkably poor opening few games, receiving a red card and conceded two penalties already. However, the Express believe that the Gunners are ready to go to loggerheads with Liverpool in order to secure a deal for Schalke centre-back Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

What Liverpool need with another central defender is beyond me, unless Martin Skrtel will complete his move to Napoli in January, as they already have Daniel Agger, Kolo Toure, Mamadou Sakho, Tiago Ilori, Andre Wisdom and the aforementioned Skrtel.

But should Arsenal sign him, then he and Mertesacker have the potential to be one of the best partnerships in the country.

Although the Greek defender played just 10 Bundesliga games last season due to injury, he averaged 10 defensive actions per game. He proved his ability with the ball at his feet by completing 89% of his passes, but he also won 83% of his personal duels, which is a staggering amount.

Looking deeper - 97% of his 37 tackles were won, 100% of his take ons went his way and from the 36 headers he went up for, he won 83% of them.

Oh, and did I mention that he's only 21?

Get him in Wenger.

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