Per Mertesacker hails the excellent Laurent Koscielny…
Arsenal’s giant German centre-half Per Mertesacker has praised his defensive partner Laurent Kocielny ahead of this weekend’s crunch tie with Liverpool, the Mirror reports.
The Gunners have not lost a match since January 2012 when the pair have completed the 90 minutes together, and their partnership is widely regarded as the very best in the league right now.
Mertesacker stands at 6 ft. 6″, while Koscielny is fast and mobile, and more comfortable carrying the ball out of defence.
The German 29-year-old believes the differences between the who complement each other well.
“In this case I would say we have different qualities. One is more mobile, one has more height,” said Mertesacker.
“It fits absolutely well together because these days the centre backs are not just tall and just have to deal with long balls.
“I’ve played with many good centre backs with different qualities. But Laurent, he’s one of the quickest players I’ve ever played with, one of the most mobile players, and he anticipates a lot of balls well so he has real strengths to be a good partner.”
The Gunners have the second best defensive record in the Premier League, and take on Liverpool at the weekend, with both centre-backs needing to be at their best to deal with the threat of the ‘SAS’: Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.
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