Analysing the strengths and weaknesses of each Arsenal Centre Back

#4 Rob Holding

Holding playing out from the back

Strengths: Holding is a good passer of the ball and wins his fair share of headers. He has enormous potential and belongs to the breed of ball-playing centre backs. With age on his side, he can develop into one of Arsenal’s premier centre backs in the years to come.Rob Holding is an exciting English defender who was signed from Bolton Wanderers a few seasons back. While his compatriot John Stones has gone on to cement his place at Manchester City, Holding has been unable to hold down a place at the Emirates. With Koscielny out with injury, Holding could be thrown straight into the mix.

Weakness: Lacks pace and gets caught out of position too often, like Mustafi. He also faces problems against dazzling dribblers as he gets too tight to them, only to get beaten. Sadio Mane in 2016 and more recently Correa exposed that deficiency. Though he is good on the ball, he sometimes overplays and puts his team in trouble.

Rob Holding is far from being the finished article. However, he would hope that Emery can help him develop quicker than he did under Arsene. At present, he is the only fit left-sided centre back. Hence, one can expect opportunities to come his way.