International Scout Report: Per Mertesacker

With Per Mertesacker playing for Germany against Poland on Tuesday evening, The Arsenal Feed dispatched their finest scouts to a dodgy internet link streaming the match. Along with basic Korean commentating phrases, this is what they learnt.

Mertesacker started the game with little to, keeping it simple by passing to a nearby team mate as Germany exerted their authority on an inferior Polish side.

Per's first moment of note came after 17 minutes when a quick counter attack (something that Poland tried to launch regularly) threatened to catch him out given his well documented lack of pace. However he, in true Tony Adam-esque style, made up for this with brilliant reading of the game as he intercepted an attempted through ball.

The next 20 minutes or so were spent camped inside the Polish half, Mertesacker keept it very simple on the ball with his passing range being no more than 10 yards as his more technically gifted team mates searched for a breakthrough (it should be noted that Gotze was a constant thorn in the Polish side- his class clearly evident even in when far from his sparkling performance).

The Germans were caught in possession deep in their own half after 40 minutes however and would of found themselves a goal down had Per not made an excellent sliding interception to halt the Polish forward from finding himself clean through a distorted back line.

The tide was slowly turning slightly back into Poland's favour as, 43 minutes in, poor positioning from right back Trasch exposed Mertesackers lack of pace as a ball was threaded between the two. Fortunately for Trasch, Wiese was off his line quick to smother the shot as it left the Polish players feet. Per should be comforted in the knowledge that new defensive partner Sanga will be far better defensively and situations like this would rarely arise.

All in all Mertesacker walked into the changing rooms reflecting on a solid half. To be fair he had very little to do as Szczesny found himself the busiest player on the pitch, pulling off some fine saves.

54 minutes into the second half came Mertesacker's first mistake. Suspect positioning and a lack of pace allowed too much space in between the right back and him as Poland slipped a ball through the gap to put themselves 1-0 up.

However he made amends after 82mins when some brilliant reading of the game saw Mertesacker break from the defensive line to intercept a ball before rolling it off to a team mate to launch an attack. He continued his strong finish on 86 mins as he used all of his 6"6 frame to climb into the air to meet a pumped ball forward. Just what the doctor ordered for Arsenal.

In a game where he had little to do, Mertesacker done very well tonight. Although (in my opinion) not of Cahill quality, PM showed that he is more than capable to be a key player for Arsenal. The Polish played with a quick tempo, looking to counter with quick , creative players looking to make runs in and behind the defence so in theory were playing a system that should of shown up all his flaws and avoided his strengths (they rarely resorted to long balls or floated crosses). Despite this, the 76 time capped defender dealt with it and bar the 54th minute mistake played very well.



Match rating: 7/10