GREECE FRIGHTENING
SPARTAN SPIRIT, BULGING BICEPS AND A CHEST THE SIZE OF A WARDROBE... ARSENAL HAVE A NEW DEFENSIVE ROCK
THE smile fades from the face of Sokratis Papastathopoulos and he assumes a more serious look. He then expresses the sentiments that every Arsenal supporter will be yearning to hear from their new centre half.
‘In football, the defender is there to defend,’ he says, sternly.
‘Of course, you have to know how to play with the ball, but in the last five or six years football has changed a lot. A lot of coaches and a lot of teams now look only how to play, not how to defend. I am here to show that I am, first of all, a defender.’
In modern football, the Greek is a rarity. Here is a throwback defender who extols the virtues of old-fashioned defensive play.
He takes pride in the tackle and exudes courage in the heat of battle. With Spartan spirit, bulging biceps and a chest the size of a wardrobe, this 30-year-old, 6ft 1in defender is an intimidating presence.
When he shakes your hand, you know about it.
First things first, he wishes to make clear his preferred name.
He appreciates that saying Papastathopoulos is a mouthful for team-mates and a 16-letter surname is a pricy option on the back of replica shirts for supporters.
‘We go with Sokratis,’ he grins. ‘It’s more easy for the fans.
‘Imagine if there’s a player on the pitch and he needs to shout, “Hey, Papastathopoulos, come right or left”. So they call me Papa or Sokratis.’
Arsenal’s flagship defensive signing of the summer, prised from Borussia Dortmund in an £18million deal, arrives with significant responsibility.
Arsenal’s defence is in urgent need of remedial work after Arsene Wenger’s final campaign saw the club concede 51 Premier League goals — 13 more than any other top-six side. In all competitions, Arsenal conceded a dismal 73 goals. The pressure on Sokratis is also enhanced as Laurent Koscielny is not expected to return until the new year, particularly with opening fixtures against Manchester City and Chelsea.
Sokratis says new manager Unai Emery’s early focus has been on the team’s defence.
‘Of course,’ he explains. ‘On the first day, the coach worked on this. All the players work on tactics with him. We look a lot of times at videos, what was wrong, what we have to do better.
‘With the new coach we work also on the situations when we don’t have the ball and this is very important. I think and hope that this year things at the back will be much better.’
Sokratis, along with 34-year-old full back Stephan Lichtsteiner, represents a change in Arsenal’s transfer strategy from the Wenger era, where they rarely signed any player 30 years of age or over. Arsenal’s head of recruitment Sven Mislintat and Emery seem keen to bring in experience and composure to the back line.
Sokratis is one of three exDortmund players who have been recruited by the German club’s former transfer guru Mislintat in this calendar year.
Both Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put work in behind the scenes to ensure the defender joined Arsenal. He is already popular within the squad and has a Greek song in mind for his initiation next week.
‘Auba and Mickey were important,’ he says. ‘For me it is like something more than friends. We were together in Borussia and they are both very good players. They were a good part of my decision to come here.
‘And I do think 30 is the best age for a defender. So for the next three or four years I give everything for the team.
‘Maybe this will be my last club outside of my country. I am here to help. With Borussia, with Milan, with Genoa, for 10 years now I have experience. I was at Dortmund with Jurgen Klopp.
‘He was a very good coach. It’s his mentality to win that stands out. He was very friendly with the players and I’m very happy that I had two years with him.
‘With all my experience, my work is also off the pitch to help all the young guys to be very good too.’
Sokratis, you sense, may be exactly what Arsenal’s fragile back line needs.
He watches videos of the great Paolo Maldini and he played with Alessandro Nesta at Milan.
He smiles when it is put to him that he can be like Arsenal defensive greats Martin Keown and Tony Adams.
He says: ‘In Italy I would watch Maldini, who was a great player. I played with Nesta together at Milan. That was one big school for me. Also with Thiago Silva.
‘These were great players to learn from. I like defenders who were first defenders. I have learned a lot and now I am ready to give what I know.’