Summer Targets: Lukasz Piszczek

Today I am going to look at another one of our potential summer targets, Lukasz Piszczek. Over the weekend it was speculated that the Polish full back could be set to join the summer exodus from Dortmund, with players such as Mario Gotze and Lewandowski apparently already on their way. Given that Bacary Sagna's future is so uncertain a move to Arsenal does seem a possibility for Piszczek; although I have no doubt that there will be a host of clubs chasing the flying right back.

I personally would love to see Piszczek join our club. Since Ashley Cole left we have never really had a full back with genuine attacking ability. This used to be such a crucial aspect of our game, as the overlapping full backs would provide the width needed to stretch the opposition's back four. Without these overlapping full backs we have the tendency to get very narrow, making the job of breaking down the opposition all the more harder.

Bacary Sagna is undeniably a great defensive full back, the fact he has been in the PFA Team of the Year on two occasions highlights this point. However going forward he is just woeful. Countless times he fails to beat the first man when he finds himself in attacking positions. He just looks uncomfortable in those dangerous areas, its as though he gets nose bleed as soon as he crosses the halfway line.

Piszczek on the other hand is quite the opposite.

The Dortmund star loves to bomb forward, indeed his link up play on the right with Jakub Blaszczykowski this season has been superb. His overlapping runs cause defences all sorts of problems and this is mainly down to the fact that he is very rarely tracked. With many sides now playing a 4-2-3-1 formation it is the responsibly of one of the '3' to track the full back. However these '3' are normally made up of so called luxury players, the Oscar/Ozil/Hazard's of this world, and getting these men to track the full back can be difficult. For that reason Piszczek has been lethal for Dortmund in his rampaging runs forward.

While I would undoubtedly love him to join, Piszczek's arrival does by no means have to spell the end of Bacary Sagna. Bac has shown himself to be a great servant to the club following his arrival in the summer of 2007. I feel that due to his ageing years it is time for him to move to centre half. Against Sunderland he showed how effective he could be in this position and for this reason I would make him one of our four centre halves and save ourselves the hassle of buying another one.

This shift from full back to centre half is quite common among ageing full backs, just look like at Lillian Thuram and Eric Abidal. Both were amazing full backs, world class without question. However as they progressed in years they shifted infield and adapted their games to ensure that they prolonged their career at the top level. I would love Wenger to do the same with Bac and I think it'd be an experiment that would work.

So that would be my summer defensive plans. Bring in Piszczek as our new first choice right back and make Bac one of the four centre halves.

What do you guys think?

Thoughts and views welcome, tweet me at @goonerworld365,

Come on you Gooners!