Defensive midfielder

Unfortunately he is positionally inept and often finds himself in the wrong position to defend as part of a team
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So why put him in defensive mid, probably the most positionally strict position apart from CB ?

I get your point though, we need someone sitting in that hole, chasing the ball around in our third. Arteta's lame attempts are not good enough.

I would say Mertesacker is a far better one-on-one defender and Koscielny is also better than TV.

Vermaelen dives in way too much, over commits himself and, a fact you point out, he has poor positional sense. Plus an over eagerness to get forward as a CB suggests he will lack restraint as a DM.
None of which indicates an ideal candidate for a DM.

As a defensive midfielder his mistakes can still be covered by the back four as opposed to being direct on goal and costing us? Chasing the ball around, as you so aptly put it would suit him well.

As a defensive midfielder his mistakes can still be covered by the back four as opposed to being direct on goal and costing us?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is true, but I think he likes going forward to much to play this role. If Wenger could get him to stay in his own half regardless of what's going on then he might be OK, but probably no better than Frimpong or Coquelin.

For my money Vermaelan is the best one to one defender we have,
------------------

hes the worst defender we have.

We need a proper CDM. Why the hell did we sell Song

We sold Song because he was even more positionally inept than Wermalelan, he had no discipline at all. You only had to look at the bench shouting at him as a good guide. I still say 1 to 1 defending he would be fine in CDM

So why put him in defensive mid, probably the most positionally strict position apart from CB

I remember when Everton had Slaven Bilic, and they pushed him into midfield. It didn't work he was sh-it.