Arsenal
Arsenal Drop Draws Wenger Lives in Past Don't Blame Players
Passion of Arsene
By Boris Mellor
April 24 2011
An unbeaten run finally ended at Bolton, and with it any pretence, and it was a pretence, that Arsenal were in the title race. The problem with the 16 game unbeaten run is that it mostly consisted of draws. As the number of wins became less and less it was obvious that defeat was just around the corner.
At this stage last year, on 34 games Arsenal had 71 points, now the Gunners have 7 points less and have conceded the same number of goals, 36, but scored nine less goals. Whether Wenger is delusional or not is open to debate, but his claims that his defence has improved is not vindicated by any evidence. Nor is his attack delivering more goals.
Nor does the number of points garnered show any increase, so it’s hard to know what his evidence of improvement is. Last year the Gunners finished 3rd, and now they will be hard pressed to equal that this season. The team has not finished second for 5 years, won a trophy for 6, or the league for seven.
Yet Wenger kept telling us that 2nd was better than a trophy, like a kid at a pantomime I have been yelling behind you, but the professor has failed to see Chelsea creeping up on the rail. He has been claiming second long before the season has finished, his claim has come back to bite him on the backside.
Yes he has achieved great things, there is no doubt about that, but if he doesn’t make a serious change in his philosophy for next season he will tarnish his own legacy.
Don’t blame the players
I don’t think a lack of effort was the cause of this defeat, I don’t think the team gave up. There have been games where the team didn’t give enough, but this wasn’t one of them. Yes there were problems in the defence, but Wenger chose and trained that defence. Meanwhile the attack, all too predictably, got ensnared in Bolton’s crowded midfield and defence.
Wenger picked the team, and he chose the team, the buck has to stop with him.
Exercise in futility
Wenger thinks tactics are little white peppermint things in a plastic box, Owen Coyle knows they are not. With a lesser team and budget he frustrated Arsenal’s attack again and again. They pushed Arsenal into the middle and made it difficult for Arsenal to shoot. It’s ok shouting shoot from the comfort of an armchair, but the reality is that Bolton didn’t allow Arsenal the opportunity to shoot that often.
We have seen this happen at home lots of times, now we see it away as Bolton parked the bus for long periods and then snatched the late winner, we could all see it coming, apart from Arsene Wenger, like a Greek tragedy we sat waiting for the inevitable coup de grace.
Wenger Living in Past
No doubt Wenger will blame Bolton for having the nerve to defend, or the referee, who got two major penalty decisions wrong, but that is not the real cause of Arsenal dropping out of the title race.
The real reason is that Wenger refuses to admit that teams have sussed his tactics, yes they worked 6 years ago, and they work now and then, but they do not work consistently enough to win trophies. He has inbred a generation of footballers to play his style of game. A game that devalues defending, and elevates attacking, but only attacking of a certain kind. It might work for Barcelona, but Arsenal don’t have Barcelona quality players.
Either Wenger acquires higher quality players, or he changes his tactics; because unfortunately if he doesn’t then we will see Arsenal fall at the final hurdle, like they did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that. Unless he changes his policy, the team will fail next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and the year after that.
Stagnation will not deliver in the end
Some fans believe that this groundhog day strategy will deliver CL football year after year, and most importantly it will also bring financial security. They might be right on the first, though I doubt it, but on the second they are wrong. People will not pay the highest prices in world football for ever, to see a team finish third or fourth forever. It is tedious and predictable. Arsenal are only in third place because the top teams have been so poor this year.
To quote from an article on former director Edelman’s view that Wenger is missing the encouragement of Dein: “Dein, who remains a close friend of Wenger, would never criticise him but his mantra was always to get a winning team first and let that drive the finances.”
It seems to me that Wenger has lost sight of that dynamic, either he gets players good enough to play Barcelona style football, or he gets tactics that suit the personnel he has. Meanwhile finance drives the team, and that undermines the winning.
At the moment, if you want to win trophies, he is failing. If you are not bothered by trophies then that’s fine, but it also follows that the players should not be blamed for that failure. The blame lies with the manager alone. However, backing a team not to win trophies will damage the finances as fans vote with their feet. In the end stagnation will not deliver CL football or financial success.
Wenger’s strategy is the labour of Sisyphus the Greek prince who was condemned by the gods to roll a huge boulder up a steep hill, but before he could reach the top of the hill, the rock would always roll back down, forcing him to begin again. The maddening nature of the punishment was reserved for Sisyphus due to his hubristic belief that his cleverness surpassed that of Zeus.
We can now see the
hubris, or even tragedy, of Wenger during every match as he nearly manages to
push his team to the top, and then has to watch it roll back down again. Wenger
may have to continue his suffering until he realises that some of his critics
might just have a point. Meanwhile talk of title hopes remaining slim are
another conceit. The term he should use is fat, not slim.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011:04:27:19:08:27 by Padre Pio.
a great EASTER BUNNY FROM ARSENAL.... WENGER HAS GOT TO OWN UP THAT HE HAS BEEN PLAYING MIND GAMES WITH FANS.. AS LONG AS THINGS ARE PRETTY COOL OFF THE PITCH TO HELL WITH THE REST...HE ONCE TOLD US ENTERTAINING FANS IS ALL THAT MATTERS....WELL WE AIN'T ENTERTAINED.... AT THE RATE WE ARE GOING THE CL SPOT IS FAST FADING AWAY & UTD IS LOOMING.. ARE WE TO EXPECT A BASHING AT THE EMIRATES????
THIS PICTURE SUMS IT ALL
bet he is wondering how wenger talked him into staying...
wenger needs to finally put a nail to the coffin of his stupid obsession & get this team back on track..no team fears arsenal...even when we score 4 goals, teams are no more afraid to come harder cos he can get a point or better still get the maximum points.
Can We Now Trust The Process 🤔🤷🏿♀️ or Should We Still Remain Cautious 🙇🏿♀️
so padre you are right that wenger should get the blame, but you are wrong that he should get it all, the board clearly have not stumped up the money needed to buy the quality required, yes wenger is to blame for trying to play tactics that these players are not either suited to or able to perform consistantly enough.
Some are saying wenger should tell the fans the truth about how much or how little he has been hamstrung over the transfer budget, but he can not do this as the board are his employers, the fans need to protest against the board, demand the answers from them, and if they say they have given wenger a much bigger budget than he spends then they need to answer as to why they have not sacked him.
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
When any coach says "dont blame the players" you know it's time to blame the players and today and this week is no different.
Not sure if you saw much of the sunderland game yesterday but they were in a similar situation where they just could not see where a goal was coming from and grant leadbetter stepped up made a chance himself and smashed it in.
Not saying we need him, but we need a player in times like that to say "If you dont give me the ball i'll take it from you, because I'm winning this match.
What this match and this week has exposed is that the team lacks heart.
My feeling is that there's not enough criticism in the dressing room from the manager. If Nasri takes a shot and misses, he gets hammered by the fans, if he doesnt another player takes the shot and they get hammered by the fans and Nasri gets away scott free.
In a great team the manager says to Nasri, why the f*ck didnt you shoot when you were in the better position you useless sack of sh*t, i hope you like the subs bench. In our team the manager says never mind, lets learn for next time.
I know this might grate with the bleeding heart liberals but I think one of the reasons we struggle is because we have a lot of French players. French players generally have great technique but are characteristically temperamental (Henry, Gallas, Petit, Nasri), even Ferguson said that he did not hair dryer Cantona because you knew the response would be him sulking.
The manager needs to be able to b*llock the players and have them come back and say i'm going to try harder next time. Unfortunately this is not how our manager manages and thus i dont think resilience is a credential of character he rates particularly highly when scouting for new recruits.
Resilience doesnt mean we need a team of English players with bulldogs tatooed on their chests and St George Crosses carved into their arms, we have that kind of spirit in Vermaelen who we have missed immensely this season but he can only do so much.
My challenge would be to Arsene, you picked Tommy up and recognised his winning qualities, now go find 3 more with his kind of spirit.
Easier said than done?
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
There should be an ethos of "the goal at both ends is your responsibility" you see a chance, shoot, you see a danger you take care of it.
So it's Wenger who's solely to blame and not just blame but if he's man enough should take the responsibility and quit with his legacy still intact.
I've seen plenty of football across the continent and players, teams, managers and can say one thing the problem what we see today isn't started yesterday and it's accumulated over years.
I strongly feel, any kind of big budget or even a major overhauling of the team under Wenger has more chances of failing than any sort of success. It will be too risky to spend money under Wenger as the problem is much deeper than what's presumed.
1) Wenger has systematically removed the experienced players within a short period of time which many will say they went on their own and tried to do a dream project with a bunch of kids not having them a chance to grow with senior players.
This kind of projects hardly become a success and if it becomes you need an extremely hard working and football focused coach and a very talented team of coaching staff who used to be world class footballers themselves.
2) Wenger was obsessed with a football brand which Arsenal fans call Wenger ball and which was built on some extra ordinary players but sorry to say not on any ground breaking football concept/formation like Fluid formation or anything extra ordinary.
3) Wenger has never have any focus on tactical changes in football match and failed to identify the core players who could carry out the tactical switches in a match.
These are major technical flaw in terms of coaching..his character doesn't accept changes or allow adaptability to changes.
So what I could conclude is Wenger could be safer of a manager if club or the fans decide to continue the same path and hope for the best or miracle and still possibly be in top 4 for next couple of seasons..otherwise, you need a change in Wenger's place to expect some real change.
** Another way probably, keeping him still as some form of position but slowly fazing him out..but not keeping him in place as manager and overhauling and spending..
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
Wenger never had a problem spending money on the right players, the difference between now and when he first came to Arsenal is that the players that improve teams can no longer be picked up for 12m its more like 30m in todays market and its the board blocking these transfers I'm convinced of that.
It is the board and always has been, they see an opportunity to sit on the 100's of millions that we the fans pump into the club and instead of buying the right players they are looking for the right yachet, the right pony for Charlotte, the right mansion overlooking Monaco etc etc and why ? We accept it thats why, we blame Wenger thats why and it suits them down to the ground.
I feel so sorry for Arsene when he is asked about activity in the transfer market or the horrible lack thereof, what is he going to do, tell the truth ?!
The truth is that the cash absolutely is there, it must be unless we are secretly funding NASA and the fact is that it is the board and not Wenger who are to be rightly be blamed because I refuse to believe that players like Villa and Aguerro do not interest Arsene.
Its a nonsense just like when correspondents in the newspapers on radio and tv try to convince us that we were not royally fukt by the banks and the government and that the situation we find ourselves in is our fault.
Its like when the state spokesman try to convince us that the people are to blame for global warming and not ruthless psychotic corporations and governments who have benefited from the pillage, rape and destruction of our once natural environment, no its not them its Rita and Bob not putting their Tv's on standby.
Its like when they tell you that those white lines strafed across the sky have always been there and a merely contrails from high flying jets and are not full of refined Aluminium just look at the facts and then decide and the facts are that no matter where you look the people are being fukt and will continue to be fukt unless we get proactive.
Anyone who calls this a "conspiracy theory" in the face of all the facts proves the final point I made in the post before beautifully !
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