Criticism of Arsenal has to start with the Manager
S0 here we are, yet another disheartening Champion’s League performance. It featured all the aspects of Arsenal’s maddening antics. A lack of understanding of the occasion and urgency for which the match should’ve been approached combined with a second half of wide open frenetic, football and poor defending that tossed any hope completely away.
As you can imagine with any Arsenal performance these days the reactions were varied. They ranged from distraught, pure visceral anger, thoughtful reflection and everything in between. Of course as you can imagine the blame game has started in earnest.
It’s quite easy to get caught up in it all. You can start with the board, the manager or the players and for every aspect you lay waste to, there is an equally effective argument as to why said argument is invalidated.
However, as I look at Arsenal, I am unimpressed. It is, I am afraid, a sad thing to say. Arsenal have always been the higher standard in England. Whether it was the business side of football or the playing side of football we always were better than the rest. Those standards no longer look to be a blessing. Financially, we have improved ourselves but when a couple of signings would’ve made Arsenal surefire title contenders, we sat on our hands and did little with our new found financial abilities.
Arsenal is about challenging for titles – yes, there is a storied history of the club and we are all proud of it. However, sport is about one thing – winning. We didn’t take the chance to lock down our challenge and only time will tell if it was the right course of action. Then, on the field, our trademarked tiki-taka flourishes seem more the rarity then the standard. We are no longer the swashbuckling darlings of free flowing football. Simply put we’re no longer able to hang our hats on playing the most attractive and exciting football in England.
So who’s to blame for that? I am looking squarely at Arsene Wenger.
Before I go any further this will not be a rant filled anti-gallic debate. I’ve tried to take some time and really look at what’s going on. I’ve decided to look at Wenger’s performance based on solely managing the assets he has at his disposal.
There will be time at the end of the season to look at everything in totality but when assessing Wenger right now at this point in the season, you have to do it free of the transfers, free of the financial health of the club, free of the past and focus squarely on the performance of the manager in the league games, cup matches and Champion’s League ties for this season.
When you strip away all the extraneous bullshit that people throw in to evaluate Wenger and solely look at just the performance of the team this season – nothing more – you have to ask yourself how is Arsene Wenger doing? Sadly, on the face of it – the results are not very good. A team poised to take giant leaps this season has disappointingly failed to get going.
There was very little tinkering to the squad that went on a remarkable run from December to May of last season. So much so that it looked like they could overcome the early season deficit. In the end we emphatically won the FA Cup. Combine that with the early signing of Petr Cech, and optimism abounded.
Additionally, we were going into a season without a large swathe of the team sidelined with injuries. Alexis Sanchez came in late due to his Copa America run, and only Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky were out with injuries.
The table was perfectly set for Arsenal to mount a challenge. Except as has been the case recently we sputtered out of the gates, and frankly after 7 league games, 1 league cup tie, and 2 abysmal Champion’s League showings, we’re nowhere near performing where we should be.
If it were one game here and there, you might put it down to the players. And certainly there has to be some accountability on their part (more on that later); in the end, however, there is one consistent with these poor season starts – the manager.
No, I am not saying Wenger should be fired. However, I am saying that the performance of the manager in this season so far is appalling. Especially in terms of having his team prepared to play each week.
Look at the squad he has at his disposal, how many capped international players does have? How many talented players does this squad have? Plenty I assure you. And how can a team that has so many talented players completely underachieve as it has? The level of inconsistency is continuous this season and goes from match to match with such talented players at his disposal.
The most galling fact is that Wenger won’t or refuses to accept that it’s not being “unlucky” but unprepared. It’s clear that Arsenal have been found out in terms of play. Pack the middle and deprive the team of its ability to pass and move. Furthermore it seems the players on the pitch have no idea what to do except pass along the perimeter in hopes something happens.
His sheer stubbornness prevents him from altering his plan of play. I’m inclined to think the win against Leicester was a lark because they decided to go toe to toe with us. Big mistake on their part. Frankly, the result could’ve been tighter with us giving Leicester clear chances to score more than the 2 they did. Fine, if you don’t want to park the bus, but ball retention and passing the crap out of the opposition used to be the trademarks of this club, sadly now that doesn’t happen and why, you’re guess is as good as mine. We don’t seem to be able to pass with any purpose or intent. In transition our passes go astray leading to counter-attacking options in our end which have netted results for the opposition.
Wenger was hugely successful early on because of the kind of players he had at his disposal and the ones he brought in. They were of the ilk of taking responsibility for their actions. They needed nurturing off the pitch and inspiration – like your father would give you and like Wenger gave to them.
But that has changed. With players made stars well before their earning it, they hold no sense of accountability. And as such when things go wrong they shrug their shoulders and move on. A good manager seeing this would hold them responsible and affect some sort of response. It could be benching a player who after 2-3 games of poor form is benched in place of a hungrier option.
We all know that’s not Wenger’s style. He hopes that through sheer repetitiveness the player will come around. However, as bad habits develop on the pitch, players today continue to feel they can get away with this with Wenger because he doesn’t challenge them.
When an entire team is lacking any heart or sense of urgency, it is up to the manager to do something about it. Molly-coddling players and carrying them when they need to be put in their place are only compounding the issues on the field.
We all know that tactics are not Wenger’s strong suit. He knows what he wants, a pass and move team, and that’s what he will stick to. Even in the face of evidence that suggest his current crop of players are not performing the pass and move style with any kind of success.
And when the same issues appear week after week and have not been corrected in training it either suggests that Wenger is ignorant of the issues, knows there are issues but hopes they will eventually fade away or knows there are issues but lacks the managerial nous to do something about it in training.
It is disheartening to see a squad filled with talented players not perform. How players cannot seem to understand even the principle of overlapping play on the wings, or movement off the ball, and maybe more importantly DEFENDING week in and week out suggests that it is not being worked on.
In this year when the league is in my opinion piss-poor simply fixing the issues that exist in the squad through training and a strong managerial hand would likely net some success and likely put Arsenal on a trajectory towards challenging for the title. The question you have to ask, is Wenger able to get that out of them. It’s early, but signs are discouraging at best.
As I look at things right now, I cannot see how Wenger is going to turn this squad into a title challenging squad. The talent is there, but Wenger is not getting optimal performance from his team. Certain players are delivering, but in order to really challenge the team has to click and well, that just seems far off from happening right now.
We all know that it will likely level off and things will improve, but you have to wonder do they improve naturally because of the talent and in spite of Wenger or because of Wenger. And will the improvement be nothing more than the same old – eking out qualification for the Champion’s League.
We can’t be afraid to be critical of the manager. And in fairness people should be wondering if the game is passing him by. At some point if things don’t improve, then hard questions have to be asked, of the board, of the players and of particularly the manager. I tend to fall on the side of objective criticism and not get into a pitched passionate diatribe. I am passionate about it no doubt, but I am more reflective then reactive. Wenger is the only one right now who has the ability to handle this. Either he handles it or he has to be seen as failing to deliver.
It pains me to be negative about man I admire – a manager whom many of my own coaching philosophies were born from. But as each match ends the evidence, suggests that there is something really wrong. Sadly for all of us who love Arsene Wenger, the needle points squarely at him.
