As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Arsenal midfielder tells German journalist that he may run 12km per match but has no idea where he's supposed to go
Been saying this for years. Our players aren't taught their positions, where to run, where to expect to find their team-mates, where to play passes etc. Wenger the revolutionary simply leaves them to figure it out for themselves and try to "play their own game"...
And all for £8m per year.
Nothing surprises me anymore. Hopefully this fucking fraud manager will be exposed in the media more and more. All this 18 years as Arsenal manager bullshit that is going on these couple of days makes me sick.
Lads, it's a blog quoting a "journalist". Probably absolute bollocks.
Now, I've no doubt many of our players are unsure of the best way to play their particular role, and I'm pretty sure Arsene doesn't tell them that either, but I do doubt if any of them have said that to a "journalist".
DB10GOONER wrote:Lads, it's a blog quoting a "journalist". Probably absolute bollocks.
Now, I've no doubt many of our players are unsure of the best way to play their particular role, and I'm pretty sure Arsene doesn't tell them that either, but I do doubt if any of them have said that to a "journalist".
German journo + unhappy/frustrated german player (ozil and/or podolski) = story like this being published
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of a player leaking this story DB10
DB10GOONER wrote:Lads, it's a blog quoting a "journalist". Probably absolute bollocks.
Now, I've no doubt many of our players are unsure of the best way to play their particular role, and I'm pretty sure Arsene doesn't tell them that either, but I do doubt if any of them have said that to a "journalist".
There is a link to the translated article in the blog. It doesn't mention who the midfielder is, but still the article says that they are only now using a video analyst for the first time ever. Sad...
DB10GOONER wrote:Lads, it's a blog quoting a "journalist". Probably absolute bollocks.
Now, I've no doubt many of our players are unsure of the best way to play their particular role, and I'm pretty sure Arsene doesn't tell them that either, but I do doubt if any of them have said that to a "journalist".
German journo + unhappy/frustrated german player (ozil and/or podolski) = story like this being published
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of a player leaking this story DB10
Not totally ruling it out, augie - I'm just doubtful...
But I suppose the bigger issue here is how many more top quality players will Arsene's ego ruin? I know AA23 was lazy but again (like Ozil) he was a very very skilfull and intelligent player and Wenger's constant misusing of him ruined him. And I do agree there is no excusing laziness, but still, why buy a "luxury" but visionary player if you require a workhorse? Typical Arsene.
DB10GOONER wrote:Lads, it's a blog quoting a "journalist". Probably absolute bollocks.
Now, I've no doubt many of our players are unsure of the best way to play their particular role, and I'm pretty sure Arsene doesn't tell them that either, but I do doubt if any of them have said that to a "journalist".
There is a link to the translated article in the blog. It doesn't mention who the midfielder is, but still the article says that they are only now using a video analyst for the first time ever. Sad...
Outrageous really. But I remember an interview with Vieira years ago and when he was asked what Arsene would say to the players pre-game and at half time he basically replied; "nothing really. He just says go and play your game". I paraphase of course but that was it in essence.
begeegs wrote:
but still the article says that they are only now using a video analyst for the first time ever. Sad...
that we know is true - there was an article on it last year - when liverpool appointed a new Head of Opposition Analysis, it was compared to Arsenal, who have no opposition analysts nor do we watch tapes of ourselves, which is what the Mousers call Performance analysis.
wenger does not believe in examining oppositions weaknesses nor public shaming of player errors (his words)
Liverpool have four analysts for performance and four for opposition analysis, and separate analysts for the reserves performances.
if i remember correctly our first team backroom staff are something like thirteen strong, Liverpools is around 27/28 i think.
which matches City, PSG, Barca, Real, Munich and Juve.
This season is so far turning out to be a rerun of all the last 8 years or so but for last season, which at least gave some sort of hope only to end in all but glorious failure (Bar of course the epic cup win)
the article in the telegraph on wengers tactical blindness has this to say about Ferguson's view of him :
There is an entire chapter in Sir Alex Ferguson's autobiography devoted to Arsene Wenger but even now, one year on, you have to wonder whether the Arsenal manager has actually read it. Especially pages 188-189. It is about the tactic that Ferguson devised for playing Wenger's team; a tactic that helped Manchester United win 10 out of the 14 matches they played in the last five seasons of Ferguson's tenure.
"In later years we learned more about Arsenal's thinking," wrote Ferguson. "Arsene had a template of how he sees his players and the way they play. We didn't need to win the ball against Arsenal, we needed to intercept it. You need good players who can intercept."
Ferguson then noted how Cesc Fabregas would nearly always "twist the pass round the corner then run to get it back on the other side of the defender" for Arsenal. Ferguson's instruction to his players was thus: "Stay with the runner, intercept the pass, then counter-attack quickly". The space for those counter-attacks was usually to be found in the wide positions where, whether home or away, Arsenal's full-backs were invariably lingering in their opponents' half in the often naïve expectation that their team-mate would not lose the ball.
article goes on to say Mourinho uses the same tactic.
The most startling example, of course, was the 6-0 humiliation that coincided with Wenger's 1,000th match as Arsenal manager. Look back at the replays and you will see that, in five of the six goals, Chelsea broke to exploit space where a defence-minded full-back should have been positioned.
The worrying aspect for Arsenal is that neither the players nor the manager really seems to have adapted. Even in playing well and dominating large parts of their draws against Manchester City and Tottenham this season, that very same weakness seemed regularly evident once Arsenal lost the ball.
The million-dollar question when Arsenal return to Chelsea on Sunday, then, is whether Wenger will actually adjust his tactics in the same way as Ferguson and Mourinho have always done when they sense a particular danger. Every indication is that the answer will be no.
we can see it, the media can see it, the half brain dead pundits can see it, why can't wonga and his AKB's ????
Flamini,BFG,Arteta are 3 of the oldest players and I will never understand why they don't just ignore his words and sit the f**k back and go nowhere near the halfway line. We are not talking about wet behind the ears young players. All 3 have over 300 senior apps between them.
I think that article is gutless and cowardly. If the player can't speak up to the manager and say those things then stop trousering the supporters hard earned cash and leave gutless
What exactly goes through Arsenes mind leading up to a game like this. Not tactical nous we all cry but surely even he has to sit down with with his managerial war cabinet and hatch out a game plan and heaven forbid, a plan b. If he's still not hurting from that hammering last year what more incentives does he need. All the hype of that 1,000 game, Maureen being more of a snide prick to him than usual should still be raw and throw Fabregas into the equation where it's the ultimate chance to say/show ' I told you so ' i.e not needed . Wenger called it an 'accident' which in itself heaps more pressure on the man to prove it so, another 'accident' will prove him very accident prone. This has to be Wengers biggest game of the season for all the above reasons and more. At what point does self doubt not creep into this mans mind (although I think the cup win helped repair a small bit of his self doubt last season) and surely he can harness the fear that this game (in general V Chelsea ) has started to become to leave the ego and stubbornness to one side and do what needs doing........if it's broken - fix it,and certainly in this game and versus the usual suspects, we need some serious managerial super glue to repair that damage. After getting ripped new ones against City and Liverpool last season we saw Wenger obviously on the ropes some what and what followed in games against Chelsea and Manure respectively was a clear damage limitation exercise and one that suggested that whilst he didn't know how to beat them, he could do enough to make sure that they would not beat us either. Chavs away these days is a different proposition to playing them at home unfortunately but I think tomorrow Wenger will play a more cautious game in a similar vein as the games mentioned above. Wenger should be drilling the importance of not conceding early as we all know what follows and IF and yes on the back of his Mourinho's hoodoo, its a big IF, if Wenger plays it tight and invites them onto us instead of us getting caught in their third with our shorts around our ankles, we might well banish some of the ghosts of last years debacle.
Nick Bendtners Ego wrote:What exactly goes through Arsenes mind leading up to a game like this.
that its no different from any other game, that the players should play their natural game probably.
i'm sure in his mind he sees no connection between the 6-0 and 5-1 & 4-0 losses, which is the main problem.
in every interview this week, he again seems to focus on 'desire' etc. implying that we'll win because we'll want it more.
What else can he throw at the journos really ? 'Desire' and 'spirit' etc are his cliched rallying calls but with the Chavs and Mourinho in particular he has little else to verbally muster. He can't cite current form cos with the exception of a four minute cameo at Villa and a decent game against a defensively inept Galatasary we've been poor, he can't dwell on recent history between the two teams, especially after last year and he's probably verbally treading on egg shells with Maureen as his opposite number has proved to be a nasty piece of work when it comes to Wenger. Still it would be nice to not hear the usual tried and trusted media bollocks and instead hear " we're working on not repeating the mistakes that we made last year" suggesting at least that he has learnt his lesson some what.
At what point does his footballing philosophy takes second place to preserving ones dignity ? Surely he will sacrifice a proven suicidal approach with a safety first one. This I feel was the case last season after the maulings at the victims and City where we played with a lot less headless adventure and most certainly a 'do not lose at any cost' mentality. Not holding my breath or any thing but I'm thinking/hoping that one of footballs so called most intelligent managers shows common sense and uses this game to regroup some what against his greatest nemesis.
In comparing last seasons 6-0 defeat with the OT 8-2, he thinks the defeat in Manchester was because "we had no one at the back". Really?
We had Djourou & Traore, both had been at the club a number of years, if he didn't think they were up to such games why were they still at the club. It took that mauling to make up his mind on Traore.
We had Jenkinson who he had invested in at left back and Kos, who was highly thought of.
He can't just dismiss out of hand these players HE had stuck with, HE had trained, and HE had given tactical instructions to.
Wait and see, in time he will alter history, and absolve himself of blame in all of last seasons clumpings.
