No one was really surprised to hear Ry Keane lay into Arsenal and accuse the players of lacking character after we slumped to a second Champions League defeat in a row. The manner of the defeat was certainly frustrating and avoidable but I am not sure the former Man United and Ireland captain was right in what he said, as reported by The Mirror.
Keane said, “They’re soft. They’re weak.
“The goals they give away — you saw [on Tuesday] night, two set-pieces again.
“You’ve got no chance of winning any big game if you defend like that.
“There is a certain weakness to the group. They look like they lack characters, leaders and winners.”
Keane has taken his combative and aggressive style of playing the game into his punditry and I´m sure that a lot of Gooners will agree with his comments. A year or two ago I would have myself, but Arsenal have added steel and fight to our fancy dan passing game. For me the problem was lack of concentration, bad decision making individually and as a group and individual errors, not being soft.
Last season and so far in this one Arsenal have stood up a lot more in the big games, as long as Mike Dean lets us of course, and we need to show that again on Sunday. The manager has always backed his players and they need to prove him right to do so against Man United. Proving that loudmouth Keane wrong at the same time will be a nice little bonus.
No one likes to be called weak, so does Wenger need to make sure each and every one of the squad knows what Keane said about them?
Keane is right. I wish we had fiery character like Kompany shouting and hyping up the team. Flamini does it of course, but he doesn’t start too many games does he? All the other players appear quiet and mild mannered.
You can’t stop people from talking about you, but you can stop giving them something to talk about. #COYG 3points is all we ask, is that too much to ask??
All I can say for now and that is regardless of what Roy Keane said or says, is that Wenger missed a fantastic opportunity to strengthen an already good squad last summer and he may still live to regret that decision. We had quality strikers, DMFs and CBs queuing up to be signed but we kept mute. Now the injuries are as usual mounting up at the wrong time. We play United tomorrow and looking through our squad and especially the bench my heart is in dread. United are full of confidence at the minute and not something we can say for our boys but let’s hope home advantage sees us through. We look forward eagerly to January transfer window with baited breath to see what reinforcements come in and hoping still we are in a challenging position. The best of luck to our team tomorrow! COYGs!!!
@darlingbud, u have no right to blame Wenger at all in dat game…
he named a very star ng squad…
I mean, we had Los aulista
coquelin-DM
Cazorla, Ozil
and then u have Walcott and sanchez..
dat was a bad powerful team… how on earth did these players loose their focus in the game…
pls blame d other players.
@ebemka: what on earth Did you smoke first thing this morning? What game did I blame Wenger for? Read my article again with a clear head in 5 hours’ time please!
What quality strikers queued up to sign, and what quality def midfielder would want to sign and sit on bench behind Coq.
Keane is right, our players are weak . The team is made in Wengers image, weak and soft.
its sad to look what i call my fellows write, we have quality beyond what i expected. the problem is pairing of players when we bought ozil we were so comfortable that season because teams came at with pressure after that we always took the three points. chelsea game i expected a defensive arsenal pair up coq and arteta it works song found form because of arteta. all am saying u can defend pretty.
You can debate on these sites for as long as you want but there are two things you should know.
1. Arsenal’s style of play will never change and therefore will have the same inherent weaknesses every season regardless of who comes in.
2. Arsene Wenger will never change his style of management just because the fans don’t like it. The fans opinions don’t even come into his thought range for one moment – why would they when there is absolutely no pressure on him to succeed from his employers?
We can lose 8-2 tomorrow and nothing will change – no vote of confidence from the board of directors just silence.
We have a very very bad board of directors at Arsenal – they are clearly motivated other things rather than success, my guess is money.
And we have quality, but only in certain areas principally in midfield where every player is identical in style and physicality. Otherwise the squad is pretty weak as Keane suggested.
Arsenal are a team that is going nowhere, perhaps Wenger and Arsenal are happy with that – as long as they are in profit that’s all that matters.
Makes a mockery of the whole point of building the new stadium..
Let’s put us fans to one side on what we think but I’m sure our top players are watching and reading all the pundits and experts on TV or Newspapers why arsenal will not win a major trophy season after season and wondering shell I stay or shal I go
as you say the problem lies with the board they are using AW as an escape goat to eat the cake and the cherry on top, every year their shares goes up in value,
The international break is too long, we have to win this one
I agree with you, in the past I would have agreed with him. Not one of our losses this season has been from a team who battled and outmuscled us with an extremely physical performance, so I think he too is going by the not too long ago past ..or else he believes this will be the case in the end.
I do agree with him to a degree however, as we are lacking talkers or generals on the field. We are capable of doggedness and real grit but I don’t think we show it enough.
One has to look at the flip-side. When a team like Swansea comes to our place, leaves with a win and defends brilliantly and stoutly, people do talk about character and leadership. Players communicating with one another and pushing each other over the finishing line when they’re the less talented side on paper in terms of pure footballing talent. They have their minds right and set to the job, and in fairness a player like Roy Keane wouldn’t have been half the player he was were it not for his character.
Weaknesses in leadership, concentration and decision making are still weaknesses. I don’t think we ought to go too sensationalist and take this as a reference literal physical strength and durability.
Time for a change…
Time for a new manager
Tough game only scared about mert be a gud game lets get behind the lads this pessimistic at this time of the season does no gud lets get behind the boys how I hate man coyg!!!
We all hbe our yes we tired by 11 years of mediocre but calling for the managers head at this time is absurd and irrational more pike decision out of anger.even if a new manager comes now it will be worse and target will be top four lets stop whining am angry as well but if wenger goes now then this season is awaste the new manager wouldn’t pull a miracle and just coz hes new guys think we will win the league or rather challenge.
I agree wenger has shown he is a dinosaur but we as fans r showing how huge dinosaurs we r its timeto cry wenger out its October !!!!! Lets support the team till end of the season coz even if guardioala comes change takes time and this season waste coyg my gunner mates
for man ure game we need strenghth in the middle.for me the team should be:
cech
bellerin,mert,chambers,monreal
coq,rambo
ox,ozil,sanchez
walcott
chambers at CB versus MU? disaster.
rest is ok.
One thing most pundits don’t have, is successful club manager experience. Take Keane for example…for me that’s why Wenger gets annoyed at their non analytical judgement of his team.
To be a manager and be around for years let alone decades takes many skills, so I can understand why Wenger is irritated by pundits let alone tabloid hacks.
That said, it only serves to make him look arrogant, which isn’t helpful.
When you look at the transfer dealings of similar sized clubs you see that the transfer dealings of Arsenal have been very small which means of course that the money that is not spent on transfers is being filtered elsewhere so its no wonder that Wenger is so well regarded at Arsenal.
He is not a bad manager by any stretch he is just one that has been at the club for far too long and has become stale.
He doesn’t have the answers when teams change tactics or when they play a clever defensive game. Its one tactic against every team in every situation – this works when you are Barcelona but not when you are Arsenal – out muscle them in midfield and you can win the game.
Arsenal ARE soft and what is worse they are predictable and what the board must realise is that their wonderful cash cow is going to run dry very soon..