Is Wenger right to tell France to drop Koscielny?

Arsene Wenger is rightly very worried about his Arsenal players while they are away on international duty, and probably even more so after the news that both Alexis Sanchez and Hector Bellerin were injured before they had even kicked a ball.

With this in mind he has publicly asked for Didier Deschamps to rest the Arsenal centre-back Laurent Koscielny for Frances friendly game against the Ivory Coast on Tuesday, as he is worried that he has been overplayed already this season. “I’ve never tried to prevent a player from international duty; when it’s a competitive game I never intervene,” Wenger told BeIN Sports. “When it’s a friendly game, for example now Koscielny goes to the French national team, having played every single game apart from the first game of the season with us.

“I understand completely him playing against Sweden, it’s difficult to understand him playing the whole game against Ivory Coast because afterwards we play at Manchester United and then Paris Saint Germain. If it’s not needed, you try to find a compromise that suits both parties. I can’t see the purpose of Koscielny playing the second game.”

I wonder if that “finding a compromise” means he has actually spoken to Deschamps about it? Because we all know that some international managers can feel aggrieved if they are publicly told what to do by club managers. Could he have actually made the situation worse by going public?

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9 Comments

  1. I don’t think the players will thank the manager for asking to keep them from the side. It took Koscielny a long time to get recognised in his homeland.

    I liked seeing Giroud and Koscielny utterly disappointed about winning the runner up medals during summer. Some would say Arsenal celebrating fourth place bunch of losers. We did do that one season a long time back now, I think these two have put that to bed. Then we have CL winners, world cup winners, FA cup winners all throughout our side.

    The manu match is huge now, I’m still trying to put that spu result behind me but it’s difficult as it was a perfect chance to put right some of what went wrong last season. The only real way now to put right is if we win, but it’s Mourinho and it’s utd. I wont lie by saying I’m hugely confident, but I am maybe quietly confident. Stating the obvious here, if we take our chances we’ll win the game, if we don’t, at-least the others are still in striking distance.

  2. Different situation mate.
    It is not helped by the fact that Alexis will always play down his injury because he wants to play in every single game.
    Wenger should have a good understanding with France over the years so I am sure he would have spoken to Deschamps directly. Of course in a friendly the manager will want to see how some of his fringe players perform so Koscielny certainly won’t play 90 minutes if at all.

  3. Wenger has been in this business for decades
    He nose how to deal with International managers

    I am just hoping that they both do whats in the best interest of the players well being and our players come back in one piece

  4. Absolutely no reason to play Kos or even Giroud for that matter. I hope to see santi back in time for the Man U game as well. Time for wenger to record his first ever victory against big mouth mouh

  5. There is a difference between ‘asking’ and ‘telling’ and he asked, which is a reasonable thing to do.

  6. okay guys look Alexis is out for man u game.
    bellerin should be replaced by Mustafi .and Holding should play along side Kos.
    that will give as strong back4.
    in front 3 the OX should come 4 Iwobi and Teo for Alexis .

    Cech
    mustafi Holding Kos Monreal
    Coq Cazorla Xhaka
    Ozil Teo Ox

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