The Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp has come out to claim that Arsenal’s defence has been their focal point for failing to win this season’s Premier League title.
The legend was a part of the Invincibles side which won the 03-04 Premier League title without losing a match, and knows Arsene Wenger all too well. Bergkamp has now spoken out on his opinion on the current campaign.
The former Dutch striker, who is tipped as a future Gunners boss himself, has claimed that the club’s defence has ruined their chances of winning the league this year. Arsenal have conceded three or more goals eight times this term, compared to only conceding more than one goal on three occasions in that famous unbeaten season.
He said: “Arsenal have a really good team and a really, really good squad.
“They’ve got tremendous players and they should be able to win the championship, but one of the biggest problems is defence.
“So many times the team have to react to going a goal behind or two goals behind. That happens too much. And at this time of the year you can’t drop points.
“We would always have a dip in November, but their dip has come in the second half of the season. That didn’t happen a lot in our time.”
The current assistant manager for Ajax went onto praise his former manager, claiming that Wenger is still hungry to win titles with the club, and should remain in his role.
The Arsenal legend continued: “He knows his players so well. It’s like a puzzle, he’s adjusting every player all the time so everything fits together. He’s got a picture in his mind how it should be. And he knew when to push the team, when to let go, when to relax.
“I still think he’s got that drive and if he gets the opportunity to stay there, he will take it I’m sure. He’s still a good manager and you never know what you’ll get if you bring a new one in. That’s the problem.
“Look what happened at Man United when Sir Alex Ferguson left. You never know what’s better. To bring someone new, someone fresh or stick to someone who knows the club. I’m sure (Wenger) is still ambitious to win trophies.”
We have all witnessed the downfalls with changing managers, but we have also witnessed positive results with both Man City and Chelsea regularly changing guard, but we are not looking to spend, spend and spend every season in order to accommodate new incoming managers, and should stick with Wenger.
Instead of switching manager, maybe we should concentrate on bringing in a top centre-back, to go with the necessary striker addition. Is Bergkamp right that our defending was to blame for our season’s downfall?
We need more than just a centre back
i think we need to off load at least 6 players this year
replace them with quality instead of maybe players
buy proven players
Ultimately we need to replace Wenger, because if we don’t, even if he does ship out the deadwood and bring in new players, they’d just suck up the mentality of the past 10 years we’ve got. We need change and a true change starts with Arsene.
Yeh he said, ‘one’ of the biggest problems thereby inferring there are others..
Apparently Wenger is not one of those others. Perhaps the board are paying some of that buoyant back account to Dennis to help sweeten the atmosphere and convince us how brilliantly Wenger is doing/has done.
On the other side:
Adams and George Graham tweet over the collapse of AFC under Wenger…
George Graham @georgegraham00
@MrArsenal06 @Arsenal what is insulting is hes blaming our suffering fans for his teams yearly collapse,christ the mans excuses get lower
George Graham @georgegraham00
@Omer31Musab @Jasmley @MrArsenal06 @Arsenal its come to this because the wenger has been given to much control at the club
Tony Adams Official @MrArsenal06
@georgegraham00 @Arsenal shocked at wengers comments on he built the club,his teams has no winning mentality so hes taking us backwards
Tony Adams Official – @MrArsenal06
@georgegraham00 looking at it now the day david dein was pushed out was a catastrophe for @arsenal,it ment arsene was given full control
Etc….
For balance..
@AOT
Hardly what could be called “balance” when you accuse Dennis of takin payments like “Georgie boy”…
How’s that for balance?
Yeh yeh.. So George is partial to a brown envelope! Big deal:)
It’s good to show that not all ex-Arsenal staff believe all is rosy in the camp, don’t you..for balance that is?
@AOT
It’s been apparent for quite sometime that not all AFC ex players are satisfied with they way we’ve been conducting ourselves.
But it’s not just 1 thing, it’s the whole thing thats off kilter, from top to bottom.
Stan and the board are businessmen. I get it it, and don’t expect jack from them concerning what transpires on the pitch.
I hold the players and manager responsible for that. But what effect board room decisions have on our results, I do not know and don’t care to speculate. And I could care even less about any fans/supporters, ex-player/ex-managers opinion on it either. I only hope they sort it out sooner rather than later.
I care because it’s affecting our club.
Wengers total and unquestionable control and failings coupled with the boards negligence is crippling Arsenal from within.
Wenger by insisting on staying around is diminishing his legacy by the day. A legacy that he rightly deserves from his work in the early Arsenal years.
to be honest..I’m starting to feel sorry for him.
@AOT
Thats your personal, biased opinion. And it’s neither truth, nor fact…
George Graham former tott manager and big Tone with his axe to grind, …lol
“One” of the biggest
problems is defense.
Are are you sure of your
facts Mr Birdcamp?
Leicester – Goals against 31
Arsenal – Goals against 33.
No real difference.
So is it Arsenals attack which is at fault?
Leicester Goals for 57
Arsenal Goals for 55
No real difference their either.
MMM.
May be it’s the midfield or the referee
or the start time or the direction of the wind,
luck, tactics mental strength or releasing the handbreak?
Maybe know one knows … 🙂
Should have been our Assistant Manager and Bould as one of the coaching staff, the man was a genius on the pitch, that knowledge of the game does not just fade off. Players like Ozil, Jack, Crowley, Iwobi, Adelaid, Ramsey, and our other forwards can greatly benefit from his teaching’s.
People have been saying for the last 7 years that Arsenal need a central defender and defensive midfielder and what has thon manager of ours choose to do ……..ignore it.
he is deluded to think that wenger is not part of the problem. Organizing the teams defence and having the right players are wenger’s job.
So a lack of character in the type of players we recruit, player favouritism, lack of tactics when plan A doesn’t work, not addressing squad problems (no DMF for endless years and no dynamic CF ever since RvP left), injuries etc have not had anything on us not winning the championship ? Come on guy’s the same thing happens every year. Have we not seen enough of this movie already ?
I have looked at goals for and against in the top clubs this season and it is difficult to draw any conclusions. I think bergkamph has a point though, there have been a number of recent games where we have thrown away a good position. Winning away to liverpool and concede late goal. Early goal lead at home against swansea so they have to attack and we lose the game. Two nil up against west ham and we draw. Thats seven points thrown away in recent games. Add in conceding three goals against manu reserves and one nil up away to spurs and there are possibly three more points.
It is a case of getting in to good positions, maybe with a bit of luck but then throwing it away. Lack of killer instinct or bottling it.
Arsenal style is not too dissimilar to Barca’s style. Barca get protected and you see why they express themselves. But not Arsenal. Every opposition without the ball are always out to fracture our players legs and get away with it. That is why I agree with some that have said we need some steel at the heart of our defense especially. Officials wave their card at us when we get stuck in because they have the perceived ideas that we don’t do dirty. So when we do, its taken on us as dangerous play while for opposition its normal play.
Let us change our style a bit and start getting stuck in in matches then the officials and oppositions will know it is no longer business as usual. This is the ingredient the present day Arsenal lack and not that they are too bad a team . In Viera’s era, tackles were flying every where on the pitch, hence oppositions never dare them because they knew Arsenal of that would give back to you what you present to them. But the current boys are too ‘nice’ and want to play football with their suits on. Too soft and brittle for EPL. The short and long story is, change their mentality by telling them that match days are war days on the pitch.