According to Mirror Football, Arsenal star Bernd Leno believes that the mentality of the Gunners stars was the team’s downfall against Manchester City.
Freddie Ljungberg’s men were defeated 3-0 by the Premier League champions, after conceding an early goal, we barely managed to get a foothold in the game.
Leno told Sky Sports after the clash that the Gunners ‘miss intensity’ at moments like this added that the team aren’t fresh in their ‘minds’.
Arsenal’s mentality and intensity have been a major talking point since the north London outfit began to decline in recent years, the team can’t seem to distance themselves from this criticism.
Here’s what the Germany international had to say on our mindset costing us:
“After four or five minutes the game was done. I think in the first half we deserved this result. In the second half we couldn’t touch the ball and also couldn’t create the chances,”
“At the moment we have to say there is a gap between [the top] teams. We have the quality but when you see the games we miss intensity, we are not fresh in our minds.”
“It is good we have a week to work a little bit and speak about this situation, we have to change something in our minds.”
Leno has been one of the few Arsenal players that has actually performed well this season. The 27-year-old has made the most saves of any keeper in the Premier League with 73 so far this term.
Read More: Alan Shearer is the latest pundit to slam our defence.
Whilst this an impressive personal stat for the German shot-stopper, this really highlights just how unfit for purpose our defence currently is.
Keepers that play for side’s in the bottom half of the league tend to dominate these rankings, which suggests that our team is actually one of the worst in the top-flight when it comes to preventing shots on goal.
Spot on Leno. I admit that I had my doubts about him when he first started as No.1 but he has been absolutely fantastic this season. Without him Man C would have won 6-0, and they were barely in third gear, and we would be knocking on the relegation door. What he is politely saying is there is no heart or desire left in this Arsenal team barring him, Torreira and Martinelli. Worst display I have seen from them, probably ever. We need another George Graham urgently and some serious culling a.s.a.p.
Guess whos got the most saves in Premier League this season.. thats right, Leno.
He deserves a better defense in front of him.
We also lack a DEFENCE and creativity in midfield
Our attack is fine but without creativity our attack is useless as shown against CITY
Intensity, to Arsenal, is like naked and foul mouthed aggression is to a genteel lady church flower arranger. Ozil and Luiz, for just the prime two, would be great candidates for the flower jobs! Someone should tell these two coasters that Prem fotball is for MEN! With “balls”!
You need to sale all dead woods in Arsenal jersey, the likes of Mesult Ozil, David Luiz and buy at least one outstanding central defender. Bring Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry to guide the team to get back to its former glory.
I remember Henry once talking about the Invincible’s training. He said there was fierce competition, people got kicked, and sometimes things would even get a bit overheated.
All too often I see smiles and playful attitudes, without a care in the world, like everything is puppies and rainbows as they gleefully bandy about, prancing around the practice pitch all smug and content with themselves.
Perhaps a few kicks here and there, maybe a dust up or two where defenders get embarrassed in front of their teammates and youngsters. A few hard tackles might wake some people up, or even move them on out.
Well said, Durand, completely agree. They always look as if they are training for a meaningless friendly game against a minor league team. Unfortunately a legacy of the last Wenger years, and difficult to turn around.
Leno is correct in one way and wrong in another.Right in terms of our lacking intensity but so wrong in suggesting we have “quality”.Apart from the unfortunate Tierney we do not have a top class defender and the same applies to our experienced midfielders.We have however some really promising youngsters who can make the grade with the correct guidance and coaching.
Haven’t we heard all this before?.. In fact, it’s about time they walked the walk instead of talk the talk!!
It’s getting too late in the day because we all know what the problem is. There are no leaders in the team. Tony Adams or Patrick Viera would have put a stop to this kind of thing a long time ago! This squad has the wrong mentality and attitude to turn things around any time soon!
Lenno has spoken the absolute truth. In fact he along with Torreira and Martinelli are the only players who are currently showing the real passion and fight for the Arsenal shirt. The rest , maybe excluding Tierney, are just playing as if they do not care. Shunt out Ozil, Xhaka, Socrates and Louis. Get younger and more energetic players in the team to replace them.