Arsenal entailed a terrible defeat to Liverpool in their opening fixture of the new Premier League season and one of the biggest debates surrounding the result, was Arsenal’s distinctive lack of leadership. After the match both Arsene Wenger and the players met their critics, with pundit Gary Neville making a major point about Arsenal’s lack of command.
Do Arsenal lack the necessary leadership to challenge for the Premier League? Quite simply, YES!
Arsenal lack the necessary leadership in two areas, firstly the players. The majority of the players are no longer Young Guns, who are yet to have a run in the Premier League, Wenger can no longer play the youth card. They are mostly experienced players, who know what it takes in this division, but don’t know of what it feels like to win this division. Only Cech and Welbeck are Premier League winners in our squad, having both achieved success at Chelsea and United. The likes of Ozil and Alexis may be winners elsewhere in Europe, but in England all they have to show is a couple of FA Cups, which is not the type of experience of ‘winning’ this team desperately needs to take us to the next level. The few winners we do have in this squad is not enough to pull the team through and although they may be experienced, they may not have the commanding approach needed to push the team forward.
Our players also seem to lack vocal command, firstly in themselves not communicating and leading forward with passion, secondly because of the lack of inspiration coming from Arsene Wenger. Wenger no longer fills players with confidence and although they may back the manager, he is not seen to be motivational, inspiration or vocal on the touch line. Wenger is instead seen to be sulking, head in his hands, with not a clue what to direct tactically.
Arsenal came close to turning things around again against Liverpool, but failed in being their most effective largely due to a lack of tactical direction. Arsenal certainly do lack leadership and I feel we haven’t had a true leader in our team since the days of Adams, Campbell and Vieira. We need a player who is vocal, commanding and is ready to lead the side out in confidence.
By AH