Leandro Trossard-A Good But Not Great Footballer Set Up To Fail By His Manager
A football manager has many responsibilities, but his main job is to set the team up in whatever way gives them the best opportunity to win. That starts with putting players in positions where they can succeed.
If that can’t be done, at least don’t put your players in a position to fail by asking them to do things they aren’t capable of. Unfortunately, that’s what Mikel Arteta did to Leandro Trossard in Martin Odegaard’s absence.
In the last few months, the Belgian has gone from super-sub and fan favorite to a player whose name is frequently followed by a lot of NSFW invectives. It’s not without merit, because Trossard’s form has been atrocious for much of the season. The “real” Leandro Trossard taps home that winner today like he’s been doing it all his life. However, Trossard’s confidence is shot, and he has his manager to thank for it.
Yes, he is a versatile, two-footed player. Yes, he has a burst of pace when he needs it, and yes, he can even pick out a good pass on occasion. But no, he’s not Santi Cazorla and he never will be. This is exactly why Trossard should never have been installed at CAM in Martin Odegaard’s absence. It shouldn’t have taken more than 15 minutes to see he was ill-suited for the role.
Yet Arteta persisted with this failing strategy for over a month. Despite the team playing with less creative flair than an architect designing cold-war era housing blocks in Eastern Europe, Trossard was tasked with leading this offense again and again. No matter how poor he was, he went right back into the first XI the following game. The maddening part is that there were (and are) other alternatives that should have been explored.
Mikel Arteta constantly claims to value positional flexibility. In fact, he values it so much that he signed a Central Midfielder named Zinchenko to play inverted LB. Zinchenko is known for his ball skills and creative flair, so much so that he often plays in advanced midfield positions for a solid Ukraine national team. Yet for reasons that are clear to absolutely no one, Zinny didn’t get one start in midfield during Odegaard’s absence.
Sometimes Zinny came on around the 75-80 minute mark, by which point there was precious little time left to impact the game. This is also true of young Ethan Nwaneri (who, by the way, has shown no fear of anything or anyone in his cameo appearances). Understandably, a 17-year-old can’t start every game, but is it not possible this young man could have played in a rotation where Zinny played 60 minutes at CAM and Ethan played 30 or vice versa?
Could they have been any more ineffective as a tandem than Trossard was by himself? Furthermore, if the answer to that question is yes, the next question is why Emile was Smith-Rowe sold last Summer. Worse still, Arsenal still doesn’t have a plan B. If Martin Odegaard limps off the pitch with another injury, Trossard will likely be reinserted at CAM again.
There is no plan B because Arteta stuck with a losing formula for too long. The truth is, Arteta set Trossard up to fail and Arsenal suffered for it. If it’s not fair to start Nwaneri due to his age, isn’t it unfair to put him on at the 80th minute as a Hail Mary substitution and ask him to perform miracles? Because that’s what’s been happening, and it borders on managerial negligence.
The club is now 9 points adrift of Liverpool and has squandered two glorious opportunities to pick up points on the defending league champions. Leandro Trossard’s dreadful form means he gets a slice of the proverbial “blame pie.”
However, the manager who repeatedly put Leandro in a position to fail, despite having other options, deserves more slices of the blame pie than anyone.
EE MC
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
A next big one got away, Surely we were the better team on the night, but why I wasn’t surprised
Arsenal always gets their acts together when our backs are against the wall
Against the so called top 4 teams we seem to play better and hardly ever lose to any of them.
But something is not adding up overall with our inconsistency this season.
You said that before the draw though so was it really a “backs against the wall” display when Arsenal was a goal up after all.
This is just an article to slag Arteta. He’s not perfect but neither is Trossard. Needs must, and from time to time players will have to make the most of it, Trossard’s form has been terrible. Martinelli has been terrible too, but he showed why Arteta trusts him yesterday. My complaint is (other than Nwaneri) we don’t have a good alternative to Odegaard.
This is further exasperated by the fact that we are still relying on Jesus as a striker, who clearly isn’t one. Trossard was a good signing but I think we are ready to move on from him, Jesus and Zinchenko. Meanwhile, over at Fulham, ESR is demonstrating why he was always worth the patience, and Nelson is showing why he is going to be difficult to off load.
Trossard’s main position is LW and he made reckless passes/ movements from the left wing
I bet his sloppiness and lack of pace made him benched at Brighton
Arteta should also be blamed for approving Trossard’s transfer to Arsenal
@Gai you seem gard in Trossard he has been good for Arsenal non several occation I guess he is only under poor form at the moment. Matinelli too just picked form. He should be used as impact player that’s what he is exceptional at and mainly on LW.
#I mean you seem hard on Trossard
Everyone has a bad period sometimes, but remains a good player for Arsenal Trossard.
No it’s not, he prefers to play in midfield, he said so in an interview.
Trossard was bought in part because he can play different positions and he’s proven during his time he that he can do it. His form was good earlier in the season, regardless of which position he played, but it’s since nosedived. If you want to criticise arteta, you can criticise for continuing to pick trossard when he’s been so out of sorts, but it’s nothing to do with the position he’s been playing.
Well said
You are both missing the point. First I am criticizing Arteta for continuing to pick Trossard. Second, if his form is already poor, it’s quite likely that playing him away from hist best natural position (LW) will only exacerbate the situation and make his form worse. Third, he has played CAM before, but never for a club trying to win a title in the world’s toughest football league. The experiment was a disaster and Arteta should have made an adjustment.
He did well for the first few games, it’s only the few recent games (since the international break, I think) that he’s been poor. Nothing to do with position, it’s just form.
Why would Arteta set Trossard up to fail? An overly lengthy diatribe imo
He didnt do it knowingly, but he also never took any steps to remedy the situation once it became obvious that Trossard was a square peg Arteta was jamming into a round hole…..with disastrous results. Its not the mistake by Arteta that’s the problem here, it’s the failure to correct it or explore. alternative options.
The modus operandi is common. – Play the footballer out of position, lead him to a bad patch, lower his confidence, bench him, bin him and then get him out of the club for some nickel and dimes or free. We’ve seen it in the past, we are seeing it happen. The fan club will go to any level to defend the second highest earning manager in the EPL. No silverware in 5 years and counting save for the FA thanks to Auba & company. We’d be happy calling the spade a spade.
👍
They can never see all this because “MR PERFECT KNOWS IS ALL”
How does this make any sense? Why would a manager set out to sabotage his own player in the way you describe?
You’re obviously entitled to your opinion …..but my opinion on your opinion would probably have me put in moderation with AdPat so I’ll leave it at that
You may well be able to blame Arteta overall for playing Trossard out of position. However, the player has to shoulder his fair share as well. Most recently, Trossard’s appalling finishing in front of an open goal cost Arsenal two extremely valuable points. That’s not Arteta’s fault.
I don’t think we should shy away from blaming the coach or players when they make obvious, and often costly, errors. They are all extremely highly paid professionals after all – with a fair proportion of their income coming from the fans themselves. Even Trossard, one of the lower paid Arsenal players (let’s not talk about Jesus) earns twice as much in a week than many people commenting on this site earn in a year. We don’t need to be vindictive about it of course, but we should point it out, nevertheless.
Trossard himself has said publicly his favourite position (and his best position) is in midfield in the number 10 slot, Ødegaard’s position.
GB
I wasn’t aware of that. So we had the perfect back up for Odegaard after all?
There is need for Zincheko to be played in Midfield, left back position is no longer his.
Trossard yaaa. Is out of form now.