Arsenal’s poor run of form in the league this season shouldn’t be blamed on Mikel Arteta only, that is what Jens Lehmann thinks.
Arsenal has endured a torrid time in the Premier League this season and their poor run of form sees them head into the game against Burnley this weekend 15th on the league table.
The Gunners had started the campaign by beating Liverpool in the Community Shield after winning the FA Cup in the previous campaign.
Arteta masterminded those two trophy successes, and the Spaniard was seen as the messiah that the club had been looking for.
Now that their season has begun unravelling, he is also bearing the brunt of the criticism with his tactics and team selections getting blamed for the reason why Arsenal isn’t doing well at the moment.
Lehmann, however, thinks that the blame should be shared judiciously such that even the players and the club’s hierarchy can take some for their role in the current mess.
When asked who should shoulder the responsibility, Lehmann replied to the Daily Mail: ‘Well it is a bit of a mixture.
‘The board has to make the right decisions, the manager has to make the right decisions by signing players and coaching them.
‘The players are in a fantastic environment, they are in London at one of the most traditional clubs.
‘It seems that some of them are still having problems to cope with the pressure because everybody expects them to win something.
‘But we are not even talking about winning anymore when you speak of Arsenal. There are a lot of problems.’
From my point of view, both manager and certain players are at fault.
But if the manager, as he has said, we’re playing exactly the way he wanted, then isn’t the position we are in, down to him more than the majority of players?
Good question Ken. If we are playing as Arteta instructs and players are doing what he wants ( 172 crosses) doesn’t majority of blame lie with him?
I don’t blame Xhaka and Willian so much; they are massively underperforming yet Arteta starts them.
Funny thing is if Arteta had stuck with Mesut his job wouldn’t have been on the line. The fans and pundits would blame ozil. Now the fellow isn’t playing whose to be blamed?
Jah son: The same people blaming Ozil for Arsenal’s poor performance are now down on the rest of the team.
Even the coach wants 9 new players.
Obviously you can’t have it both ways and Ozil is not to blame.