There have been some strange mutterings from Matthieu Flamini this week, especially as he came on the pitch against Anderlecht just in time to see Arsenal’s worst defensive display of the season so far! I guess could be putting forward that th team needs to defend as a whole to ry and delect criticism against him and his fellow defenders.
“Defending as a team is very important,” Flamini said on Arsenal.com. “You have to defend as a team but you also have to attack as a team and it’s very important to play very closely with each other.
“We have to defend as soon as we lose the ball because the first few seconds are important. If you attack and lose the ball then you have to defend straight away and get the ball in the opposition’s half because then you’re much closer to their goal.
“My role on the pitch to protect the back four is most important to me because we have a very offensive team that has a lot of players going forward,”
“I’m just trying to help the centre backs, Per and Nacho, because we are a very offensive team and that’s my main priority. I like to communicate with my team mates, I give a lot on the pitch and I work hard for the team.”
So what went wrong on Tuesday, Matthieu? Speak up!