Steve Bould was known as a formidable defender when he played in the Arsenal defence alongside Tony Adams, Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon, and when he replaced Pat Rice as Arsene Wenger’s assistant manager back in 2012, we all hoped that would be teaching our current defenders how to stop leaking silly goals which has been one of our biggest problems in the last decade.
But, if anything, our defending has got steadily worse as Wenger much prefers to get his teams to attack in numbers than worry about stopping the other side scoring, and it would seem that Bouldy does little more than Wenger in the dug-out, chewing gum and nodding occasionally at the Boss.
But at the beginning of this season Wenger brought in Jens Lehmann as a first-team coach, and according to our young centre-back Rob Holding, he is teaching him to be more fiery in his role. “Jens has been a big difference since he’s come in,” Holding said. “He’s very demanding and not afraid to get down and dirty with you – he’ll get at you and I’ll have a little snap back.
“But then after training we’ll speak about it and we’ll come to an agreement on what went on and then the next day it’s like nothing happened.
“There’s no grudges held and it’s what I think is the key to getting the best out of me. You’re more aggressive and more demanding as a consequence and that’s what I need to be as a centre-half.”
Lehmann himself was very well-known for his aggressive manner and was proud to have played in every game of Arsenal’s Invincible season. Could he be the one to finally teach our young defenders to fight like Arsenal did while he was playing?
Darren N