Wojciech Szczesny has claimed that the Arsenal coaching set-up is lacking in comparison to what he has endured since moving to Italy.
The Polish international broke into the Gunners’ first-team back in 2010, and a year later earned the right to be the club’s first-choice for the campaign, but he failed to persuade Arsene Wenger that he was the long-term option, and rivals were signed to challenge him.
David Ospina eventually displaced him as first-choice stopper halfway through the 2014-15 term, and the Pole eventually left to join Roma on loan the following summer, with Petr Cech being brought in from Chelsea to lead the line, but Wojciech claims that his development stalled once he broke into the first-team, but has flourished since being coached in Italy.
“Honestly, I couldn’t say from a technical standpoint that I improved in any way from when I became first choice at Arsenal until the day I left for Roma,” Szczesny said.
“However, in the two-and-a-half years since I came to Italy I’ve improved massively, which is thanks to the coaches and the way they work. It’s not about improving when you play, it’s every day in training you have to work on every aspect of your game and that’s something I’ve really enjoyed.
“I think in general, the coaches in Italy are much more tactical, that’s just how the league works.
“At Arsenal you’d just prepare physically for it but here you watch films analysing a specific opponent before the game and afterwards we’ll watch again to see what worked and what didn’t.
“I enjoyed working with some great coaches at Arsenal, Roma and here, but the goalkeeping school in Italy is very different – it’s very technical and pays more attention to the details.”
Can Arsenal boast any major improvements from goalkeepers in our first-team squad in the past decade? Does our coaching set-up need looking at? Or should Szczesny blame himself for his lack of progression?
Pat J