A senior member of the Arsenal playing staff, Papa Sokratis has added his voice to issues plaguing the club at the moment. In his own wisdom, he believes that once confidence is restored in the team, Arsenal will start winning games.
Speaking to Arsenal.com, Sokratis said “It is a season that has a difficult moment, but we have still a lot of time and we need to improve, we need to play better and of course we have the time to do it…We also have the quality to do it. The team needs confidence and calm to show the quality we have. This will give confidence also.”
Asked if the side could make the top four, he continued, “I think we can … because if we find one or two games where we can play very good and have a good result, after the team will take confidence and after that we have the quality. The quality is here but I think we need confidence.”
Sokratis in my opinion just stressed what we the fans have known for a long time. Confidence comes from playing well and winning games. In a situation whereby a team keeps losing games, confidence stays far away from them. Now, how do we restore confidence to a team? Simple…
A team needs to have an identity and a playing pattern: A team with a playing pattern plays with confidence and high expectations. If I were to resume work in an organization, I expect the organization to create a conducive environment for me to succeed. I need to be given the right tools; I need to be told how to handle difficult situations. All these will make my work easy and encourage me to achieve results that are beyond people’s expectations.
A team needs to flow on the same page as its coach: Watching Arsenal play makes one think that the team is not riding on the same train. Emery wants his team to play from the back, but looking at the players trying to play from the back and getting into trouble, makes you wonder if Emery has really inculcated his ideology into the team.
What I am trying to say here, is that Arsenal needs to create an atmosphere that will give confidence to the players.
Sylvester Kwentua