Danny Mills has urged Arsenal’s players to ignore Mikel Arteta’s instruction at some moments on the pitch and make things happen on their own.
The Gunners have lost their last three league matches, and it has dented their hopes of finishing this season inside the Champions League places.
Arteta has proven his worth as a decent tactician even though his career is just starting and the players respect his instructions.
However, former Premier League star, Mills believes sometimes they need to ignore what the manager has asked them to do and go for what they know can help them win a game.
He tells Football Insider: “When we talk about leaders, it’s players with a voice, influence and experience. So when things aren’t quite working on the pitch, whatever the manager’s instructions are, you’re not a robot and you can change.
“Football is one of the most fluids games. You can have a game plan but it might change, it’s not stop-start, you can’t reset every two minutes.
“If things aren’t going your way you need players to be adaptable, to adjust to certain situations and tell their teammates to adjust and do things a different way.
“If you don’t have that ability within players and they constantly look to the bench then there’s an old saying, if you’re looking at the bench then you should be on it.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Mills played in the Premier League for several years and he knows what it takes to function in the competition.
His comments are coming from a place of experience, and it could be what Arsenal is missing now.
The likes of Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard have played at big clubs before moving to the Emirates. They can use some of that experience to win matches for us.