Wow, I can’t believe what I am reading here, as the Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno has given a damning summary of what he believes is going wrong at Arsenal and it does not make for pretty reading I must say. Arsenal yet again struggled last night against Southampton, and yet again had a sending off thanks to Gabriel, and have now got their first point in five home games. No wonder Leno is upset!
One thing he is adamant about, though, is that this is definitely not Arteta’s fault and pins these labels clearly on his team-mates.
Read this and see what you think…..
Leno told Sky Germany when asked about the pressure building up on Mikel Arteta:: “That [pressure on Arteta] is not an issue at all. The coach is least to blame for the fact that we are in this situation.
“If you look at the way we were running around on the pitch at times, then the players are the only ones to blame. I have to be honest about that.
“We’re getting red cards, making mistakes, standing out of position. These are things that we have clearly addressed a thousand times. In the end, it’s a lack of focus on the part of the players.
“The coach is not an issue in the dressing room, there is no criticism of him. We criticise ourselves and the players know that they are responsible.
“We actually have quality, but all of a sudden there was this break. But nobody can pin it on just one person.
“The numbers speak for themselves that things haven’t been going well lately. Before that, we often lost deservedly.
“We did draw 0-0 at Leeds, but that was a lucky point. We deserved to lose against Tottenham, against Wolverhampton as well, against Aston Villa even 3-0. Those [games] were just far too many weak results and disappointing performances.
“The attitude is bad, the discipline is lacking and we have no self-confidence. There are many factors at play here.
“We have addressed this very clearly internally and everyone agrees that we have to change this very quickly.”
Well you can’t accuse Leno of beating about the bush! He has laid every single one of his cards on the table, and it should be an interesting chat the next time there is a team meeting in the dressing room.
We have long thought that there must be internal problems causing us to only gain 2 points out of six games, but now we have it straight from the horses mouth.
What do you make of that, then?
Point gained the game Leno finally took conventional goal kicks and punted the ball up the pitch to the halfway line. Playing from the back has cost an already jittery side in recent performances and as a goal keeper it is within his right to make an Executive Decision and override dead tactics to ease pressure off your defenders every stoppage of play. To that end Leno is also at fault. Goal keepers are not exempted from having a “Football Brain”.
Indeed. When he came back we started loosing, loss of confidence permeated into the team. He has to instil confidence in the team too from the back.
He never makes quick decisions like a quick release to start a counter attack. He holds on the ball too long.
Thank you Bernd Leno.
“The attitude is bad, the discipline is lacking”.
And this not from a hack, or rumours, but from one of our very own players.
“Hogwash” & “Rubbish” has been thrown about on here when I raised my view this very week re’ the above issues (amongst others) being to the fore of our current problems – in fact for a good while now.
With all due respect, anyone who knew a modicum about ALL aspects of the game & club we all love could see this a mile off.
This squad has some bad influences that need rooting out sooner than later.
Unai Emery part 2.
NO SINGLE PLAYER IS BIGGER THAN ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB.
OR MANAGER
We could say so if we see Emery’s Villareal in La Liga now, but I believe the players’ low confidence is the reflection of Arteta’s and the coaches’. If we see how the oppositions’ defenders easily handled our attackers in our last five EPL games, it’s obvious that our attackers aren’t good in one-on-one situations and duels
Saka risked his legs to dribble past several opponents yesterday, but our attackers are mostly reluctant to sacrifice themselves like that. Arsenal could replace Arteta with a much older manager to motivate the players, but they must recruit better attackers next time and the ones with EPL experience if possible
Leno has described all the symptoms, what I am interested in is the cause.
Chronic mismanagement for years from Wenger and Gazidis is the root cause.
What Leno is saying has been quite obvious to see, so nothing new there.
In the end though, it is the manager’s responsibility ro organize and discipline the team. No easy task, but nevertheless, it is his responsibility.
I been telling this for very long time. 2 or 3 years. Laca & Auba wont bring us bigger Trophy. They both not even close to Sanchez skill. Dont bother abt RVP or Henry. Time for Laca & Auba to leave.
@Kingandroidx, said the same thing here!! Aubameyang and Lacazette must be shown the door@the end of this season!!
They are so terrible!! Lazy, slow n have a poor attitude!! Surprised when many here claim that Laca is very hard-working!!😕😕
In the EPL these days, Speedy attack win matches!! Look@how Pedro Neto won Wolves’s game against Chelsea!! Look@the likes of Son, Kane, Richardlison, Jimenez, Zaha, Maupay, etc..They have strength, Stamina n Speed which we lack. Wonder how some fans manage to see Laca, Auba as Top strikers!!😒😒
You may say age factor but Danny Welbeck, Karim Benzema, Lionel Messi runs faster than the duo..
If MA was any serious about being a coach, would have been starting Nelson, Balogun n Nketiah in a three-man attack. But he is fast proving to be clueless n out of his depths..A big Let-down to Arsenal fans worldwide!!🙍🙍
Laca, Auba, xaka, Luiz, Willian to leave. They will not bring sth to the team….
Bunch of overated, over the hill losers the bunch of them. Let’s move on.
A soup cooked by the manager. Exiling players have a bad effect on the team.
Managing egos is an art acquired from experience.
There is nothing MA can do to regain control of this club unless we start winning.
Before the transfer window, I mentioned here that what we needed was not just midfield players, but also the defence and strikers,
I mentioned we needed two defenders (To me Gabriel and Saliba), midfield players (DM and CAM – without counting Ceballos), Partey and Aouar, and two strikers (Edward- a natural 9 and a 10,), we didn’t get either,
I mentioned that Lacazette, even though an hardworker, would be a good squad player, and Auba would need competition, fuck, the guy is lazy, and has a bad positioning, but you will all keep worshipping him,
Right now I am only betting on Martinelli to make things better, that is if we don’t get anyone else in January,
Come January, we should get a CAM, and two natural strikers,
We should do away with Lacazette, Elneny, Xhaka, Willian and Pepe (whether in January or summer), they are all deadwood,
But who will buy them nway,
If them being senior players cannot motivate the younger guys, then they are just being paid for nothing,
I would keep Luiz over those 5
The buck always stops at the door of the Manager, but financially they never suffer at the EP L level.Indeed the money paid by Clubs to terminate the contracts of Managers and their support teams must be astronomical.In some ways it pays them to be failures if they are on long term contracts.Football has its own “magic roundabout” with the likes of Allardice popping up elsewhere from time to time.In fact you could call it a jobs for the boys culture.At least at Arsenal we have given an intelligent young Manager a chance, and I really hope we give him time to prove himself.
He speaks the truth but it won’t go down well in the dressing room.
I make of it that LENO is a kindred spirit and insists on speaking truth. No wise fan can doubt his comments as truth. The culture at Arsenal for at least a decade now has been of mental weakness, in some cases of physical weakness too ,ie easily bullied and of insufficient will to win. Notable exceptions are Tierney and Saka and a handful of others .
BUT AT LEAST HALF, PROBABLY MORE, OF THIS SQUAD NEED TO GO, for us to make real progress . And with Kroenke plus Covid, that will take time and patience. I have both but so many do not. Sigh!
I appreciated the unvarnished truth espoused by Leno; frankly we could use more of the same. I also appreciate Tierney’s comments regarding the team’s form and poor performances. Hopefully Tierney is a captain in the making and one the club could benefit from.
Calling out chronic underperformers and those who are not handling their responsibilities is a good start, and maybe the level of performance will improve.
Discipline is the main problem, pepe and xhaka both sent off for violent conduct which I thought was an absolute disgrace. At least gabriel sending off was just stupidity and a lack of experience but xhaka like pepe will be played immediately his ban is over. Arteta has become a bit of a yes man to the board as his decision to omit ozil from the club without a honest explanation to the fans shows us that he is only a puppet
He was really handsy all game though. Should have had a yellow for his arm wash in first half. Reminded me of Sokratis the wrestler but he grabs people whereas Gabriel was flailing around a lot.
I like his assessment and the disease has infected him as well. He is not playing as well as before injury (for me it was between Auba and Leno for POY to that point – feel free to disagree but that is how I saw it).
His post-injury performance really makes the loss of Martinez look bad, but pre-injury Leno was a different player.
Have been saying this a lot, hope he gets his mojo back along with the rest.
Reason we are shaky at the back is Leno ffs. Martinez brought stability to the backline and was a true gunner that cared for club. Look at the FA Cup tears and we should’ve let him continue in goal as no1 and showed some loyalty but again we didnt….
The way Mesut has been frozen out is a joke no matter the situation to be not even in squad was a disgrace plus Matteo being frozen out then sent out on loan for having a set and sticking up for his players. We needed players like him about the team.
Arteta has each player micro managed where they restricted to what they can do and maybe on Mikels said the players are not doing what he is asking so that in itself is a huge problem. He may be an encyclopedia for football but getting those ideas onto the pitch isnt easy as we are witnessing 1st hand atm.
Leno is right but he is a much the problem as the rest. Auba has went way off the boil, laca is a good player not great & Pepe has no confidence at all but has something that Mikel needs to unlock asap before he becomes a flop also.
Gabriel was silly and will learn, Granit needs to leave along with the rest of the players out of contract come the summer. Saliba needs to be in the squad not loaned out!
Try and seperate Leno the player and Leno the man from these comments. Leno the player is lacking confidence and this can be seen in his timing which seems off,thus making wrong decisions by coming out either too late or too quickly. He missed a good chunk of last year with his injury when Martinez stepped up to put pressure on him. The internal situation in the club is obviously not helping his confidence,after all who needs that added pressure. In speaking out however I think Leno the man has done a brave thing telling it like it is. What’s the point of white washing a failure of commitment? Who’s reputations would you want to protect if you know there are people around you who are underperforming or simply can’t be relied on. Good on him! I respect his Germanic DNA in calling a spade a spade. Sorry about the stereotyping though.
All of these comments lack one thing – context. Leno cannot speak publicly about the coach. He therefore speaks about the other factors. I keep asking my friends – can police officers be bad without bad state structures? The performance of players depend on at least parties; and trust me the fans are not in the stadium to be blamed so the coach and board cannot be blameless – only they cannot be blamed publicly by players
Make this guy our captain, apparently he can talk to the players on the field and we need someone like that!!
He can’t even co ordinate his defense properly.
Minus the occasional diving save, this is the best thing Leno has done since arriving at the Emirates…although he tried desperately to protect Arteta, his comments were in fact an indictment on his ability to manage…if, as he says, the manager has discussed the indiscipline on the pitch ad nauseam, then why does he continuously play those same individuals(minus when in Europa or as a result of suspensions)…I would find it much easier to empathize with Arteta if his actions mirrored his words…this club is notorious for overselling and under-deliverying, which is quite ironic as this wasn’t even necessary this time around…most of us were well-aware that there were some deep-rooted issues which would require some time to remedy, but instead of utilizing that narrative to their advantage, they choose to sign aging players, ostracize our younger assets and play-up the possibility of a top 4 finish…they should have actively tamped down this notion and honestly engaged the fans…when, and only when, things went south did they drag out the whole “have patience” narrative back into the forefront…this was a cake and eat it too rouse…I knew full-well after the FA Cup victory this money-grubbing club couldn’t resist the temptation to once again cash in, with the release of 74 new Kits etc…anyone who thinks our absentee landlord has actually suffered financially during covid doesn’t understand a lick about how Stan the Man and his Walmart heiress wife conduct business
He actually blamed himself for staying out of position too. That’s a really honest assessment but Arteta is not faultless. He should be given a few more games to bring the team back on track. If he fails then we should be considering hiring someone else to do the job