Wenger: Cech is wrong – I will never play the game like Mourinho

Yesterday, the Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech, who has played under both managers for long periods spoke about the big difference between the philosophies of managing. After saying that Mourinho just wanted to win at any price, he compared that to Arsenal. “The philosophy at Arsenal is completely opposed to this.” he said. “It is not win at all costs but we want to win with a good way of playing. This is beginning to change in our approach.”

I applauded Cech for saying that Wenger’s approach had changed, but the manager says he will never give up his principles and start winning ugly. He was quoted as saying (in Goal) when asked if he would sacrifice his style after losing two games in a row. “Of course you question your decisions, your preparation and everything. We have played three games, there are 35 to go. We have the quality to respond, it’s a good opportunity to show that [Liverpool] was an accident,”

“I never understood what constituted a crisis. It’s important you focus on what’s in front of you, the quality of performance can change from one week to another.

“If you take the history of the game, the biggest winners in the game… if you have to play ugly to convince people to win then it’s the wrong debate.

“The biggest teams in the world have played football. Brazil have won how many World Cups?… Germany, Real Madrid, Barcelona all play football.

“To come out with the conclusion that you have to kick the ball in the stands to win football games, then that’s wrong.

“I believe at some stage you stick to your principles even if it doesn’t go as well as you want it. You don’t question things like that because you lose one game. That’s why people around the team should continue to believe in what we do.

“The best way to win is to perform. We have to convince ourselves to perform.”

So there you have it, Wenger won’t change. You must admit that it does make Arsenal exciting to watch (we have no idea what will happen next lol!), but would you prefer that Arsenal played to win at any cost (like Mourinho) or be pleasing on the eye?

Sam P

50 Comments

    1. I would prefer to go to war under Maurinho than Wenger. Winning requires dynamism. Wenger is too set in his old ways to lead the charges towards the league title. Each time arsenal plays my heart is in my mouth. They look too vulnerable at the back and look positionally ill disciplined.

    2. We don’t play to win at all cost. That was Moureen, and Sir Alex.
      Neither are we pleasing on the eye…that’s Man City.

    3. Wenger is not “a specialist in failure”, because he has brought Arsenal many prestigious titles. But his system is obsolete.

      I’m sure most fans do not like Mourinho’s pragmatic style as well. That is why we have been watching Arsenal, not Manchester United or Chelsea.

      But the problem is Arsenal is neither very pretty or very pragmatic, it is something in between, and they cannot decide. The players are enforced to pass the ball quickly and play with medium tempo.

      If Wenger really wants Arsenal to play like Brazil, Real Madrid or Barcelona, he should get more skillful players that can produce more touches on the ball and dictate the tempo. Only players that have high technical skills can play with such low tempo without getting robbed.

      The issue is Wenger does not keen if players like Sanchez likes to take risks and play with more forward and through balls. How could Arsenal create many open play goals, if the manager always encourages the players to play safe?

      1. I think that the main objective is to win by hook or by crook . And if you want to say that the it should be taken on board and ask them the players how we can improve. It’s important that you can collect the input from other players .And work with the team. Not criticize a player by saying that it’s wrong. Are you listening Mr Wenger.?. Or are you ignoring the fan’s to?.

  1. Can be frustrating watching Arsenal play, especially in front of goal! Don’t walk it in just bloody shoot!! Although I did read online that Arsene said not to shoot!!

    1. thats a major problem

      We always dominate, pass around the ball but cant score

      if we cant score…and panic and desperate mode kicks in

      it will be a matter of time the opposition team will score

  2. in case you wondering why we are where we are and why we won’t be where we supposed to be…well the “the deluded one” just gave you the answer..
    funny how we don’t even play the right way anymore….morning people.

  3. “We have played three games, there are 35 to go. We have the quality to respond, it’s a good opportunity to show that [Liverpool] was an accident”

    First, We may have only played 3 games but two have been Losses and our win was by 1 goal at Home (a win is a win but it shows how poor we’ve be). These are not results to make us optimistic

    United have won all 3 matches fairly easily. So which team looks more likely to win the PL. Yes it’s only 3 matches but even 3 matches can tell a lot

    As for Liverpool being an “Accident”, I don’t know how to respond to that. Liverpool gave us a really good beating. Was Stoke an accident too? lol

    Also, we would have probably lost against Liverpool if we had started Lacazette, Kolsanic and Mustafi but why be disrespectful to their quality by benching them. Maybe we could have at least not lost by a 4 goal margin. We played Liverpool AWAY too. We should have played all our best players against Liverpool

    1. It was really a gamble

      Kolsanic and Lacazette may not be ready and Kolsanic has communication issue

      The board wouldnt give new players

      hence player selection issue

      the players were not up to mark on that game anyway

      everyone does not appear to be focus and seems to look forward to go away for international duty

  4. It’s that kind of stubborn, inflexible and dinasaur type thinking that has made the football world leave him behind.

    If it’s broke, don’t fix it eh Arsene?
    What a joker..

    1. It has been broken under Wenger for a long time. How can his remaining supporters not see it ? Or perhaps they just don’t want to ??

  5. Mourinho’s team has a +10 goal difference from 3 games, whilst Wenger’s team has a -4 goal difference from the same amount of games, so what exactly is a “Good way of playing” Arsene? It’s certainly not what you’re doing these days!!!

    If Arsenal were currently as successful as Brazil, Germany, Real Madrid, and Barcelona then Wenger would have a point. If transfer targets wanted to join Arsenal because they’d be joining a team that is compared to Brazil, Germany, Real Madrid and Barcelona then none of the fans would be complaining. But none of that is true, so I wish Wenger would shut-up with all this nonsense.

    1. scoring more goals give a big advantage

      but it is a win and 3 points that matters whether its 1 nil or 10nil

      We need 3 pts in every game even if its 1 nil or 4-3 win

  6. I don`t know who is the more deluded Wenger or the fans, I know who is the more confused. Well , what do you expect for eight million pounds a year?

  7. He’s just stated that he puts entertaining people though football before getting 3 points….hmmm..
    Ot
    Bye bye Dick Law get your coat and P45 on the way out

  8. As a fan in Africa I pay my DSTV to watch interesting football. Maybe the owners might want to win at all cost. Barcelona and Tottenham are playing their interesting football and winning their games.
    The problem with Arsenal players is mentality, they are weak mentally. Arsene should sacrifice Ozil and Giroud. Put in real fighter like Walcott, Welbeck and Elneny. Arsene is obsessed with the “lazy Ozil”. When things goes wrong, he doesn respond positively. The Invisible won games with the same kind of play. I dont I enjoy watching teams like Chelsea when they play, BORING FOOTBALL. Arsene has to be hard on these players

    1. Walcott’s not a fighter, he’s as dreadful as any of them with that stuff. Decent finisher, good pace, that’s it. His mentality is one of the worst, ie you could see from the first minute they just wanted it more than we did. He had 89min to want to fight back, pitiful behavior.

  9. he’s talking about good football, but truth is Arsenal don’t play good and attractive football at least since 2011-2012 season, when we lost Fabregas and Nasri. we play a few good games a season since, with most games we play bad, even against small teams, and either win narrowly or lose points.
    if we don’t win trophies but play great football like we did in most of the 2005-2010 period, well it might be worth it. but for years we play shit and don’t get trophies, so we get the worse out of the two worlds.

  10. Wenger has never played football, it’s all in his head. Besides scoring goals and getting wins, the next best feeling in football is when you make an important or a plain old tough tackle, great feeling when you slide in and you stop the player in his tracks. Going aggressively for fifty fifties, and nudging it because you wanted it more, it’s a beautiful feeling and I can only dream what it’s like in front of millions of spectators with cheers ringing around. What ever drivel dravel team Wenger supposedly played CB in, I never want to see that footage. Making assists feels good too, even a through ball that you make but striker misses. Wenger is totally trying to down play one of the best things about football, it’s the part that gave it the phrase of- it’s a mans game, or contact sport, you get the feeling Wenger would be happier without the contact. Saying hitting into row z is not beautiful on the eye, well neither is a grown man avoiding contact or giving up because he does not have the ball in a forward area. Neither is it beautiful to have all but two players forward and then watch the ball end up in our net somehow ..somehow?. Listening to yourself in denial after every season or after every familiar looking cockup. That is not apart of the beautiful game neither, we get enough of it from you though don’t we ..mr handsome. Row z needs to be not thought about, Wenger, you don’t plan for row z, when it’s needed the players will know it instinctively, even if you don’t.

    1. You guys are just ungrateful is there any time you will see the truth about your own team ??? Get all life . So disappointed fans talk rubbish , we haven’t won anything till ozil joined 2013 starting winning trophies still ungrateful. Support the teams and stop talking

  11. If one called Wenger arrogant or conceited I would agree but specialist in failure definitely not. Maybe he is a specialist in FA and Community shield. I have at times criticised Wenger on this very website but my criticism is always limited to the issue at hand and does not tantamount to hatred or total rejection. There are many managers who wish they could achieve what Wenger has achieved: 3 EPL trophies, 7 FA cups, 7 Community shields, 20 years in CL consecutively, building an ultra modern stadium, keeping the Club financially sound and turning ordinary players like Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp, Kolo Toure, Sol Campbell, Jens Lehmann, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Frederick Ljunberg, Gilberto Silva and others into superstars.
    Mourinho has won more trophies than Wenger but he doesn’t command the same respect as Wenger because he does not build success; he buys it. Arsenal’s brand of football has endeared the Club to many fans across the world and nobody can dispute this. If Wenger had become a roving manager like Mourinho to Clubs with money he would have won many more trophies but he stuck with Arsenal through thick and thin. This doesn’t mean that Wenger shouldn’t be held accountable but he deserves respect for his principled stand. I believe Wenger doesn’t have more than four years at Arsenal at most. It could even be only two years but Wenger’s departure will not necessarily open the flood gates for trophies. The reverse could even be true. How long has Jurgen Klopp been at Liverpool? How many trophies has he won? Even Pep Guardiola is not guaranteed a trophy this season. So let us be rational in our outlook.

    1. could have been 4 EPL and 1 League Cup

      The 2008 team was set up with budget signings…played beautiful football

      but crashes at the end

      a real waste

    2. Perhaps then just Specialist in Failure in the League and Europe.
      Quite a few people want us to be competative with the top clubs. 3 FA cups in 12 years does not cut it for a club who Wenger himself claims has a great squad of players.

    3. Arsenal could do with some of those “ordinary players” now, but Wenger couldn’t pay for them or attract them!

    4. FYI – those ‘ordinary’ players : Dennis Bergkamp (already hailed as one of the best players to come from Holland in the Cryuff mode,a UEFA cup winner and current Dutch international), Campbell (England international and one of the top CBs in the country – whilst at Spurs), Jens Lehmann (German international), Robin van Persie (Bergkamps hier apparent whist at Feynoord), Frederick Ljunberg (established Swedish internation – actually playing more as a#10 i think), Gilberto Silva (Ever heard of the World Cup? called the ‘invisible wall’ by his teamates – integral to the teams success?)
      They were already either known / recognised talents or established internationals…

      It does peeve me off when people come out with this myth that AW virtually ‘turned’ players into world class stars. As it has been established since – AW gives one the licence to express themselves and will give them countless chances to do so without fear of being dropped – that and the fact that he’s not really down on ‘coaching’ per se but is more of a motivator.

      Given the fact that one of our biggest problems over the last decade (A point made by Vierra once about the strength and weakness of AW) or so is his fath in his players – insistance in playing out of form players for waaaay longer than would be allowed at any other big club in the ‘hope’ that they’ll come out better for it – usually at the cost of the team challenging year after year – basically means he struck it lucky back then in having players, not only with the talent, but also with the commodity we have lacked for so so long – mentality. And if he wasn’t lucky – then someone please explain why we have been so weak-ass for sooooooo long…

    5. @David Russ, allow me to knock some names off your list of Wenger miracles.
      1. Thierry Henry was already a world cup winner b4 coming to arsenal. Being a regular and co-top scoring for les blues in the world cup with zidane despite playing from the wings. Pipped to best player of the tournament by Michael Owen only.
      2. Dennis Bergkamp, made top 3 in the world player of the year awards while at inter b4 coming to arsenal. A feat he will only manage once more while at arsenal. Thus a world known superstar b4 Wenger touched him.
      3. Gilberto Silva, already a world cup winner with Brazil in 2002, as a regular in an exciting Brazilian team, needed to introduction when he signed for arsenal
      4. Lehmann, ljunberg established internationals with Germany and Sweden b4 being touched by Wenger.
      5. Fabregas already known as a rising star at LA masia, but just like jadon Sancho, had too many better players ahead of him in the barca first team, felt he needed to go out to get his chance. Wenger can take the credit if he wants to be a thief
      6. Viera and van persie, also seen as top talents in their respective leagues, credit to Wenger to scout them out and give them the platform to perform
      In summary, this repost isn’t to knock Wenger down but I feel Wenger is given far too much credit for things he shouldn’t (eg building of the emirates, I haven’t seen pics of him carrying the bricks with which the stadium was built though). He’s undoubtedly had some successes, but let’s not exaggerate those by adding players we already knew as stars b4 Wenger had them

  12. Do we like to watch a good game with good stuffs and great goal from my team? Yes!
    Do I hate to see my team lose opportunity after opportunity for lack of directness even when they get so close to their opponent goal post? Yes!
    Would I hate to lose a game against any opponent? Yes!
    Do we always want to win every game and every time? Hell yeah!!!

    Honestly, what lots of fans want to see is a great game in victory for the Gunners. We love sweet games but at times, it’s disadvantageous to be so monotonous in your game play as opposing teams are already familiar with what u are bringing to the table. They then set up their own game plan just to counter yours and Patiently wait for us to tire out in our football porn to capitalise in our brief period of frailty. Please, never play like that Mourinho dude, we can do better than that but don’t make our eyes sore from watching losses, especially after having 65% of the possession. We only want victories and trophies. If you are a good enough gaffer, you would work on that.

  13. TBH I don’t think we are so exciting to watch any longer. And we definitely don’t have a monopoly any longer on playing in a pleasing style. City, Liverpool, Spurs, Southampton and others play equally pretty football.

    In the days of Fabregas, Nasri, RVP we could play some scintillating stuff. But in recent years it seems our passing has slowed down and becomes laborious. We are actually quite frustrating to watch at times with endless useless passes around the box of weaker opponents.

    As much as I loathe the man and hope he doesn’t win the PL this season, Mourinho is not a hoof it in the stand type of manager only. He played decent stuff with Real when they broke Barca’s grip on the title.

    What he is capable of is playing for a draw when his team is playing poorly or has injuries or he is facing a stronger team. That becomes an exercise in team defending that is only impressive if you like football beyond the pretty stuff but actually, appreciate tactics.

    I don’t see why it has to be black or white? Why can we not acknowledge that we are no longer a top team and focus on our opponents weaknesses when we play the likes of Barca, Bayern, Man U, City, Chelsea etc. For me, it is foolish not to consider your opponent and not to be willing to play pragmatic from time to time.

  14. when you are learning the game you are taught everything about the game,so how about putting all what you learn into every game, the great arsenal teams in the past had the best of everything, so why not use the blue print that bought you success in the past to bring about more success now? when arsenal lost against cyrstal palace under big sam last season, in his post match interview big sam mentioned that he used the same tactics to beat arsenal that he used when managing bolton wanderers,so my point is every team with ambition to be the best has to be good enough to adjust to different styles, and just a quick point on petr cech’s comments, whether you like or dislike either managers style, that in my opinion is not a major issue , but to me the big difference between the two managers is that ,maureen does what need’s to be done and wenger does what he want’s, and so, he wanted to stay and he is , but the need to do for the team he neglects .

    1. That is the trouble when you have somebody so fixed in their ways runniing the team. He is too old to change.

      1. The big difference between Maurinho and Wenger is money. Give both managers the same money and see what happens over five years… of course not possible to have that experiment, but look at what happens to the Portuguese manager when he stays a bit longer in one place, and when money becomes an issue.

  15. I am always amazed when I read comments from British fans. I used to live in England and spent much of my student money to watch Arsenal. I went to games with people who hated the team but could not get over the reality that they played the best football. The problem now is that they do not win enough. Why?
    1. A philosophical and political difference – England likes a bit of rugby in football, so does South America. However, SA can play better. So England do not do well in World cup. Ugly is not enough. Ugly is so much in the DNA that referees allow too much especially against teams they call puny; pundits call arsenal weak but replays show more than a half of ugly attacks are fouls. And not surprising if Arsenal (the weak and beautiful) tough one of the ugly or employ an ugly it gets called out as it was not done ugly enough. So the philosophical difference creates prejudice! Check your penalties. Arsenal would have been third last season.
    2. Why was Mourinho successful – not ugly but setting the record for spending. When you have great players your ugly is good – and your beautiful would be better. In other words, I am suggesting that if you gave the same players to an attacking coach Chelsea could have achieved more. I will even risk it and say I wish to see Wenger get some good players one day soon. Match our midfield and defence with Mourinho’s Chelsea and see if we even match. So you folk are comparing Arsenal’s mean and cheap 10 dollar team against a 100 dollar team and complaining.
    3. Wenger is correct. Football is about skill and techniques. This is why a dollar team can make top 4 for so long. Arsenal needs players. Sorry but Ramsay as your midfield suggests you are poor. Ozil has to collect a ball from deep and take it to the feet of people to allow the team to do well. Then you blame Ozil. Why do we not simply stop and apply some real data or science. Arsenal needs to attack the owner – Money in equals result. Give me good players and I do not care about ugly or beauty. But beauty is nicer on the eyes.

    1. Herber Gayle!

      Excellent insight, thank you! Please do post more, this fan base needing people able to give counter narratives, beyond “Wengerout”!

  16. To he’ll with cech old man . He’s too useless . If thinks Jose plays good football why didn’t he stay there and warm the bench idiot him . I actual don’t like him . He has been awful . I won’t blame players for loosing those two games what is job to be a keeper ? That’s why I said your fans are so dem bias if it was ospina loosing those two games the world was supposed to come down .

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