A thought on Arsene Wenger by KM
What was expected is what happened. They stole my shoes! Can you imagine in the 21st century they’d take your shoes from your doorstep? Now that was unexpected, but the game at the weekend ended as predicted. Chelsea beat us 2 – 0 and Wenger lost another game against Mourinho. Wenger cared about this game. The Arsenal boss really wanted to make up for last year and did some homework. Sadly Chelsea did their homework in the summer and we didn’t.
It’s easy to blame from the side. I get a lot of stick for my anti-Wenger comments. Kenny Dalglish put on an interesting statement that Wenger wasn’t given enough credit for what he did. I think Wenger gets enough credit for what he did with the stadium move and the top 4 finishes, maybe even too much because the Arsenal board also had part to play in the move and gave Wenger a lot of support.
The Liverpool legend’s words can be backed by the fact that Liverpool and now United did find it a struggle to get to the top 4. A spot in the CL is not guaranteed whoever you are and we all acknowledge it. What we want is better tactics and preparations for the game. Addressing of the fitness issues and some transfer activity, not papering over the cracks. The sad thing is we have the money some teams don’t and we are not putting it to a good use. We have obvious issues in the back, we need a DM and a proper forward. None addressed.
We concede far too many, we are predictable in our style of play and we are easily outmuscled. Since Gilberto left we really miss a player like him. City and Chelsea have Fernando, Fernandinho and Matic. We really need players like them because Flamini just won’t cut it. Another thing I don’t get is Ozil on the left. It doesn’t work. Ozil and Cazorla meant we were too slow in moving the ball. And why did the OX not start is beyond me really. We should’ve hit them with pace on the counter.
One good thing was that Wenger cared about this game. He tried to change the tactics and let them have the ball more. The full backs were a lot more conservative about going forward. All good, but Chambers received zero help from the midfield and really struggled against Hazard. Again the highlight of a no DM and Ozil on the wing…
Wenger really wanted to get something and you could see the disappointment in his face. He even went to push Mourinho which was not good. I mean Cahill’s tackle was a straight red but, either way, going to push a person means you are powerless. I don’t think we can question Wenger’s desire but our faith in this game was pretty much obvious.
We should put a reality check on ourselves and stop dreaming of titles. We will have a struggle to reach the top 4. Maybe we’ll do it, but I don’t think there’s much more we can do. To be honest I’d be happy if we just start playing our football. Arsenal need to put a few wins from a good run of the games coming after the break. Hopefully we will come back with some cool heads and start working on putting together some good performances and some points on the board.
Konstantin Mitov
Well, that is past now..the remaining games till Jan are ALL winnable! One Good thing from the Chelsea game is Wenger tried to match our tactics with Chelsea’s game e.g fullbacks not attacking..
If wenger conforms our tactics with the teams in the remaining matches, we will win them all and only very bad luck will make us loose
So frustrated right now … thought the Chelsea fans @ the office keep reminding me that against Maureen, Wenger is the specialist in failure :(… any comebacks guys?… i’m fresh out of ideas!
worse, two weeks without any Arsenal football to right the wrongs, all we can do is be tormented by the last match results. very frustrating 🙁 🙁
I feel you Drew
Not until Wenger is sacked.
What if Wenger goes to PSG and Mourinho fails to win any title again, gets fired and is employed by Arsenal’s board as the coach??? 🙁 🙁
would you still support Arsenal?? and Mourinho in that case?? Would you sing his name??
I seriously don’t know what I would do!!
And what if in the scenario above Arsenal meet PSG in champions league final?? would you wish that Mourinho continues his unbeaten run over wenger hence arsenal win or would you want wenger to finally beat Mourinho hence arsenal loose??
This is more mind boggling and confusing than solving problems in quantum physics 🙁 🙁
too be honest mate, maureen is a brilliant coac and tactician. i believe he’d motivate the team better than sir wenger… just my opinion
Right tactics but wrong XI (ozil or cazorla should have been benched) and shocking subs (ozil should have been subbed not cazorla and much earlier than the 65th min).
Also no idea why wenger never subs or benches ozil, he does it to sanchez.
Maybe the max number of subs on Ozil for a whole season were stated in his contract so Wenger is limited
Seeing Gooners content with a loss against Chelsea saying things like at least we didn’t get demolished or that Wenget at least tried to win the game by adjusting his tactics really just sums up how far from grace we have fallen. I’ve lost a bit of my passion for football after this game.
“I’ve lost a bit of my passion for football after this game”
Wow.i didnt want to be the first one to say this but that passion went after the first game of the season.I looked and i saw the same issues from last season.Hvnt watched and AFC game since..Rather watch a movie on a Saturday and lime on a Sunday…
wenger really wanted to win the match,I was impressed the first 25 minutes of play,but at the end we still need a defensive midfielder… if I was wenger I would try bellerin in right back and chambers in defensive midfield… our attack is just fine but we really need a dm. for the wenger out campaigners you guys should organize a protest in london lets seen how that turns…
also dont forget to apply for the arsenal coaching job with your fifa 15 credentials,in an era where every person and his dog knows how to coach a team better than the best coaches with no coaching experience… I was still an arsenal fan 98 so I wont stop being an arsenal cos we lost to chelsea last sunday…
if you dont like the way arsenal is being managed apply for the coaching job or support another team…. I still believe we can still win another trophy this season…
I also like Chambers but he was torn apart by Hazaard this time.After the yellow card he was scared to go even near to Hazard and on the other hand Ivanovic was continuously pushing and pulling SAnchez and Ozil.
Never happy with a loss, no matter who we play, but this chelsea team is definitely the strongest in the league and are in terrific form… i thought we played reasonably well, luck just wasnt on our side. the team is going in the right direction in terms of players. just a few signings and we are up there. things dont happen over night and this constant moaning by some fans isnt helping at all, support the team COYG!
Jenkinson played whole 90mins in West Hams win over QPR, he played well and was very solid
Forget beating Chelsea. When was the last time we actually scored against them. 2-0, 6-0, 0-0, 2-0. If I remember correctly
Stop recycling old news, am tired of Wenger this Wenger that bullshit. Try to give us some fresh news. Every time i read Wenger’s name in the tabloids i only imagine one thing, 15 years without a premier league trophy and we call ourselves a big team. We used to make fun of Liverpool going 20 years without a trophy but its coming back to us. 4 YEARS TO GO and am still counting down.
@Jogon
10 years since the last EPL title
Seems like 15 to you huh 🙂
counting Wenger’s contract
i have to put my hand up and say i was wrong i thought we needed natural attacking left winger and a striker before DM how wrong i was, all do we needed the N/A/L/W and a ST but i can see how useless we have become in that area, Flam and Art are not cut out for the job we need a 6ft 5 inch of talented beast to bully the opposition and help out with defending, just go all out and get who ever our competition are after like they do to us, Gooners you are going to be surprised when you hear how much money we have in the bank when end of year accounts published end Oct/Nov
we can get Pogba and Vidal sell a couple of players like the Prince and Campbell and get Reus.
this is the only way AW can bully likes of Mourinho
You know when the old must be replaced by the new when the old will not update themselves and they get stuck in persistent outdated habits. Wenger is in repeat mode. same mistakes and refusal to change year after year. Many myths through cultural history reflect the old man giving way to the younger man. Such is life, real life. It really is time for Wenger to go. His philosophy will not work any more. His tactical problems follow him like a shadow. His most tactically relevant ‘philosophy’ of a double deep midfield powerhouses, died with the invincibles. Petit/Gilberto/Viera were the best three deep playing midfield players I have seen in an Arsenal shirt. Now our midget pairing of Arteta/Flamini show us up. Expect disappointment unless Arteta/Flamini are not replaced by a pairing like Khedira/Carvalho. Wenger cannot see the trees for the forest and is stuck in an outdated and obstinate mentality. It was not the teams fault they lost against Chelsea it was Wenger’s. Wenger should have left with dignity a while back, now he is outdated.
Why Francis Coquelin is not our starting DM is a surprise, he was a starter for the French u19/u20’s as a true DM. He is faster, stronger, and more skillful than both Arteta/Flamini…
Hmm.. am sure most of you will start praising wenger if we can win the next match…deluded fans deluded coach
Wenger is scared of Ozil ..thats why he does not substitute him.The whole world was surprised to see Cazorla got substituted before Ozil.
As an Arsenal fan it was sad to see Arsenal playing in last 10 minutes with out any conviction.They were waiting for the final whistle.Wenger …please at least once give Campell and Coquelin a chance.
31 EPL games left.
Win 23 Draw 5 Lose 3.
74 points + 10 = 84
Place
French media criticizing cavani & syas that he isn’t worth 54m that PSG paid he could be sold in jan for less & be replaced with higuian hope wenger goes for him need a player like him + cdm & a cb
Can you stop putting up hope for others. The players that you put up will never in wenger range. You are worst than the media.
Wenger will only buy one top class per season and everyone should be happy cos normally he wont. As a arsenal fans you should know how wenger worked, he will do he want not others.
Since we signed Ozil the most affected player has been Cazorla, he was our main man and was doing the business in his first season with 15 goals and 15 assists. But the next season he became victim, he had to be the utility guy to accommodate Ozil, he keeps being subbed or being a substitute and has not felt appreciated or valued by the fans and the club ever since. People were calling for him to be sold in the summer and still want him sold.. Him and Ramsey were the 2 most important attackers that won us those 2 trophies.
It is understandable as to why fans are upset, but we need to look at the bigger picture here. Not so long ago, we had built a brand new stadium costing roughly 600m. This amount we are still paying off annually which will only be completed in the year 2030. Please look it up if you do not believe me. Arsenal are one of the few clubs actually run properly in a financial and business sense, without the need for cash injections from sugar daddys and dubious exterior sponsors. For this we can be proud and it is something I always throw in the face of the Chelsea’s and City’s. Only recently, have we been able to build up a decent warchest and our purchases over the last 2 seasons are testament to this. Breaking the transfer record for Ozil and now recently a cool 32m +- on Sanchez and others. Either way you look at it, things are looking better than they did 5 years ago when all our best players were jumping ship. We won two major trophies last season too. Wenger maybe taking a little longer than expected to build a world beater of a squad, but we are almost there. Rome was not built in a day. Some of you will say Wenger has had over a decade to do this. Please read the beginning of my statement and realize IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE to do so on a steep budget whilst we had the curve ball thrown at us of all our best players leaving at the same time.
I’m not saying Wenger is not at fault at all…but quite honestly all we hear are rumours…one person will say Wenger has no tactics at all and that he does not even prep his team before each game….another person will say Wenger has a soft spot for players like Wilshere etc…ALL SPECUALTION and a lot of your comments on this site are based on that. ASSUME = making an ass of u and me. The way I see it, Arsenal are better than they were two, three, four, five, six years ago and because of our strong financial position, IT WILL ONLY GET BETTER. Wenger will buy a top DM in Jan and most likely another CB, this he must do. If he doesn’t then I agree he has lost it, but I don’t think he is that senile just yet.
The problem is not just buying big over priced players just for the sake of it. We have been lacking a real DM, CB and a striker for God knows how long. The most crucial positions we are lacking in are being ignored on purpose by Wenger, he is so arrogant and stubborn when it comes to criticism, the reason he is refusing to strengthen these areas is because of his Ego, he absolutely hates being told what to do by anyone. So he refuses signing a Striker, DM, CB to tell people who is in charge, “No one tells me how to coach or manage”. That’s wengers stance. It’s boosting his pride and Ego at the expense of The Club (Arsenal), which to me seems a bit selfish. And I am one of Wengers biggest fans. But he has got to accept defeat and criticism sometime for the sake of the Club.
Wenger brought in Arteta for the very reasons I mentioned above – financial restraint. He saw a holding player in Arteta and he was right, Arteta is extremely good as a holding midfielder and on top of that had extensive BPL experience, his only problem is his stature but for his price (8m) it was a good deal. If we had the type of cash we have now 3 years ago, Wenger would have brought in someone better than Arteta because we would be able to afford it. Right now, Arteta is still running down his contract and has done a pretty good job and the reason why he is going to get a 1 year extension – reason being in case whichever DM Wenger signs in Jan, we will still have Arteta as backup. Again it all boils down to how much reserves we had for transfers a few years ago, compared to what we have now. Wenger cannot just get rid of those players he signed 2-3 years ago, they need to run down the contracts first, hence why we have seen a gradual improvement in our squad and NOT and overnight revamp.
Yes I think he is building it in a very slow pace so don’t get your hope up too soon.
There is something about Wenger , that still reassures me that we will win either the BPL or the CL this year. He has moved away from his stubbornness about an ‘all attack’ arsenal . This was clearly evident at chelsea.
He is clearly playing Ozil on the wings although he should know that Ozil = CAM .
It is like , he knows what he is doing. It is just that it is taking time for things to work, but he knows for one reason or another it will.
When it does work , he will have the last Laugh.
Wenger is still fine tune his 11, I will for seems there will be some up and down results till Jan so this season will be another 4th fighting till the end.
its super big mistake for letting Fab join Chelsea….
if we had resign him…we wouldnt have been in this sorry state….
What can Fabregas do that Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla and Wilshere can’t? Fab chipped a lovely through ball to Costa setting him up for the second goal. The amount of praise he is getting for that is over the top. Yet in the first half, Jack chipped through an even more exquisite ball through to Sanchez, but because he failed to convert it, the near assist is brushed by the way side. If Sanchez had scored that goal, people would be praising Jack Wilshere right now…instead people want his head on a dish. Pathetic.
I saw him doing that 5 times in one game against Sunderland. Walcott was 5 times against the keeper in a 1 vs 1 situation. Wenger makes the gamme to complicated for many players. I am tired of his incompetence to get the best out of players.
@Big Gun…. The amount of things Cesc does not any of our players can… He has all the abilities. But some one like Ramsey can have maybe 4 out of 9 styles that Cesc brings, Ramsey can score, sometimes assist, track back and fight etc.. Same with Wilshere, etc.. Ozil can only assists and that’s about it, which is not good enough in this day and age, this is the EPL..
But when it comes to dominating a game, leading, creating chances, assisting, scoring, playing different position then only may be Cazorla can challenge Cesc..
Yes, because he played magnificent on Sunday.
Wenger home work would be him adjusting tactics according to the players he has. Him buying the players we need to but choose not to do. This means. Wenger is not doing his homework at all, and is far from being interested of wanting to win. You puppets.
I think what we fans need now is patients. Wenger finally open his pocket doesn’t mean he will buy more top players, I think will be once a season. As for trophy PL and UCL we can forget it, FA cup with some luck we may retain it.
Wenger still in his own world and will always be. To sack wenger, you will need to change the board, I don’t think that can be done easily. So if you still want to be an arsenal fans, you need to chill out cos if you want to see arsenal as a top club with glory than you will have to wait long long.
@ks
I know your hate toward wenger cos we did have quality players but is the manager that complicated it. We are short in some area but Wenger just ignored it.
I am not a fan of any club before but because of wenger I start to follow arsenal. The way arsenal play was so nice to watch but that game play is no more seems in our game now. Maybe when you hold the helm for too long, you don’t know what you want any more. The arsenal spirit is no more there any more.
We have become another Spurs mate. When you see Spurs fans they are all big tllk and such but are unnable to back those words up.
Many Arsenal fans think that we have no problems. They think the likes of Wilsher and Ramsey are world class players. And that Wenger is a world class manager, when in truth he gets owned year after year.
Sometimes we get beaten to 8 goals somtimes to 6 sometimes we lead games to 4 goals up and in the end draw them, or almost lose them. There is no single manager in the world who can go 10 years without winning the leauge and not end up with the sack. Instead we reward under performers ( players, managers) with improved contracts which means money overload.
Moro is Cu$nt but he is always right when the topic is football. Wenger has the easist job in the world. Moro said it, Benetez said it, Capello once, and also many other managers.
What can we do? He won’t resign, the board like him and most of the fans were brain wash by him. His favourite players like him too cos he will stand by them all the way even they are su*k.
To be honest, we didn’t lose by 6-0 against Chelsea so it is an improvement. The team had some glimces of brilliance, but didn’t manage to score against a strong opposition. We argue all day about Arsenal defence, but if can’t even score a single goal then we a serious problem in attack.
There are 3 fundamental issues that Arsenal must address in training in order to challenge for the premier league title.
1) Fast counter-atteacks: Fast counter-attacks is an opportunity to get the Chelsea defence on the back foot and out of position. However, this requires pace, precision and deadly finishing from our attackers. We lack 2 out. Our passing up the pitch is sloppy and we have a tendency to lose the ball before we a chance to bring the to ball to the box. One touch finishing does not only concern the striker but also our attacking midfielders, winger and even fullbacks.
2) Ability to break down defences in the box: Breaking down an established defence should be our priority in every training. Most the teams will park the buss against us and try to hit us on the counter. Here we should take a leaf from Barcelona’s book and observe how they patiently pass the ball, probe the defence and waiting for space to occur as a result of frustration. Our tactics are to play through the middle or cross the ball inn. But again when the crosses are not precise enough and squad players have a lower average height then the rest of the league, it is just pointless.
3) Modify our style: We try to play tikki-takka but we can’t play it. Players run with the ball too much. We need to address that passing accuracy and two-touch play. Move the ball quickly and keep that fluency in the opposition’s half. Once we get the first goal in, layback and hit the opposition again on the counter-attacks.
and yeah forgot one more: STOP GIVING THAT GOD DAMN BALL AWAY!!!!
What you said there, most of them know and a 18 years manager should know more than that but did he apply it, we don’t know. In side their own family, they treat arsenal club like a fun club. Are they really serious in their training? Our set pieces standards was going down for years. Maybe they only train to pass the ball to the net and not train how to shot outside the box. All these questions mark are all pointed to wenger management.
Wenger can adjust tactics anyway he likes won’t do any good Chelsea too strong for Arsenal.
Wenger needs to stop buying boy’s and buy a few Men. As far as I can see the tactics are
pass-pass-pass-pass pass then lose the ball and get sucker punched with the other team scoring.
No end product
The main truth is this…. as long as we still have Arsene Wenger as Arsenal manager, we can NEVER be competitive. (Win Premiere lge Or Champs Lge)!!!!!!
In most arsenal sites there are a massive amount of fans that are still licking Arsene ass. It’s beyond me how they can do such a thing. That’s why Arsene won’t move, it’s not Arsene fault being that confortable for years and years, it’s our fault
i have to disagree with the author of this post . it is not that wenger forgot his homework , wenger does not do homework . he believes he is far superior to all the other managers in football . where in fact he is just an oprdinary manager now , a very ordinary manager in fact .he is also a bully , alice ferguson has nothing on wenger let mwe tell you , he is evil personified and one day the truth will come out of the emirates and a lot of ass licking fans on here will be running looking for boulders to hide under .
People don’t get it. I watched that game 3 or 4 times and we were not dominated at all. Mourinho will set up a team not to be scored against us. scoring like what they did was a bonus. All 5 or 6 player were always defending in the Chelsea half and few players were always ready for counter attacks as well as thwarting our counters. We did well but my only regret was defensive mistakes, no cutting edge plus luck, we could have got a penalty and it could have changed a lot! So I have to say it again, the problem wasnt about pace but cutting edge. because even pacy players were going to be fouled when initiating a counter attack and its not in our DNA to stop attacks through hooks and crooks because we will end up 10 or less men anyway!