All I'm saying is that our approach to these games is different than in previous years which shows that he is capable of going on a learning curve, he is slow to change, stubborn, still fails to learn from mistakes? Yes and by the time he adapts it's because he's under pressure to achieve the only thing he is under pressure to achieve.
It's not a defence of him, I think the fact that he has shown he can
Learn from his mistakes and adapt his tactics but chooses not to a lot, is deplorable.
We were better for 20 minutes but we didn't have the striker to make that superiority count. Not the first time we haven't been able to capitalise on having the advantage and it certainly won't be the last. After that the Hammers contained us comfortably. Way too comfortably. True, they only had a couple of shots, exactly according to their game plan. Contain and make the most of any chances that fell their way. They did that, mission accomplished for them. Can't knock them for it, they have a manager who knew what he wanted his team to achieve, he communicated his requirements and they went out and delivered what he wanted. So in reality the Hammers were the comfortable ones and the score lines reveals they were better too.Originally Posted by Letters
You know, the run-in last season wasn't relevant, the pre-season wasn't relevant, the Charity Shield wasn't relevant and now the first game doesn't tell us anything either. But must we really wait until Easter for the great reveal of what we already know? Buys a certain manager some time I suppose. So we can go on one of those runs that is apparently highly relevant.
Come on Letters. Yesterday is a neon indicator 100ft tall. Our manager is still up to his old tricks. We should be looking backwards rather than forwards if we want to know what happens next. Been there, done that. Over and over again.
Für eure Sicherheit
NOTE: The location of this post has been moved and the thread title (which was previously Wenger is Leaving) has been manipulated by a notorious pro-Wenger moderator. What was previously a message that contained no profanity and made a comment on a real life event has now been manipulated by a deliberately provocative title. An old and crude propaganda and censorship technique.
'WHEN HE HAS A PLAN, WE BACK HIM, WHEN HE DOESN'T......WE KEEP QUIET'
Ah Comical Ali, you had to admire his comic timing and straight faced delivery....like an Iraqi Leslie Nielson
He's very slow. Last season it looked as though he took a different approach but that was last season. What about this season? We can go as far back as 2005/06 Champs League final run to a see a dramatic shift in tactics but we didn't and haven't built on that. That Champs League final was almost 10 years ago and we're still underestimating opponents, not doing our research and getting caught out.
In fact, winning against the big teams is no indicator of our progress. Take the 2006/07 season, the only big team we lost against in the Prem was Liverpool away. We beat them at home and in the FA Cup and that 6-3 beating in the League Cup. Went to Old Trafford and won, beat Utd again at home, our youngsters only lost to Chelsea in the league cup final but in the league we never lost to them. Drew both home and away.
But in the Prem we lost to teams like Sheffield Utd 1-0. Bolton 3-1, Fulham 2-1, West Ham did the double on us! We drew to Portsmouth twice! Drew twice against Middlesbrough! FA Cup we get knocked out to Blackburn after replay!
People have put too much emphasis on beating the big teams. It's always been the small teams that park the bus that gave us trouble and we looked forwards to the big teams because we'd expect a more open game. We really need to get a handle on beating well organised teams. It's always been our problem and I remember back then the rhetoric was that we had shown we can beat the best teams in the league and Europe but we lose concentration and focus against the smaller teams.
It's nothing to do with the mentality of our team because we have a more mature team compared to back then and we have better players. It's the tactics that haven't changed and Wenger needs to figure out how to deal with teams that park the bus. He never has and what happened was bigger teams started adapting the same approach and looking to hit us on the break. He needs to get a grip on this and learn to adjust his approach for every team.
To be fair again, what I say shouldn't be taken as support of Wenger, it's just merely pointing out that as I say he has the ability to be adaptable he's just too stubborn.
This whole suggestion that he's somehow too stupid or incompitent to change his ways seems to me lacking in substance, unfortunately it's more the fact that he's entrenched....look at the way last week he got defensive in the post match interview when responding to Mourinho's jibe that we abandoned our philosophy to win.
He is so fixated with this winning in the right way, just as I think he was taken back by the accusation of us being big spenders that it's quite possible he could have reverted to type.
I think Wengers solution to teams that park the bus is the interchangeable front three, but with Sanchez not fit, he arrogantly decided to shoe horn what he considered his best available side into his chosen formation and send them out there in the belief that we deserved to win and we would.
Stats can be used and twisted to back up any argument of course but one that says roughly 96% of the time the champions do not lose their opening game is certainly an indicator. We're not talking in the 60/70% range here, that stat is extraordinarily one-sided. On the surface it seems absurd to write off our chances based on one game. My reckoning as to why it is so important is because immediately you are on the back foot mentally, optimism and confidence has been punctured very quickly and you are chasing everyone else. Winning the league is all about momentum on and off the pitch and starting the season so tamely is a microcosm of wider issues that will come back to hinder you again later on.
Players interchanging doesn't solve that problem either. An organised compact defence won't man mark and stray out of position just because one of our players has gone wide or dropped deep. We've always played a fluid formation under Wenger with Henry going wide, Pires cutting in, Ljunberg cutting in whilst Bergkamp dropped deep. We used to cut teams to ribbons that way. It never stopped and we'd still play that way when we had Cesc, Ade, RVP and Hleb. The solution is we need every player to be mobile, able to pass with speed, trap and control the ball whilst moving with ease....Barca level skill and training to pull off this style off successfully.
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