He’s being exposed badly. He is tactically clueless. Every time we need a goal he’ll take off Coquelin and sacrifice a defensive player for attack. Or he’ll take off a wing back. Totally unbalances the squad and that third goal wouldn’t have happened if we had Coquelin still on the pitch.Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Sadly there's a truth emerging about Wenger. Henry is the player on which so much of the Wenger myth (it really is starting to look like a myth) is based. Out of sorts winger that Wenger masterfully transforms into the great striker. But keep winding forward and where is the next great triumph? I see Kolo Toure rattling around until he settles down at CB. Then I'm struggling to find another of the master's transformations.
1-0 to the Arsenal, Wenger was able to build so much on the characters of Adams, Bould, Keown, Dixon, Winterburn and Seaman, none of them his players and already a tightly knit unit that happily he didn't tinker with.
Bergkamp? No input required there, Bergkamp already knew his stuff inside out and back to front.
Vieira. Well credit for spotting him but Paddy was a winner all by himself and didn't need any external help to get on with the business of bossing the midfield.
Henry. I believe I could have coached Henry to greatness. What I would have done is sit back and listen carefully to the player and then let him get on with it. Henry credits Wenger for so much but I wonder if he is confusing Wenger's input with the overall results? Wenger had to play him, of course. Wenger had to say yes to him moving to the centre. But you watch Henry play and this stuff is kind of obvious.
i don't take all the credit away from Wenger. He did a lot in terms of fitness, scouting, taking some risk in the transfer market when money was harder to come by. But when you see his repeated failure to grasp even the basics of competing at the highest level you have to wonder is the training being handed down by a Jedi knight, as the legend goes, or is it primarily a DIY job?
Für eure Sicherheit
Wax-on, wax-off. Wax-on, wax-off.Vieira said something revealing about Wenger’s management style in the documentary he made with Roy Keane a while ago. The manager’s biggest strength? “Trust,” said Vieira. “He will trust his players. He will try to make you make the right decision by yourself. Not him telling you what he expects or what he wants you to do … that can be a weakness as well.”
Big day arrives. You get your arse kicked. Not once, but on the majority of occasions. Unless you have a house built by George Graham and three musketeers in the shape of Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira who came later to Arsenal having done their basic training elsewhere.
Wenger should do himself a huge favour and call it a day in 2017. It may still be too late by then if he can't land a significant trophy with all the new money at his disposal, the myth might be fully exposed.
There are still those hints and rumours about last season's surprisingly organised victory over the gypos. Was it Wenger or did the players take matters into their own hands? Even Wenger hints at the latter.
Will Wenger's final legacy be his undoubted talent in generating a half billion quid pay day for the old Etonians and a steady investment bump for the new Americans? A bright and shiny stadium but without the team to grace it now Graham's boys have retired to punditry and the likes of Bergkamp have been locked out because, I wonder, they don't completely agree with the master's methods. Henry is there now working with the kids. That might be something.
Für eure Sicherheit
Im saying Wenger is finished but the players arent all that great. Wenger isnt holding back this bunch.
Look what Cazorla did on the third goal, left the guy on edge of the box free in favour of completing a back 6. He's a bad CM and is finished as a winger.
Ozil is dog, ive tried but hes dog. People said he needed runners and pace around and hes got it but still nothing. If the club were smart they would have offloaded him to PSG for a 20% loss. Beats making a 70% loss in 2-3 years.
Coquelin has been our best player this season, a guy with no pedigree. Its not a great squad.
I have to agree about the squad and Ozil in particular,I don't think this lot are anywhere close to competing for the really big prize's.
It certainly is looking like a myth. All these ‘I could have signed’ stories don’t look good but he keeps telling them as if it somehow portrays him in a good light. As if he’s trying to portray that he’s still in the know. That wise old man that never misses anything.It’s the opposite. He has anecdotes about nearly signing Ronaldinho and spotting the great South and Central American stars as kids. Work permit and passport issues are the reason we couldn’t sign them is what he’ll have us believe. Fair enough. But when he comes back from those regions, he’s back with Denilson, Vela, Joel Campbell and Wellington Silva! Were these the next Messi’s and Ronaldo’s gone horribly wrong under his tutelage or is he just full of it and couldn’t spot the next big thing if they were right in front of him? Speaking of which, we had Yaya Toure and Ibrahimovic on trial here at Arsenal and he didn’t sign either of them.
Is this guy a fraud or what? We could have signed Bale! Great. You signed Walcott. Maybe Walcott looked the more promising player at the time but how is it that Bale has surpassed him and technically superior under Wenger’s watchful eye when that’s what he cherishes the most? Does he actually teach and coach technique or does he just give the players a chance to play and try to build their confidence with his Zen like quotes?
When Theo is missing his chances, is he patting him on the back and telling him “there, there, next time you’ll score. I believe in you” or is he telling him “you rushed your shot, you chose to take another touch instead of putting your foot through it and learn how to hit it with the outside of your boot”. This is what I want to know. Is he teaching these kids the basics. The technical stuff. How deep is he going. Is he teaching them positional awareness. There simply is no evidence of it. I just find it hard to believe that over the last 10 years working with young players he’s been this unlucky. As you say, the great players we had in the early days wouldn’t have been what they were without the old guard. It’s really looking that way.
That sums it up, NQ. If this is his approach with all players it explains why our young players aren't developing as well as they could be. It's why I'm not 100% sold on this Martial kid because when the player hits a rock and needs to regain some confidence, Wenger won't be able to help. It's what happens with all of our young players. Off to a flyer and playing with confidence in their first year and then they just totally dip.Vieira said something revealing about Wenger’s management style in the documentary he made with Roy Keane a while ago. The manager’s biggest strength? “Trust,” said Vieira. “He will trust his players. He will try to make you make the right decision by yourself. Not him telling you what he expects or what he wants you to do … that can be a weakness as well.”
I didn’t even mention in my last post how Wenger was close to selling Coquelin. A DM 10 times better than what we currently had and he couldn’t recognise it. Took injuries for him to be recalled from loan and played.
The players aren’t that great but is that down to the manager? Are they that bad that they should be losing in the way we lost on Tuesday? I don’t think we should be losing at home like that and so easily. Cazorla is only playing as CM because the manager won’t drop Ozil. And speaking of players dropped, we had a world class keeper sitting on the bench because Wenger has been strong armed by some nobody keeper to play CL football. How is that possible? Our best player in Coquelin was hauled off on the night as well to make room for Ramsey because he was too weak again to bench Cazorla or Ozil. Under such weak management a young player like Martial wouldn’t get a look in. You’d grow frustrated by the team selection sheet each week when he’s not included and when he finally is you’ll be pissed about where he’s been played and who he has playing around him. Trust me on that one. Seen it countless times. It’s a cycle.
The squad needs tearing up, right down the middle of the first eleven and out wide too. A real striker, CM and CB, with a real, specialised wide player in there. Roy Keane was spot on at the start of the season. Added to that, there are too many quiet, good boys in this squad who take their beatings as good boys tend to do. Anyone with an edge has been shipped out of the club, forming a little choir school with no personality.
Wenger's biggest mistake and one that lies at the root of the issues we've seen over the past decade, comes down to the departure of The Invincibles. As Adams and co had instilled their mentality into the early 00's team, that had to be integrated on to the next stage. Except one of the most successful teams in the history of our club was dismantled in two seasons, preventing any sense of continuity. So we started from scratch, putting together teams based on Wenger's powder puff mentality which has led us to this point. Alongside the obvious Vieira, Dennis and Henry, we had Lauren, Lehmann, Campbell, Cole, Edu and Gilberto all gone in that space of time. Continuity was something that allowed Utd to stay where they were for so long and of course the spine of the Chelsea team.
You should have seen Keane on the CL highlight show last night. The way he said we were 'weak'.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote