Originally Posted by
Ice Berg Kamping
Thanks. For me, there have of course been concerns with the manager for a while. However, I have defended him against the vastly superior spending power of the top 3, backed him when he has got rid of want away players that I think the club has been generally powerless to keep, and been prepared to see what he can do with a new policy of purchasing established stars rather than youngsters.
But it has become clear to me that he has lost the insight into the game, and particularly the objectivity as to the effectiveness of his methods, that he once had. Lets face it, Wenger has never been a tactician. He has relied on his vision as to how the game should be played, his willingness to give players the freedom to express themselves on the pitch, and a sharp eye for talent. All three are now being shown up.
His vision as to how the game should be played is both out of step with the talent at his disposal, and ill suited for the English game, where counter attacking is king. We are a dream for any counter-attacking team to play - whether it is those teams such as Manure and Citeh, and lately Chelsea who do so by design, or those teams (the majority of the bottom half of the league) who primarily want to defend and then nick a sucker punch while they can. Yet Wenger cannot see this. His obsession with possession play leaves us far too high up the pitch and without fluidity and movement in the final third. There is no consistent end product, and finding the available openings requires his MF's to be on the level of Cazorla, and his strikers to be on the level of RVP. The manager does not seem to realise that the vast majority of his attacking players are either not being played to their strengths, or are simply not good enough. And the overall quality falls year on year.
Hand in hand with this is the scant attention he places on, or his inability to equip his players to play the opposition. It might be fine to ask a Henry; Vieira; Pires; Ljungberg; Nasri; Fabregas or Van Persie to express yourselves. They all had the quality to read the game and to do so. Carzorla and Arshavin aside (and Wenger has killed the latter) none of our current crop can thrive in this environment. It almost seems ridiculous that you should not try to make it as easy as possible for your players by telling them what to do; playing them where they are most effective, and exposing the weaknesses of the opposition. The lowliest Championship manager will try to do this, and the likes of SAF do there straightforward things very well. Without the talent and the independence of thought that is needed on the pitch for Wenger's approach to work, he might as well be sending his players out with their arms tied behind their backs.
Increasingly, it seems that Wenger is setting up his sides based upon some kind of a computer program. With substitutions that are pre-planned rather than reactive. He seems increasiingly clueless tactically - so its no surprise that his players look clueless on the pitch.
Then we look at his eye for talent. I do not want to be revisionist, and clearly Wenger has unearthed some real talent over the years, but since the youth project his ability appears to be diminishing. I put this down to 2 things. First he seems to be motivated by an obsession to find something different in players even where they are tried and tested - hence either he plays them out of position or he assumes that they will work in his system, when they are not suited to do so. Again, it seems almost as though there is a blueprint that every player has to confirm to. Secondly, he seems obsessed with showing the world that he can unearth hidden talent. But for every Jenkinson, we have a Santos; a Chamakh; a Denilson; a Ramsey...
And the biggest problem for us is that AW is too arrogant to accept assistance; too myopic to see his mistakes, and too set in his ways to change them.
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