Originally Posted by LDG
To be fair, I think Wenger knows what happens, and he knows it well. But somehow the guy has deep mixed emotions as to the best way to fix (at least the major) problems. For example, of all the "failed" young prospects, how many of them has he actually sold, instead of letting their contracts expire? What would happen if either Denilson or Bendtner didnīt express their desire to leave the club? He tends to stick with players (his not-to-disrupt-squad philosophy), even if he knows they wonīt contribute to the team as much as he had thought, and just sits (or loan) them until they fade away.
Or maybe he hasnīt got a clue after all.
As always - a logical argument, but I'm not sure I reach quite the same conclusion. The team's defensive vulnerability - particularly to set pieces - could be seen by a child. I'm not sure I have seen any comments demonstrating his acknowledgment that we do not utilise our offensive set pieces properly. We sure as hell don't seem to train for them!
AW may be looking to bring in players to try to solve the issue, but he's been trying that for 4 years and it hasn't worked. Look how many CB's he's been through (in itself not a good sign in the position where stability is needed most). I think your suggested solution almost justifies my question - because I am far from convinced that its an issue of personnel. I believe it to be an issue of having a proper defensive coach, and playing more effectively as a team when it comes to defend.
So I think my question still stands..
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Arsene thinks he's building a family, not a team. He should be a foster parent not a football manager.To be fair, I think Wenger knows what happens, and he knows it well. But somehow the guy has deep mixed emotions as to the best way to fix (at least the major) problems. For example, of all the "failed" young prospects, how many of them has he actually sold, instead of letting their contracts expire? What would happen if either Denilson or Bendtner didnīt express their desire to leave the club? He tends to stick with players (his not-to-disrupt-squad philosophy), even if he knows they wonīt contribute to the team as much as he had thought, and just sits (or loan) them until they fade away.
Or maybe he hasnīt got a clue after all.
So...then...you find it easy to believe he IS someone who fails to understand what's happening?
Yeah I noticed I had put isn't by accident.So...then...you find it easy to believe he IS someone who fails to understand what's happening?
Exactly, thats the flaw of this project of his, he thought that the players would grow together and form some sort of "remember the titans" bond. Delusion in this day and age, especially when the majority of the players he brought in and were not coming up through the academy from a young age.
I don't think he does understand what's wrong (what is wrong btw?)
From my perspective we've been a lot luckier with injuries this season - in that points were not dropped due to players being out. The second half of the season, when we capitulated, we had Van Persie playing nearly every game. When Vermin was injured earlier on in the season, I remember doing just fine for a good while. Same for when Fab and Nas were out - we didn't miss them as we have missed our 'bigger' players in previous seasons. Walcott was definitely a bit of a blow, but as most people realise by now, it's not about the '1st choice' 11, but about the squad, and in my eyes we had the squad to cope.
My overriding point is this: YES some of our players aren't good enough, YES we had injuries (like always) - but I don't see how the connection between these two things, and being the best team in the country for the first half of the season, and falling to shit in the second.
So what is wrong then? It HAS to come down to 'mentality', ironically a word you would be hard pressed not to find in one of Wenger's post-match interviews or The Official Manager's Email
So our wage bill isn't that high because we include staff wages in the report. Why do that? Everyone is under the impression that we can't afford the wages of certain players because it's already high. If that's not the case then I'd say the board and Wenger are pulling a fast one. Since Henry, Dennis and co left, our wage bill must have gone down but we they perpetuate this notion of us being stretched at the seams and having to count every penat. Why include the staff wages in these reports?
Bugger, could have sworn I'd already replied to this, see if I can remember what I said.
I see the problem as being a lack of 'gamecraft' as much as anything else i.e. knowing when to sit a little deeper and defend like your life depended on it and knowing when to stream forwards, as well as a bit of a weakness on set-pieces. Experienced players tend to have better gamecraft than youngsters and this is the kind of mentality we need more of in our squad, more experience will help the mental side of the game imo. If we do that and spend some time on the training ground trying to learn how to defend a set-piece then we'll be set up nicely (although I'm more sceptical about us actually working on things in training personally...).
It's either the balance of the personnel is off (in terms of mentality, we've got the talent more or less covered) imo or else there really is a deeper rot in the club and the fact we get so close to winning trophies is something of a minor miracle. I think it's worth asking the question when we fail so emphatically at roughly the same point every season, it's not a coincidence and given that this failure is far worse than before as it was mostly our first 11 failing miserably so it will probably engender a bigger clearout in the summer. As you say, if we can't freshen it up with personnel then we're pretty screwed as there won't be sweeping changes in the style or training system.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote