Home > Football > Arsene knows the right way for Arsenal? Don't you believe it!
Arsene knows the right way for Arsenal? Don't you believe it!
Gunners fans often hear the words 'Arsene Knows' as the reply to our legitimate concerns. But after the Champions League exit to Liverpool on Wednesday night, there are questions as to whether this still holds true.
by Christy Gillespie on 12 April 2008
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The main objective of any manager is to get the best from the panel of players at his disposal. This panel may not be the biggest in the world and may be diminished somewhat due to injuries or lack of form. At the business end of the season a manager shows his worth by getting the maximum from the squad available to him.
We are constantly assured and mollified by the throwaway “Arsene knows”. But does he?.
A fortnight ago he lost his excellent right-back Bacary Sagna to a nasty ankle injury. You would think that the natural thing to do would have been to move Emmanuel Eboue back to his natural and favoured position. Yes, I would be the first to agree that Eboue has not had a great season but he has been played out of position at right midfield which he was never suited to.
When he first came to the club, he slotted in seamlessly to right-back and played no small part in our run to the Champions League Final. Since the arrival of Sagna, though, he has been shunted to midfield with inevitable results.
But instead of Wenger making this simple move he instead moved Kolo Toure to right-back and brought Phillipe Senderos into centre of defence. Senderos or Ponderous has had a nightmare time and Toure has also been ill-at-ease at right-back. Surely the natural thing to do would have been to make as few changes as possible and leave players in their favoured positions?
On the night against Liverpool at Anfield a similar problem cropped up in midfield when Mathieu Flamini got injured. Surely to move Abou Diaby into his preferred position in central midfield with Aleksandr Hleb on the left and Theo Walcott on the right would have been the right thing to do? But instead Arsene brought on Gilberto Silva, who has looked but a shadow of himself this season.
And then what of Alexander Song, the hero of Cameroon’s run to the African Nations Cup Final? Named on the team of the tournament, an excellent midfieder or centre half, he was surely a better option than either Senderos or Silva. Yet he has not played for five minutes since his return.
Wenger keeps on making the same mistakes year after year with no sign that he has learned anything. Take the situation with Senderos. It is no fault to him but you would turn a double-decker bus quicker. But then Pascal Cygan, anybody?
“Arsene knows?” I don’t think so.
Comments (15)
by saxon on April 12, 2008
Those changes are to easy for wenger to make, however obvious they seem. That's my problem with wenger seems to not learn anything, esp with the defense. Now he says he wont be buying much, more important to keep the team together. Has it ever dawned on wenger that if he strengthened the squad, maybe a super super player he promised, certain players might not want to leave.
by yan on April 12, 2008
1. Diaby could not have played a central role alongside fabregas.. stevie g would have had a field day. 2. Gilberto didn't have a bad game and wasn't the reason arsenal lost. 3. I guess you were one of the 3 or 4 arsenal supporters who thought song was any good before the African tournament? No? Someone saw something in him.. what's his name again? Arsene Wenger? surely not the same Arsene Wenger who has spoilt petulant fans such as yourself? Wenger is a frustrating manager sometimes, agreed, and the day may come when he no longer would be the best manager for arsenal.. but that time certainly hasn't arrived yet. I hope he brings in 2 rather than 1 experienced player of arsenal standard but the squad doesn't need that much reinforcement and there's not alot wrong with wenger's gameplan. This season nearly turned out very differently and there's no reason why next season can't.
on April 12, 2008 on April 12, 2008
Last year, I remember people questioning Wenger's jugdement by not fielding Senderos to mark Crouch. This year, Wenger got lash for fielding Senderos. I wonder when these "fans" will stop whinning.
Did Arsenal play again on wendesday?
by Christos Antoniou on April 12, 2008
hindsight is a beautiful thing, it really makes criticising mr. wenger so much easier. Especially when the majority of arsenal fans agreed it was smarter to play toure right back and senderos centre back to counter the threat of peter crouch, of course it didnt work but once again, hindsight. Then the thought of playing Alex Song, who hasnt played a competitive game since the African cup, regardless of how superb he played, is laughable. Then Fabregas and Diaby centre midfield, something interests us all on whether it would ever work, two more attacking minded centre midfield players against a counter attacking liverpool? Theres a reason some people are just fans and are not actually involved in football, people who right these are perfect examples.
by ewan on April 12, 2008
I agree with article . As long as the fans tolerate wenger's excuses the trophy cabinet will be bare. We ought to protest and let him know another year of barreness is not acceptable. He must buy buy buy.
by Rupert Legge on April 12, 2008
Hindsight is indeed a beautiful thing and a refuge for fools through the ages.Sportingo has become a home for those like Gillespie with just sufficient brainpower to use a computer keyboard just like so many forums on all sorts of subjects. Arsenal were better than Liverpool last Tuesday and in all their games against each other this season, in a purely football sense. Their defending was poor but then so was Liverpool's for their conceded goals. They were luckier over both legs and have a brilliant centre-forward, which Arsenal don't. If you want to play purely winning football then sack Wenger, hire Mourinho, give him £50 million and then you can moan about how boring it all is and pine for the return of Wenger. I am amazed that the money factor isn't more prominent in these discussions, because Arsenal have spent a fraction of what Liverpool, Man Utd , Chelsea and Tottenham have over the past 5 years and this is CRUCIAL. If you disregard the historically underachieving Spurs, the clubs who spend the most win the most. Man Utd, have spent close to £90million this year alone, including Tevez, to get where they are and in 2 years time will be £1 billion in debt and Fergie will be coming to the end. Liverpool fans now want DIC but they are already the 2nd biggest spenders over this period anyway and they are still totally reliant on two players. Think long-term and perhaps things are not as bad as this foolish person believes. Yes, it is disappointing I know and perhaps things could have been done differently. My feeling is that if Arsene spends very little this year, then this will be his last season anyway. When he has gone you will realise just how great he has been.
by Yan is right on April 12, 2008
Yan has said it all!
by Joel Cairo on April 12, 2008
Why waste your time with tripe like this? Its the kind of mindless babble that we're going to have to face from May to August from the losers at White Hart Lane. Were you one of those who complained that he brought Toure back too soon and should have played Senderos? 20-20 hindsight is a gift.
by Gun ner on April 12, 2008
Easy on boys Christy has a very valid point to make and I feel that it is yourselves that are just having a mindless go. In fiarness to Eboue he had a very good year at right back in the run up to the Champions League Final. I can see his point that surely moving him to full back would have caused the least disruption to the team. Secondly watching Diaby on Tuesday he would have been much a better option than Silva is again a valid point. Silva did nothing against Liverpool when he went on. His last point about Song is a question that must be answered. He only played a number of cup games before going to the Africa's cup and played excellently. by all accounts he was supberb for Cameroon so how come he hasn't played for us since coming back. He has asked some very legitimate questions so lay off the author of this piece and start asking some legitimate questions yourselves or is it that you now have started enjoying becoming also rans. Again Wenger today stated that he would only buy one player this summer. Are you happy with that. I am a loyal Arsenal supporter but like Shooting Star I refuse to support the team blindly.
Well why should he buy more than one player? We have two good goalkeepers, one in Almunia, who may not be an international, but has hardly put a foot wrong all season. Another in a 22 year old pole who took over from Boruc and won consecutive goalkeeping awards in Poland. In our defence we have Clichy, Toure, Gallas, Senderos, Sagna, Nordveit, Djourou, who can all be regarded as decent top class players, five of these can play in the centre of the defense. Senderos, yes he made a mistake, but before he was dropped and had a run of games was fantastic. In our midfield, we now have flamini, rosicky, fabregas, hleb, diaby, eboue, vela, barazite, merida, song and upfront van persie, ade, bendtner, walcott and eduardo. We have decent replacements for all of our main first team next season, and Wenger is still thinking about bringing in a top class player as well as whoever else he feels he needs if we lose a few. Give the man a break, in January we were five points ahead mighty Manchester United, who spent 50 mil last summer. We lost so many of our first team to injuries this season and rightly so began to falter. But how was Arsene supposed to predict this? If Manchester United lost Rooney and Ronaldo they would be a lost worse for wear than they currently are, especially as Ronaldo alone has scored 37 of their goals. Furthermore if Tevez, or Rooney had been injured in the same way as Eduardo, they would be panicking now also. The players that have mattered for them have been fit all season and whatever anyone says, if Ronaldo got injured, no one in their team has the same ability to cover him. Fergerson won nothing for three years, as he was rebuilding a team for the future, Wenger asked Henry last season for two years before a title race. We had it this season and may very well again be in an even better position next year. Get over yourselves and let Wenger do his job.
by Jonny on April 12, 2008
Arsena would be lost without Wenger. I thought Toure's attacking potential was shown against Liverpool and he made a few sparkling runds, but I agree with your comments on Eboue. We need a winger and Eboue isn't suited. Its coming together and this young squad is progressing. With the acquisition of an actual winger, not Hleb/ Rosicky/ Diaby/ Walcott, none of whom are comfortable there, and possibly a central defender, Arsenal can go the distance next year,
by Tom on April 14, 2008
I wonder why an intelligent coach like Wenger would trust in dull players like Senderos, Ade, Eboue...?
by carmelo pace on April 15, 2008
Hindsight is indeed a beautiful thing and a refuge for fools through the ages.Sportingo has become a home for those like Gillespie with just sufficient brainpower to use a computer keyboard just like so many forums on all sorts of subjects. Arsenal were better than Liverpool last Tuesday and in all their games against each other this season, in a purely football sense. Their defending was poor but then so was Liverpool's for their conceded goals. They were luckier over both legs and have a brilliant centre-forward, which Arsenal don't. If you want to play purely winning football then sack Wenger, hire Mourinho, give him £50 million and then you can moan about how boring it all is and pine for the return of Wenger. I am amazed that the money factor isn't more prominent in these discussions, because Arsenal have spent a fraction of what Liverpool, Man Utd , Chelsea and Tottenham have over the past 5 years and this is CRUCIAL. If you disregard the historically underachieving Spurs, the clubs who spend the most win the most. Man Utd, have spent close to £90million this year alone, including Tevez, to get where they are and in 2 years time will be £1 billion in debt and Fergie will be coming to the end. Liverpool fans now want DIC but they are already the 2nd biggest spenders over this period anyway and they are still totally reliant on two players. Think long-term and perhaps things are not as bad as this foolish person believes. Yes, it is disappointing I know and perhaps things could have been done differently. My feeling is that if Arsene spends very little this year, then this will be his last season anyway. When he has gone you will realise just how great he has been.
by Deon Kayz on April 16, 2008
Firstly people think our defence is the problem....UMMMMM NO! it's our attack!!, we haven't found a replacement for Henry and Adebayor is not world class. People say that we concede goals to often...but thenk about it...take a step back i.e. the manchester united game, Arsenal dominated the first half with Adebayor one goal with one on one with van der sar and what does he do he passes it to him, same as with liverpool 2-1 down one on one and he passes it to the keeper? just imagine if we had actually scored those goals we would have been more confident and stable yet, due to our missed chances our defensive lapses are highlighted even more! if Arsenal needs to buy he has to spalsh out on a world class goal scorer one who gets one chances and puts it away, none fo this 3-4 chances then score.
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