Dear
Rob,
I
hope this message gets through to you.
I
think the AFTV thing is brilliant, congrats on 2 years . As an Arsenal fan for
the past 25 years and counting I wonder if I can get a reasonable balanced
judgment of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger amidst the ongoing split between fans.
Fans
change from game to game, they were jubilant after beating Galatasaray they had
a meltdown after the Swansea loss. The emotion the game requires and the love
these people have for Arsenal sometimes makes it hard to see what is really
going on.
I’m
going to lay down the ultimatums first, then explain everyone of them, so bare
with me if this is a bit long.
Here
it goes:
·
Arsene Wenger is one of the top 5 managers in
the world today. He should at least see out his contract
·
This team is the best team we had ever since
Vieira left.
·
This summer Wenger made the biggest mistake of
his managerial career, and that was not to sign defensive players.
·
Arsenal are indeed the unluckiest team in the
world
·
Ozil will be the true leader of this team soon
Here
are the arguments
·
Wenger is easily the best manager in PL, Jose
had a better team last year and did nothing with it, finished barely third with
shameful exits from all cup competitions. LVG is good, but nowhere close to AW.
I hear people criticize Wenger’s tactics every game, every damn loss. Let me
ask one thing, if a manager has the same tactics for 17 years and has amazing
runs with subpar teams , isn’t that the biggest proof that these tactics are
working ? If Wenger leaves he will come back with PSG or Real Madrid or even
City and crush Arsenal at the Emirates on way to endless trophies.
That
been said, there must be a higher authority Wenger answers to. It’s the system
that is wrong at Arsenal.
·
Look at the offensive end of this team, you have
Ozil at the 10 spot with Santi as backup, Sanchez on the left, Theo on the
right, Welbeck/Giroud up front. A passer with 3 of the quickest players around
the PL in front of him. We have two young quality players at the CM spot in
Wilshere and Ramsey. With solid backups like Poldi, Campbell and Ox (who would
be the star player anywhere else). We have the best English full back in Gibbs
(sorry Shaw and Baines)and a very good CB pairing, with our best GK since
Lehmann
All
this easily leads us to our next point
·
Wenger’s biggest mistake was not signing
defensive players. Per is tall and not young, he has been playing non-stop
since August 2013. Last season-World Cup-This season, Per played almost every
game last year. A good leader and teacher, now is the right time to bring in a
protégé . Someone who is 24-25, big
and strong (I wanted J.Boateng) can learn from BFG how to be a leader who
organizes things from the back, inherit the workethic and slowly pair with Kos.
He should’ve also brought in another young defender, a promising 18-19 year
old, but this can be delayed till next year, plus Chambers can be that kid.
The
even bigger mistake is the DM spot. If you take a look at our younger teams ,
we do not have an up and coming DM. Again, Chambers cab be converted to DM,
Arteta (who’s not a reliable DM) has a couple of years left, and Flamini is not
in a good form this year. A world class DM should have been brought in, Wenger
has salvaged a promising year by a mistake that he is not punished for! He
should at least get a 6 months pay cut that comes out of the ticket prices.
(around 5 million pounds) .
Look
at this team, a DM is all what it needs. Most of our fans don’t get what a DM
does. You hear people say “he sits in front of the back four and protect them”
but do you know what that means ??!! It simply means he delays attacks till the
whole defensive map is set. He takes extra tasks so CBs don’t have to gamble
and move from their set positions. And Arsenal have been unlucky in this
regard, no mistake unpunished. Which leads to our next point
·
Arsenal are unlucky, a part of it is the reasons
we all know, the unbelievable injuries, the bad refereeing, the tough draw in
every competition, the missed chances.. Then there are the things that not a
lot of people see. For example, players getting injured at the wrong time, it
takes them 3-4 games to get back to form, which is enough for fans to turn them
back from hero to zero. Something not a lot of people see is how unlucky we are
IN games. Especially defense, the percentage of mistakes that go unpunished for
Arsenal has to be the lowest I’ve ever seen. The fact that there’s no DM
usually means that the opponent attack is most likely to keep moving, forcing
our CBs and FBs to make decision, commit to something in favor of the other,
leave the winger to come inside and mark the striker or choose between the
striker in the box or the AMF at the edge of the box. Usually, teams are put in
this situation 4-5 times a game, it usually leads to conceding one or two goals
at most, which wraps the game. We got lucky in most of our draws this season by
the way, other than that, 80%-90% of our
mistakes were punished. If our CB commits to a striker, you can only watch the
CM of the other team play a perfect pass to the AMF at the top of the box, who
develops the quickest most accurate shot in the PL at that time and sinks the
ball with the perfect power and placement for our keeper to even think about
saving it.
I’ll
give you an example, Leicester City playing Chelsea, still goal-less in the 2nd
half and LCFC now believes it’s just 11 men against 11 men and that they can
win this. Chelsea makes 3 mistakes first two are squandered away by wrong
passes from LCFC players, however on the 3rd one, David Nugent finds
himself breaking towards Chelsea goal, closest defender 3 yards behind him,
Nugent shockingly slams the ball into the keeper 16 yards away from the box.
After that Chelsea get a goal on a bouncing ball, and it’s back to David vs The
Goliath.
Had
LCFC been playing Arsenal, the first 2 mistakes would have resulted in a goal
at least, the 3rd one would have been a humiliating rabiola lob by
Nugent over our keeper and an African dance celebration by the corner flag. Prompting
a meltdown.
Add
these things to the obvious reason that make Arsenal unlucky and the feeling of
doom among us can indeed be justifiable
·
In the Everton match, Ozil controlled the game,
Ozil is asking questions nowadays. He is demanding the ball, he is furious when
there is no movement, he asks his teammates to step it up. People say the Villa
game was Mesut’s finest, I think it was Everton and Galatasaray. The confidence
from the manager, the return of injured players and the speed upfront will make
Ozil the leader of this team. He gave away an interview a couple of days ago
and what the way he is not affected by the media and the way he praises and
trusts the team is outstanding. I’ve rarely seen a player handle himself like
that.
Things
will not get better till we sign players, DM and CB. Even with Arteta at DM
this team is good enough for 3rd in PL given the return of injured
players. Sanchez, Welbeck, Walcott, Ox, Giroud, Poldi are enough fire power to
score against any team. But the defense we have at the moment is not good
enough to stop the league’s worst offense (Burnely almost scored against us)
If
we look at the last game against United, Arsenal had nothing to be ashamed of
other than finishing. Very good display. United didn’t have a shot at goal
until their SECOND goal. It was so unlucky it was almost funny. It was all made
possible because of Mikel Arteta’s command of the defensive midfield, which
furthermore proves the fact that all we need is a DM who plays like that every
game.
I
hope I have made myself clear, and provided a balanced view from an Arsenal fan
for 25 years and counting
Thanks for taking the time to read this
