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Is he to blame for Arsenal’s injury problems?

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Arsene WengerRaymond Verheijen believes Arsene Wenger must start taking responsibility for the club’s injury woes.

The Dutch fitness coach hit out at the Frenchman back in October when England duo Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were added to the injury list.

Now in November, Arsenal’s injury problems deepen after Alexis Sanchez, Laurent Koscielny and Santi Cazorla all picked up knocks during the 1-1 draw with Norwich at Carrow Road.

Koscielny may be fit to play in the club’s crucial Champions League decided against Olympiacos, but Cazorla and Sanchez will surely miss the game.

Joel Campbell is now the only Arsenal player in the 23-man squad not to have picked up an injury in 2015, and Verheijen reckons Wenger needs to accept that his methods are failing his players.

Verheijen took to Twitter to rant about Arsenal’s current injury woes, he said:

‘For years Arsenal is great to watch. When their best 11 is on the pitch they are obvious title contenders. But they hardly play with best 11.

‘All 23 Arsenal 1st team outfield players were injured in 2015 except for Joel Campbell but still people are in denial & looking for excuses.

‘The problem in football is that most people do not see the bigger picture. They are only thinking about the last result & the next game.’

Verheijen went on to say that Wenger has continually blamed ‘external factors’ when he should be responsible himself:

‘How often should the pattern repeat itself & how many more injury crises should happen before the media & the fans say ‘enough is enough’?

‘Football coaches are responsible for incorrect planning of football training, the accumulation of fatigue and the subsequent injury crisis.’

So, is Wenger to blame for the club’s injury woes?

It’s a strange one to be honest – I don’t know if the players are on the right training schedule and don’t do enough, or the total opposite.

However, Wenger has been known to rush players back from injury too quickly – Jack Wilshere being a prime example, and the Frenchman made a bad error with Sanchez this weekend. He knew the Chile international had a slight hamstring problem yet decided to play him and now he looks set to miss a few games during the Christmas period.

Personally, I think the training schedule is all wrong and Wenger doesn’t do enough to protect his players from injuries occurring.

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1 comment

  • scully says:

    Wenger was happy to go into a new season with no fresh recruits on the back of the last season where injuries more or less scuppered our PL challenge. So why were we expecting a different outcome. Given our participation in the CL, and other cup competitions I’m stunned that our squad depth is so thin. Clearly Wenger only trust certain members of the squad which means they get overplayed and burnout or bodies break before the xmas period.
    Wenger has stated that “it will kill so and so career if I sign X”. That sounds like he’s happy to work with a small group of players, and we’ll never compete at the top level with that type of thinking.

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