Arsene Wenger is without a doubt a top class manager and there are many examples to prove this.
However, have his methods restricted the ability of Russian forward Andrey Arshavin?
Since Arshavin’s first full season, the Russian attacking midfielder’s ability and value has gone down. With all respect, the 30-year-old has not lost his ability. However, his influence has been severely restricted.
When Arshavin joined Arsenal back in 2009, he came with bounds of energy and enthusiasm on the pitch. He would demand the ball and then seek to fly past opponents and shoot at every opportunity. Yet, Wenger has moulded him into becoming apart of Arsenal’s style of football. That means he holds the ball and passes it sidewards or backwards. This doesn’t allow him to express his ability to the max.
Unfortunately for Arshavin, this has lead to him spending a lot of time on the bench last season, purely because Arsenal’s style doesn’t play to his strengths. The media have even gone on to question whether Arshavin will leave the club this summer or not.
Arsenal have gone far too long without winning a major trophy, six years to be exact.
So, should Arshavin look to move on to another club that allows him to express himself properly, as compromising his style of play has not brought him trophies as of yet.
Give us your thoughts
Click HERE to see the original article. This article was first published on CleanSheetsAllRound
Written by Darren Wells-Burr
we need a big presence in the box to unsettle opposition defenders…and players like arshavin can pick up the loose balls and do damage. We play too obvious and with predictable bulid up…waiting for the killer pass. Its great when it comes off, but you can get as much success by pressuring the defence with crosses and by-line cut0backs. Vela suffers from the same system….he is a deadly striker waiting to explode…..problem is he tends to be too remote to do damage.With no plan B, these players get bogged down with the tippy-tappy stuff.
Of course Arshavin has suffered from the Wenger game plan. So has Walcott and Bendtner and Vela. He buys central strikers and then insists they play on the wing. Same with Wiltord and Reyes. He has had only one formation and does not do tactics. We all recall Arshavin also had to play as lone target man for some weeks and has not really played well since !
Other clubs change tactics and formation according to the opposition and the state of the match. Of course Arshavin and Walcott are useless at tracking back wide. They do try but they don’t know what they are doing. I would say too many of our squad have failed with the Wenger game plan. Too many have now lost confidence and lost form. We all say Wenger has had no Plan B (let alone C and D) and it is true !!!
TACTICS
I agree with you Chris about the fact that Wenger doesn’t pay enough attention to tactically planning for different opponents, and personally I think its quite arrogant and naive to think that you can use a “one size fits all” approach. It pains me to admit it but that is one of the areas he could really learn from Sir Alex, with the other being holding onto experienced players like Gilberto by giving them more than one year contracts, but that’s another discussion for another time.
LONG RANGE SHOOTING
As for the Arshavin issue, especially where shooting from distance is concerned, I’ve seen Wenger get very frustrated/angry when players take unsuccessful shots instead of opting for the millionth “through the eye of the needle” pass. I think that discourages players from taking that responsibility when those shooting opportunity arise, and also creates a culture where players are just happy that they were not the one who ruined the attack by showing some ambition i.e. shooting from range.
ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
When a defender is back tracking, he should have decisions to make about whether to block off the pass or the shot, but with Arsenal you’ll know that if they’re outside the box they most probably won’t be shooting, should you bother watching one or two of our match tapes. Plus you know we won’t be putting in threatening crosses either, so that also makes it that much easier to anticipate our moves.
Its a real shame because there are some decent strikers of the ball even apart from Arshavin, remember when Nasri scored those two goals against United, a few seasons ago?
Nasri goals vs ManUre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Q1YxbEsVc
Granted the first one took a bit of a deflection on the way in, but then again those sort of things tend to happen when you take shots. FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE!!