Arsenal legend Frank McLintock believes this is the worst Gunners team he’s ever seen and also suggest that this will be Arsene Wenger’s toughest season in charge.
The Gunners limped to a 2-1 victory over Greek Champions Olympiakos in the Champions League on Wednesday night, though questions, as always, are still being raised about their lack of confidence in defence, and former skipper McLintock has laid the boot into Wenger, claiming the Frenchman must focus on the frailties that the team has:
‘When you look at the team overall at the moment, taking into account they’ve lost Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri and brought in four new players, are they going to do as well as last season or the seasons before? I honestly don’t think they will.’
‘I think they’re poorer this year than they ever have been. I think it’s going to be the toughest season that Wenger’s ever had at Arsenal.’
‘There’s some part of Arsene Wenger that doesn’t address various faults that we’ve had over the years.’
McLintock added:
‘We’ve let in more goals from dead-ball situations than any other Premier League team. So you would think that somebody would sort this out and that will improve us by 20-30%, but it doesn’t seem to happen.’
Arsenal have lost a succession of top players over previous seasons and the former Gunner, who made over 300 appearances for the club, went on to claim that the Arsenal board haven’t done enough to replace some of those stars:
‘After watching Arsenal over the last few years they’ve always needed three really top players to become one of the best teams in the world. But they seem to have gone away from the players they had, to the squad they have now.’
‘I’m just getting frightened. The idea of finishing fourth would be an unbelievable achievement, but you took that as automatic in the last few years.’
Finishing in the top four is vital for Arsenal this season. However, if we don’t manage to grab the spot this year, then we might as well forget about signing major players, as they will all want Champions League football, not the Europa league. We might also lose our more established players like RVP, who is already stalling on a new deal at the Emirates.
The current squad, which McLintock eludes to as the worst he’s ever seen, is not as bad as he claims it to be, it just lacks coordination and commitment at times and if we can get that back then we will be a force once again. I truly believe that we are only two world class players short of a title winning side. Currently, we need a midfielder more than a defender I think. I only say this because I think we lack creativity in this area.
Maybe Wenger may not be as concerned about our problems as the media and pundits point out. You never know, he could be breaking his neck trying to sort out our frailties. However, if we stick to zonal marking then I’d go along with them and say he has to address these issues ASAP.
But like everyone else, by the end of the season, if we do manage to finish in the top four – which no team with our current record this season has ever accomplished – the squad will be praised and we’ll all say that Wenger did a great job in keeping us in the Champions League and how great our team is.
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