Looking back over the 16 years of Arsene Wenger’s reign at the helm of affairs at the red and white half of north London, I mean the only part of north London, I must say that I commend the Frenchman’s work in unearthing, developing and establishing world-class players in his tenure. Talents such as Vieira, Henry, Bergkamp, Henry, Cole, Anelka, Toure, Fabregas, Adebayor, Song, Flamini, Van Persie just to name a few have all come from the unknown and blossomed under the gaffer.
I was not surprised at him being awarded the Coach of the Decade a while ago as he has shown time and time again how exceptional he is at nurturing raw talent and making them the cynosure of all eyes in the soccersphere.
No doubt the world was right in accepting that Arsenal Football Club had the best coach of the last decade. I must point out that coaching is more about grooming and mentoring raw potential until they begin to perform at their very best. Wenger has done this and is still continuing to do so, especially when you consider the likes of Wojciech, Jack, Theo and Kozzer.
The job of a manager as it were in comprises not only of grooming players to be the best like Le Prof does, but also of managing the squad and team tactically when they are out on the field. Simply put, the tactical and coaching aspects are the two most important jobs of a football manager.
The tactical aspect entails managing the team before, during and after games and this is one area of a manager’s duties I find very intriguing, delicate and dynamic. Though Arsene may have and is still excelling as a coach, I am not so impressed with the tactical depth of his game.
I was quite shocked to hear that Fabregas, our one time captain, utter the statement that Wenger never studies his opponents, nor does he read their playing pattern. In retrospect, when did you last see Mr. Wenger at an upcoming opponent’s game?
As we all know, the knowledge of an adversary’s strengths and weaknesses is one sure way or advantage to get the best out of him. Little wonder tactically sound managers always prove to the canon fodder for Wenger’s guns.
Let’s go through some of Le Prof’s tactical displays. I begin with the Man United return leg at the Grove when he chose to substitute Ox-Chambo, our most influential player on the day, for Arshavin, who seemed disinterested and his lacklustre performance eventually cost us the game. Not looking too far back, our 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Barcelona at the Camp Nou was another one in which Wenger complained, but yet he didn’t take into account that our decimated squad didn’t have what it took to play the way we were lined up. Sagna stated that Arsene should have taken an altogether different approach since we had lots of key injuries prior to the return leg. We had lost players in the defensive and central parts of the team, yet Wenger went with no plan to cover the gaping holes the injuries created. A formation that should have been arranged to stifle the opposition, as opposed to the open approach, should’ve been employed.
This article is very irritating! You talk about the importance of nurturing and managing talent on and off the field, but you completely contradict your own argument (about Wenger being a poor tactician) when you use the Oxlade Chamberlain examples. Wenger removed Chamberlain to help prevent the loss of a young influential player due to injury.
You can’t claim Wenger is a poor tactician as a result of this. Like you say, it is important to nurture and manage players before during and after a game. Wenger is in a situation where he had to compromise short term tactics for the preservation of Chamberlain and the team as a whole in the long term. This is part of being a good manager – judgement and foresight!
Your arguments are weak. Thanks and goodnight!
Remember the 4-4 draw against Newcastle United after leading 4-0 in the first 26 minutes. OK, the blame should be directed towards Diaby’ sending-off. But with a 10-men on the pitch, a good tactician will definitely park the bus within his backyard if the situation forced him to do that. In this game, AW is showing to all of us how poor he is as a tactician. Such a situation will never ever happen under the style management of Mancini of Mancity and/or Di-Matio of Chelsea.
Agree with the analysis. The defeats to Mu,in particular when Ronaldo was there and Chelsea with Drogba given time and space are hard to take.
Yo do not have to be nuclear scientist to figure how to beat Arsenal.
Wenger always likes to attack and doesn’t believe in anti soccer and prior to the last four epl games plays the never ending passing game.
That is why it was so galling to see him play the same way against Red Faced Utd repeatedly and lose.
Hopefully the gunners can clinch the cl berth and begin a new philophy with regard to tactics,etc.
Otherwise if Red Faced Utd were to win the epl again, it will be boring and people new to the game think the epl is Red Faced Football League.
the only thing that need some changes in our back room might be the medical team. lol… i’ve been noticing that our players always have lengthy injury compared to other teams’. well just an opinion. tell me what you think… wenger is and always be the best for arsenal. we just need few more players so that we have a good back up for the team.
Shocking piece of writing!!!! This what happens when you ask 15 year old kids to write articles. I’m not even going to bother countering the arguments here because it’s not worth it.
You are right, very has no tactical nous. If we could just get a tactical genius like you in charge who can see all the mistakes in hinsight then we could probably go a whole season undefeated!
Point of correction, I see this flaws as the game progresses not with hindsight.
Tactically flawed rightttt. ‘Never change a winning team’ = injuries. What is Redknapp’s excuse for his outfits state at the moment? Why did Mancini’s 400million dollar squad lose 1st place with 2 full strength squads at his disposal? When will Abramovich stop sacking managers for no real reason? What does Dalglish bring to Liverpool FC? Would Arsene Wenger be deemed tactically flawed had he the resources of the above stated given the talent his current squad have exhibited year in year out? How will we ever know? Tactically flawed unlikely.
Wenger has shown tactical flexibility in his time. The last trophy Arsenal won – the FA Cup – was the result of the most un-Arsenal-like performance. If you remember, we stifled the game and sat back. Also, when we made the CL final, Wenger adopted the 4-5-1 – playing Henry on his own upfront with Ljungberg slotting in behind. In the run in to that final, we set a European record for least goals conceded. The reason we lost isn’t because we changed a winning team but because we went a man down due to Lehmann getting sent off for fouling Eto’o. We played well, went ahead with a Sol header but Barca were allowed back into the game with an offside goal from Eto’o. You talk about the switch to 4-3-3 but that was to get the best out of the players we have – a tactic. Nowadays, we see the benefits laid bare – Song has become world class played in the hole, Rosicky is playing like his Dortmund self behind the front man. These improvements wouldn’t have been possible with Song in the Gilberto role and Rosicky out left in a 4-4-2.
Point of correction, I have never seen AW line up to stifle opposition, the FA cup final was A gAme we won due to sheer luck Arsenal, we were outplayed and dominated but lucky not to concede. If liverpool had converted their chances would you have said we stifled them? Man u played their game unabated on the said day and we were left chasing shadows. Yes we did a 4-5-1 in europe mind u, nyone can arrange his team before hand but a maanager’s tactical genius is called upon mostly when the formation he has lined up is. Not working well and he needs to respond. All my instances are his tactical. Responses during games and not before
Yes, Wenger is rigidly sticking to one formation. No, it does not lack dynamic. The midfield is supposed to work somewhat like quicksilver, with Song, Arteta and Rosicky/Ramsey switching positions, moving ahead or back and also often trading places with the wingers (noticed Song going down the left and right lanes in the last few games, when Arsenal were actually up to it?). The wingers do trade places, though I’ll concede that perhaps they could do it more often (you must have missed the few goals Gervinho worked out this season, a number came when he operated on the right). Arsenal do not use 2 holding midfielders, actually only Song is the designated DM, yet still he sometimes operates as an attacking midfielder.
In other words: yes, to an extent you’re right – Wenger is more about building a team than running it. He doesn’t change his approach even when it clearly fails (as in Milan). The reason might be simply that he wants the team to stick to the same brand of football throughout, irrespective of what the opposition’s doing. Fabregas comments about Wenger not doing anlyses of other teams are perhaps ok, though I wouldn’t bet he doesn’t watch those games. There are TVs, you know, and someone lately invented a thing called DVD. People sometimes use it to watch games recorded during the weekend. I’m not saying he does that, but I also don’t believe he doesn’t look at the opposition at all (he has to watch some football to locate all that talent!).
Nevertheless, he is also partly right to do it this way. we’ve seen it time and time again that Arsenal fail not when the opposition surprises them, but when they fail at their own job. If Vermaelen gets caught out of position, as in Milan, is it always the manager’s mistake? I’m not so sure. When the players enter the field, the manager doesn’t control them. They make those calls themselves. Yes, they sometimes fail because the manager took a gamble and lost it (e.g. playing a midfielder on the wing, or Song at centre-back), but with Arsenal it’s mostly about not being up to it, getting lost in the play. A good idea would be to look at Ben Arfa’s recent goal against Arsenal: was Gibbs’ move caused by a lack of proper debriefing from Wenger or by Gibbs’ own wrong decision? If you can prove to me conclusively it’s Wenger’s fault, I’ll concede the point.
The final problem: criticizing Wenger for a lack of depth of squad is not the best way to go. It’s not only his responsibility to get the right players – a number of people are involved in this process. When, as a result, he can’t find anyone other than Arshavin to sub for Chamberlain – is that his fault entirely? Chambo was tired then and keeping him on the field could have resulted in an injury (the kind that killed Wilshere’s season). Arshavin made a mistake against Valencia, right, but it wasn’t like he conceded that goal – it was an unlucky goal, wasn’t it? And he does have it in him to create chances out of thin air.
Time and time again, Arsenal lost it because they lacked proper fringe players, people like Walcott or Chamberlain, who could accept being subs yet still have the right approach and skills necessary to work it out. Again, I’m not saying Wenger’s an angel – he bears part of the blame for that. But I still believe he’s not the devil, either.
As for the formation, I don’t think it’s 4-3-3, and neither is it 4-2-3-1. It’s more like 4-1-2-2-1 or 4-1-2-3, then it could be 4-2-1-3 – it all depends on the situation. Against Newcastle, when the opponent was fixed on defending, the midfielders went upfield and Gibbs and Sagna covered for them around the middle of the park. Later on, when Newcastle switched to attack, the centre-halfs were back in front of Szczesny and Arteta joined Song in the middle. It shifts, man, you just need to watch more than just the highlights.
Unimpressed with the writer’s line of reasoning.I’ve been suppporting Arsenal for about 12 years now and I’ve seen lots and lots of flexibilty from Arsene.Its interesting that the writer would cherrypick a handful of games ro bash a man whose works here for the past 15 or so years has propelled the club to greater heights. How a man can go unbeaten all season in one of the best league competitions and yet is only worth a mere 3 out of 10 is honestly beyond me. Plus the run-up to our champions’ league loss to Barcelona in 2006…. Jose Mourinho is regarded as the master of tactics but how come his expensively assembled Madrid side are always beaten by Barca almost anytime it matters?
You could see game after game against FcB how Jose tweaks his team most importantly during the games,exvept the 5-0 bashing which in my opinion he chose to let his boys play because they were leading the log, beating everyone like Barca was doing, they had stars like Barca did and they both played the same system 4-3-3, worth seeing what ur boys can do against mighty Barca when in that position. Mind u, he has learnt, he’s been playing Barca with his tactical thing cap on since then. Smart tactician though he may not be a good coach like Aw
I think you are wrong.wenger studies opposition and makes tweaks.he does not make his players focus on the opposition but he does it himself
Watch the games against barca last year for example and see 4 yourself.the example the year beforehe was hamstrung cos
1 players out
2he needed 2 score first leg was 2-2 so defending was out as no one would guarantee a clean sheet against barca.there are some flaws with the shape lyk u say but he does change approach look @ match against spurs
Absolutely right on!!!!! People are so quick to jump to conclusion and don’t see the whole picture.