Most peoples complaint is that since the financial restrictions were lifted, and he has started spending money, he has finished 4th........again! Exactly the same place where he finished under the "win it with kids" Project. Its more the fact that the club seems to have stagnated rather than suffer a total loss of form like United last season and Pool this season. So things aren't quite all that bad in that regard, you are still in the CL and still making the top 4. But Arsenal fans want to see the next step....competing to WIN the PL and CL, not just making up the numbers. He needs to improve on 4th place in the league and atleast get into the Semis of the CL really, that'll shut up the naysayers. I just dont think he is tactically astute enough anymore....football progressed and Wenger didnt. Also the shortcomings of your squad were plain for all to see, and for the most part, Wenger never addressed them.....everyone and their dog knew Arsenal needed a CB and a DMF in the summer, and his failure to even get close to signing either is what is baffling people. You seem to be inundated with Wingers and No 10s.
To be fair, it took a few seasons of Romans Roubles before Chelsea started winning things also. So that wasn't instant success either. I do take you're point about a DM and CB though, we are crying out for those positions, especially at DM.
I don't visit this board all too often but when I do I usually see the same posters complaining about the same people within your club. I often mention the word 'scapegoats' on our board because it doesn't matter how some of our players perform, they get criticised regardless because certain posters have a vendetta against them prior to kickoff. I think some people are incapable of judging a player or manager based on the ninety minutes they have watched. No offence intended, just my humbled opinion
It wasnt instant no, took 2 seasons to win our first trophy, but there was improvement in our league position. The Last season under Bates we finished 4th (no trophies) (Ranieri as manager) First season under Roman we finished 2nd (no trophies and CL Semi) (Ranieiri as manager) Second season under Roman we won the league and Carling Cup (CL semi) (Mourinho as manager) I think you are right that it is unreasonable to expect instant success though. Arsene did improve last season in that as well as finishing 4th he won the FA Cup. But I think a lot of Arsenal fans were expecting this to be the season that you really kicked on and challenged for the PL properly, and that doesnt seem to have materialised.
I think it was much easier then to win the Premier League than it is now. In those days there were not that many clubs on steroids. Now you spend 50mill and that is just on 1 player. I accept, had AW addressed the shortcomings in squad (CB/DM) in addition to our outlay, who knows. Another thing that has severely hampered us is injuries, we still seem to have more injuries than most. If JT/Hazard were to miss big chunks of the season, I doubt whether they would be topping the table now. I concur, AW does indeed have some blind spot, he his not as bad as people make out. You do not consistently finish in top 4, get to the final of the CL or dare I say go the entire season unbeaten, without tactical awareness.
I don't agree about just going back 2 seasons. Arsenal have been spending a decent sum for 4 seasons now. £53m (including Oxlade, Campbell, Mertesacker, Arteta, Santos) £52m (including Cazorla, Monreal, Giroud, Podolski), £43m (including Ozil) , £82m so far this season (including Sanchez, Welbeck, Debuchy, Welbeck). I'm not saying it's as much as others around them, but the drought didn't end 2 seasons ago. Injuries haven't helped but there's been a decent squad being built there. Which makes you wonder even more why he's not getting the most out of them.
Maybe he HAD tactical awareness.....but whatever matchday tactics and training regimes he uses are outdated. Your players get injured at the drop of a hat, and you never seem to be able to outfox the other big clubs who have decent managers, both in the PL and CL. Its not a personnel issue either, you have the players (when they aren't injured), but even still, if Stoke can go to the Etihad and grab a win, why can't Arsenal? The answer, is because Arsene is too stubborn to change his tactics, he seems to want to just let the players play their way and let their skill shine through, but it doesn't hardly ever work that way.
It could also be down to the mental strength of the players we currently have. As it stands, we do not have that many street fighters in the team. Players who could go down to 10men away from home and still come away with the 3points. Players who were big game players and fought until the last. I think as old as Wenger got, the characters in the team became monochromic... No Leaders in the team etc etc..
Not trying to attack Wenger but it is after all his team and his tactics? As for lacking mental strength, technically they shouldn't as it's full of Internationals, namely German World Cup winners!
Yup. Pod, Ozil, Merts, Cazorla, Monreal have been part of teams that have won major championships. Does Sanchez lack fight? The players have the experience and the fight, something else is wrong.
Our lack of fight comes from the manager WITHOUT a doubt. Ozil, Sanchez, Carzorla, Podolski, Mertesacker have all shown themselves to have the right mentality outside of Arsenal. The Boss doesn't know how to motivate or inspire confidence when the 'going gets tough'. He sits by the side of the pitch nervously biting his nails and hiding behind his giant jacket. He doesn't exert confidence and to be honest that's not his fault its just the way he is. Our title winning sides were full of confident extroverts and natural leaders - they didn't need motivating. Mourinho uses psychology to inspire his sides, Ferguson used anger, Wenger just expects us to win - purely based on technical skill..but football is an emotional game and feelings and insecurities get the better of most athletes. Wenger is a lover of football, he's a coach with immense knowledge of the game BUT he's not a fighter.
I cannot with argue with most of the above... Still think we do not have the characters of years gone by. Players like Keown, Viera, Petit, Lauren.... Our players are all similar, too nice. Who is the hard man of our team these days, Wilshere
Very good summary Bear. Psychology is extremely important in sport now. Mourinho and Ferguson are and were ahead of their time in their use of it, and they have reaped the rewards.
Well the top 2 teams have them in abundance, not hard men in the literal sense. I am referring to winners, natural winners, we have seem to have an abundance of flair without steel.
Last season was the first that the money could really take effect and we had our first title challenge in years and we won our first trophy in years. Brilliant, great progress, everyone should of been happy (some still weren't). This season as you said should have been the big step forward, which is why as we fans we are so frustrated. The problem is it's a year after a WC in which lots of our key players played all the way through the tournament, our pre-season was terrible and we've been without a fit squad (and most of our first team) ever since. Unfortunately we haven't hit our stride yet. I'd still say we should wait until the end of the season to judge where we are at. There's still time for us to have a good season and feel like we are heading in the right direction again. Poor runs of form happen and getting so frustrated with the club can't help anything. Particularly not mid season.
To be fair aren't we the only team to have beaten bayern at there ground in the last two years? Beating them both times we've played there? I'd also consider Dortmund in the top team category and we've beat them in one of two games against them both of the previous two years. Liverpool finished second last season, we beat them in two of three games. We did the triple over Tottenham last season, two of three against Everton. The teams we really struggle against are the three successful domestic teams in Chelsea, city and utd. I don't think anyone can be too annoyed with having to play catch up with city and Chelsea given there past spending, but it's absolutely ridiculous that we haven't thrashed utd yet. They have gone to **** and yet we still can't do them over, that is the real failure!
Sorry pal but the financial situation has only been as healthy from the summer when we bought ozil, it was starting to take effect just prior to that too but the new sponsorsh deals etc which made the big difference where not in effect before that. We didn't have money to burn. The high spending in the two seasons prior to that are due to us having to sell our best players and try to replace multiple gaps in the team. We weren't able to send more than £15m on a single player. For the other big teams that was small change. We have only had the money to compete for the big signings in the last two summer transfer windows.
To be fair this whole "he won't change his tactics" thing is just a load of bollocks. It gets thrown around so much people believe it. The season prior to ozil arriving we played a very defensive tactic. T was all about keeping it tight and knocking a goal on the break or late in the game. 1-0 to the arsenal seemed to have returned. Upon signing ozil we adapted to play a quicker counter attacking game. Due to injuries and the great signing of Sanchez we've been more offensive again this season. We've changed our formation in subtle ways multiple times over the last few years. We've signed big unit type strikers along with more mobile, tricky or pacey strikers so we have the "plan B" everyone accused us of not having. He's used monreal in front of Gibbs to close out the left side of the pitch, brings flamini on beside Arteta to block up the midfield, sticks a big man alongside our pace to search for a winner. I.e. He makes subs that affect the way we are playing (tactics). I think wenger changes his tactics a lot and has done so to great effect at times. Of course he gets it wrong too and did so in all of the big games last season away from home! But that shouldn't mean we ignore all the times his tactics work. And people who watch us regularly will have seen the tactical changes that have occurred in recent years. Yes, some problems we have are the same ones we've had for a while and it can be infuriating but wenger is given literally no credit for lots of the stuff he does well. This season he has made some incredible subs that have totally changed the game yet on the match thread not a single word about the good subs, or credit to wenger for the good choice. The second he makes a sub people don't agree with it's meltdown time on the match thread.
We've seen wenger up out of his seat far more this season than the last two and so far this one isn't turning out as well he was up pushing mourinho against Chelsea, he was up and shouting all through the Liverpool game etc... Also wouldn't you say the going was tough in the two seasons prior to ozil when we looked likely to miss out on top four yet put together amazing runs towards the end of the season to secure CL football? Granted we seem to turn to jelly when we play the top sides away from home and the mentality of this group of players clearly isn't quite right but when wenger does get there heads in the right place these players are really capable of something special. I wonder when we sign players how much we look into there mentality, personality etc? Because I reckon wenger gets as frustrated as we do about the way some of these layers capitulate! Do clubs assess the psychology of the players they are considering bringing in? It's definitely an interesting point and worth looking into. There's something not right, that's for sure.
