According to the Guardian, Wenger has refused to employ a new defensive coach and will instead rely on PR and Primovic to sort out the defensive woes. So much for a change of approach. Same old, same old? Thoughts
Nobody has really made a case for a defensive coach. Are you really saying that a different coach would say anything different to Doujourou about the first goal? All of you seem to think that it is "obvious" what is wrong. Are you really so arogant that you think that 2 highly respected veteran coaches can't see what is wrong, but you can? The players that were good are making silly mistakes? That isn't coaching, that is performance that is gained by practice and confidence. It comes from poor co-ordination between the team, not because they don't know what to do, but because they are not confident in each other. Success breeds success and we need to rebuild slowly. All of you who are calling for sackings and new coaches whould increase the uncertainty and confusion, making the situation worse.
Well we can all see what is wrong, can't we? The defence is in total disarray. We cannot defend against set pieces. Even the EPL's bottom team takes three points from us and we help them do it too. It isn't just a number of us who say that a defensive strategy is needed. Several other observers who are more knowledgeable than us have been calling for this. Yet Arsene Wenger insists the club doesn't need to change it's approach. Just look at our last 16 EPL matches. If you are happy with our performance, then may I suggest that you deserve the results we have been getting. And if they continue, you will soon see the club in decline, unable to qualify for the CL as a result of which, the commercial initiatives dry up as will our ability to attract top players. Remember it is not just us who are saying it but others in the know. So do you think you know better then?
I think a move back to simple man marking instead of this Zonal marking rubbish would be a help, it's common sense that if you stick to your man and do everything you can to put him off you cannot get to the ball or if you do, it is going to be difficult to get a header or a shot away cleanly or accurately. At the moment in defence we seem to have players wandering around marking space and people getting free headers and all sorts of slack defending being witness IMHO from this zonal system. This may seem a tad simplistic but this is the type of defending that our greatest sides employed in defence, I dont remember T Adam or Martin Keown ever affording players the space and time that Djourou and the other defenders gave up last night, no pressure at all on attackers. Clearly what we are currently doing is not working and we need to change tactic, a good side last night would have gone through that defence like a knife through butter, as it was the Shrews scored one and should have had more. Brutal. It just smacks of incompetence right now and has done for some time, how many times can we keep repeating the same basic errors, it's draining.
ISTR that in 2005/6 Wenger brought in Martin Keown to sort out some defensive problems in a 'new look' side; result the team went on set a record for minutes played in the UCL without conceding a goal. In veiw of our goals conceded so far this season, it is clear similar action is required.
I find the new found hate for the zonal marking system strange. After all, weren’t Arsenal being praised for adopting it in the first few games of the season? Then, as soon as the defence have a few horrible matches, it turns out that zonal marking is stupid and never works and only fools would use it.
I don't remember us being praised for adobting anything defensively for the first few games? are you happy with the shambles that is currently our defence, are you happy to plow along with the ineptitude being witnessed the already horrific goals conceded ratio? I am not, i cannot see a major improvement in our defence without a major shift in what we are doing, it's not about being childish and saying this or that is stupid, no one is saying that, what we want are improvements and right now many us us don't seen that happening with the current set up. We are all on the one side here, there is nothing wrong with constructive criticsm or debate, I think I have been quite fair on the issues raised.
We have only been using zonal marking this season, before that we were using man marking and conceding loads of goals over the last 2 - 3 seasons so I don't think this will make a huge difference.
While I appreciate that the result at OT may have been extraordinary, it remains that if statistics mean something then, in just 5 EPL games we have conceded 1/3 of the goals given up in the same competition last season. What seemed quite glaring to me at last weekend's match at Blackburn was that zonal marking saw our tallest defender Mertesacker, being nowhere near Samba or Yakubu. Instead it was the shortest of our players, Santos who had to deal with the two Blackburn players. Seems strange to me if this zonal marking is to work properly that you should not match player to player in terms of their characteristics. Tufnell Toughie has already given us an example above of the advantage that we enjoyed when Martin Keown was brought in. Now that both Cesc and Nasri are not here to cover the midfield, it does also leave our back four exposed which is as good enough a reason as any, given our leaky defence, to bring in some form of defensive coaching. It makes a lot of sense to do so. I'm rather perplexed when hearing Arsene Wenger say the following, when asked about the possibility of re-introducing defensive coaching - We all know Arsene can be stubborn but is he now digging his heels in so deep just to make his point that only his way is right? On the basis of evidence, it surely isn't. On the basis of our form, it is the club that suffers because if he gets fired, then his problems are over. We on the other hand, will be saddled with his legacy of inaction and dare I say it, negligence.
32 years ago we had a centre forward with front players either side of him. To supply crosses and passes we had wingers - remember them? In defence we only needed a full-back each side, the remaining 3 wandered about in midfield. Perhaps the format and tactics have moved on?
Well my friend The game has changed and will continue to evolve, even in the time Arsene came to us with his revolutionary approach. Unfortunately Arsene's own approach is itself now resistant to change.
It would seem that he is saying; Arsene knows best and don't dare argue. He has got us into this situation but i can't see him getting us out of it without help. FFS Steve Bould is still at the club and could be drafted over without any additional expense but it seems Wenger won't have any assistance at any price. I hope he and we don't have to stew in our own juice, so to speak.
I think Arsene has ever since the departure of David Dein adopted an autocratic approach to running Arsenal. He actually does run most of it and not just the football. I am not surprised that he has refused the suggestion of help even if his own players have been asking for it. Arsene will be stewing in his own juice if we continue to struggle in the EPL. I hope it won't have any bearing on his health. This is not a good time and not a good style of management. Being a revolutionary, Arsene should know it. He has after all enjoyed a lot of success that was based on his new ideas. Sadly he has come to believe too much in himself. David Dein came out in support of Arsene a few weeks ago, just before the close of the transfer window and asked who we would have in Arsene's place. Well, if Arsene doesn't get his act together we will have to have someone in his place. It can't go on like that. And while I'm at it, neither can the board.
Im not sure we necessarily need a defensive coach, but what we do need is to work on defending as a unit and as individuals, and I include the midfield and attack in this as the whole team should be contributing to defending. From my understanding arsenal simply don't do any work on defending as they are so obsessed with attacking and this passing game. Therefore time needs to be set aside in training to work on defending, ray parlour said that pat rice used to do this with them when he was there, so he can't be that bad a defensive coach, but it's like everything else, if you don't practice it and set time aside for it, then it will never improve. So IMO we do not need a defensive coach but need to dedicate far more time to defending in training, if this does not yield any results and it's still the same old, then clearly the coaches do not know how to train a team to defend, and a defensive coach would be needed.
Yes I'll go along with that Mr E but after 16 games, one would have thought that they would have put in more work in defensive training. Arsene's approach seems to rely on offence alone to the detriment of defence. What happens when the offence fires blanks? It does happen and will become a problem as our midfield strives for creativity.
Completely agree. There is nothing wrong with Zonal Marking its just that we are doing it extremely badly. Look how well Barcelona pull it off even though they have a much smaller team than we do.
Hear, hear, Robin van Bergkamp. Couldn't have put it better myself. The great man has been digging his heels in for a few seasons already, and dare I say it, if he does end up being fired or leaving at the end of the season there won't be any shortage of new job offers for him whereas we might be f****d. 100 years of top flight football !!!!!!!
If Arsene turns this thing around, then all well and good... eventually. If he doesn't, then I fear that the longer he stays on in this vein, the less our lot will be. If we are no better in October than we have been through this season so far ( let alone the 6 months since March ) then Arsene has to do the honourable thing. That way at some future event he can come back and we will to each man or woman, stand and cheer him. If however he runs this great club into the ground I don't think many will be in a forgiving mood. They certainly will not forget. The board's culpability in this will have to be sternly examined as well.
The coach would help the defensive side of the team, they'd be more confident, and capable, they'd improve ability and coordination together etc
