Wenger: Why I didn't take off a striker

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
13 Jan	5:15 PM	P	Blackburn Rovers (A)	2	0	Win

When faced with a dismissal of a midfielder in their team, most managers would withdraw a striker in order to bring on another midfielder.

When Gilberto Silva was dismissed early in the first half against Blackburn Rovers, manager Arsène Wenger did not withdraw any of his two strikers, and instead had his team carry on playing with a midfielder short.

The Arsenal manager was confident that his team could cope despite being a man down in the middle of the park.

Wenger said: "I wanted to see how we coped with the situation.

"After 10 minutes I decided to keep it going as I wanted to win the game.

"I think we controlled the game quite well. I feel it was a great combination of quality, talent and solidarity. It was very pleasing to see.

"The team is growing from game to game. I've felt for a while now we've grown in maturity at the back.

"We didn't concede today and that's very good. We played quality football mixed with great spirit."

User Comments

AHR

Posted on 14 Jan, 2007 at 09:01 PM - Reply

Pires came off in the CL final cause Almunia needed to come on

el bondo

Posted on 14 Jan, 2007 at 05:57 AM - Reply

Most other teams would have brought off a striker and put in another defensive midfielder- even as recently as last year's Champs league final, when Lehman got sent off Pires was sacrificed. Today, nothing changed, he just played a 4-3-2 rather than going 4-4-1, which most managers would have done. Toure scored the goal Gilberto would have scored. Aside from that, after Gilberto was sent off I was never really sure which team was playing shorthanded. I must give credit to Blackburn as they did not have ten men behind the ball at all times, they actually played to win.
Gilberto is suspended for the Man U game- that's fine, he could use a rest, and we beat them earlier at OT without Henry so I'm sure we can win with Henry and without him. I would like to see Wenger put Baptista in his spot and make Cesc drop back a bit- we beat them 1-0 with a 4-4-1-1 at their patch, let's beat them with a 4-3-3 at home.

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