Arsenal and Wenger's long and shortcomings

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
31 Mar	12:45 PM	P	Liverpool (A)	1	4	Lost

After a usually dull international break, Arsenal prepare to travel to Anfield to meet a Liverpool team that just knocked out European champions Barcelona out of the Champions League.

In the past, this would be an exciting game to look forward to. In fact, given that Arsenal has beaten Liverpool three times already this season, one would expect Arsenal fans to be very confident but such has been the instability of the team this season that most fans are more worried than excited with expectation.

The past 11 days would have been full of introspective thinking for Arsène Wenger. Wenger has sounded very different in the past 2 months – less sure and more "lost" in his own words.

Wenger is quite clearly in a situation he is uncomfortable with. He did not look the centre of reassurance that most fans usually turn to for perspective. The games had been coming quick and fast before this break and there had been little thinking time and in that period, everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

These 11 days are important because they come after a period where all Arsenal's problems have been laid bare so the entire problem is now known and can be analysed. These 11 days were days to think about it and figure out what to do for the rest of the season first and then next season. I am therefore very curious to hear Wenger's next thoughts.

Arsène is a building manager. A strategic long term thinker who sits on the bench on Saturday to watch what he planned 3 years ago. When it doesn't happen as he planned it, he is usually powerless to change it.

Wenger is a workaholic because he is always thinking about the future. There is always work to do to prepare for 3 years time. Wenger has been moaning about rules surrounding players long before the situation of joint ownership surrounding Tevez and Mascherano came up.

He talked about compensation from national teams long before FIFA was forced to pay compensation to Newcastle for Owen; about quotas, etc – the list goes on. That is because for a manager who plans 3 years in advance, he wants to be sure the things that are central to his plans (the players) are stable and predicatable.

When Wenger started the 2005/06, he had planned that Julio Baptista was supposed to be there replacing Patrick Vieira and Edu was supposed to stay one more season but Baptista has pulled out at the last minute and Edu had chosen Valencia. Ashley Cole was supposed to be fully focused but he had been destabilised by Chelsea and Thierry Henry was supposed to be fresh but he had played too much for France.

When Wenger started the 2006/07, he had planned for José Antonio Reyes to be there but Reyes had left suddenly for Madrid. Gaël Clichy was supposed to have one more year of apprenticeship but was right in and Abou Diaby was supposed to have had a full year's substitute appearances. Lauren was missing and so was his deputy Emmanuel Eboué for long periods. Henry was supposed to be fit and playing with the experience of a 29-year-old super-player captain.

Wenger's plans suffered the most in the case of Reyes, Diaby and Cole's time of replacement. Wenger always claims he buys players a year before he needs them so one can be sure that Reyes was a strategic buy that was supposed to be bearing fruit right now.

th additional injuries to Eboué and Lauren, Henry and Robin van Persie, Wenger was suddenly in a situation where he had to be a "now" (tactical) manager instead of the strategic manager that Arsène is. He had to throw away his long term plan and build a new one for the season. It proved too much – especially for a manager who doesn't buy players in an emergency.

I wrote an article here on 22 August 2005 about how Wenger was rubbish at reacting tactically from the bench. Wenger has spent his entire Arsenal career replacing like for like around 75 minutess when Arsenal are winning 2-0 or 3-0 to rest players or give a young player a chance to get a game.

He would add an attacker and take off a winger if we were losing. During this season, Wenger has been forced to do things differently since Arsenal are not 3-0 up at 60 minutes anymore.

His attempts at substitution or picking teams when ravaged with injury have been unsuccessful and almost ridiculous at times. In one game I think we had Henry, Baptista, Emmanuel Adebayor, Theo Walcott and Jeremie Aliadière on the pitch in the last 10 minutes to rescue the game and hardly any defenders.

They spent those 10 minutes helping out in defence. Wenger is trying to do early substitutions now but it is clear it is not his thing. His thing is getting the right players, the right balance, giving them time, preparing them superbly and then leaving them to their own devices on the pitch.

Wenger has been extremely successful for many years because he concentrates on his strengths, like he does with his players. Wenger does not hassle players who don't head balls to head balls. He finds their strengths and makes them even better at it. Wenger has also avoided his weaknesses by planning strongly and steadily for the future so he always has a team that can handle the game with little input. It is worth noting that Wenger has been more animated on the bench in the past 2 years than he has ever been. The past 2 years has seen Wenger is situations he had not planned for. So what now?

Well that is why it is interesting to see what Wenger says or does for the Liverpool game. It will tell us what he has decided to do this season to cope with the situation for the rest of the season after 11 days of quiet thinking without his players. What we will not find out now is what he has decided to do for next season.

I rather suspect that Wenger will stay as he is and plan harder for next season with only one or two additions. He will probably figure out that he cannot be as unlucky as he was last season with injuries and will try to talk to all his key players before the summer to make sure that they stay for next season.

Another aspect is the role of Arsenal's Assistant Manager, Pat Rice – is he being fully utilised? You can see the hand of Carlos Quieroz in Manchester United's success. Ferguson is a manager that in some respects has found football this century a little different from the time he was absolute boss and dealt with mainly British players playing British energy-based football in a very English league that culminated in winning the Champions League at the end of the last century.

His knowledge and capability is being tested in a new world of football with more foreign technical players to manage, in a changing English league with many team having equally gifted players and in Europe where energy-based football does not always work and where different countries are playing more variety of styles. But Ferguson has been clever enough to find someone who complements him and has all the skills in areas he lacks. That's why he brought Quieroz back after he returned from Madrid.

Benitez is a great tactical manager and so is Mourinho – but they don't have to build long term teams because both clubs are very rich so their short-comings in that area compared to Wenger is nearly invisible. Benitez, Mourinho and Wenger have assistant managers that seem more like assistants.

They help out in training and on appearance don't seem to be able to influence the boss and the game. Quieroz, on the hand, looks like an Assistant Manager rather than an assistant who contributes something new. Given that Wenger has a glaring weakness, it may be that one solution would be to have an assistant who is strong in the area he is weak in. I have no deep knowledge of Pat Rice but I suspect that Wenger has got such control that all of Pat Rice is probably not being used to his full potential.

User Comments

Ahmad

Posted on 1 Apr, 2007 at 01:39 PM - Reply

The artcle contains aboslute truth to wengers situation. His long term plans is need to be mixed wit emergency experiences.

vk_afc_1306

Posted on 1 Apr, 2007 at 10:06 AM - Reply

amazing article - i agree with you in all respects -- wenger is an amazing manager -- im sure next season we WILL do great

Pete

Posted on 1 Apr, 2007 at 04:37 AM - Reply

Ask Arsene Wenger to stop dreaming. This present team that they have is not good enough. If he is still believe in this lot of players, then we will have another trophy-less season next year. Arsenal plays to pass the ball and not to win the game. See it for yourself at the game in Anfield yesterday. Other team like Chelsea and Man U play to score and win the game. That's the different.

Karim

Posted on 31 Mar, 2007 at 11:22 PM - Reply

While watching the Liverpool game to day, I had the exact same thought about using the assistant manager's position better, before reading this article. We really need someone who will allow Wenger to implement his long term ideas, but bring in some fresh tatical thinking for matchdays.

Eli

Posted on 30 Mar, 2007 at 08:13 PM - Reply

Good article. I agree with much of what you have said.

shango

Posted on 30 Mar, 2007 at 05:00 PM - Reply

Wenger said once, he is not pretentious enough to say he does not make mistakes. For me that says it all about the man.
The club is in such grate shape simply because he rarely over-reacts. For me the question he will ask is the number of injuries we've had over the past two seasons?
Last season we lost our No.1 back 4, for the best part of the whole season, this season we have not fared any better.

I love Wenger's way, everyone thinks so short term in football, it defies belief. I remember two seasons back when Owen was available, he kept being pressed by the media to sign Owen. He smartly avoided a debate on the issue. Rumour has it, Wenger long ago concluded Owen was too injury prone.

I doubt we would have been able to acquire the new Stadium without Wenger's prudence in Player and Staff management. I for one while sad we are no longer in the running for anything, have enjoyed going to the new ground, watching the football we play and enjoyed enormously the carling cup run.

I love Arsenal ! And Wenger should keep up the good work.

Alan (Dublin)

Posted on 30 Mar, 2007 at 02:18 PM - Reply

Brilliant article, I couldn't agree more. I have long suspected that Pat Rice has absolutely no input. I believe we need someone who will, if need be, question Wenger's decisions and push their own ideas. You really have to give Mourinho great credit for his ability to react to situations during a game. With Arsenal you can see the pattern develop very quickly. Sometimes we start well, score, and win 4-0. Sometimes we start well, miss chances, and run out of idea's. Other times we just start badly, never get going, and lose 1-0.

Goonerbeall

Posted on 30 Mar, 2007 at 02:04 PM - Reply

OK, you said your now this is my take.
Wenger has dropped a few clangers lately although no pundit would say a word about it.

Looking at our latest nightmare-11days of horror, I can recall that most of our problems originate from earlier days in which we lost 3 quality we never replaced. We even lost players who went for free. I am really fed up of this waiting in which new players are meant to come good next season which never happens. I am seething with anger Argggggg

Abdul Mahmood

Posted on 30 Mar, 2007 at 01:02 PM - Reply

I agree with your analysis. However, if Wenger is a strategist and I do agree that he is one and a strong one at that, wouldn't you think that he has already thought about getting the best out of his assistant?

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