What’s Wrong with Arsenal: Wenger’s Decision Making
By the 61st minute in today’s match between Arsenal and Blackburn, Wenger had three strikers on the pitch at once. Niklas Bendtner, Robin Van Persie, and Mauroaune Chamakh. Arsenal would go on to blow about ten chances in and around Blackburn’s 18 yard box and end the game in a scoreless tie. This draw, coupled with United’s come from behind win over West Ham, almost seals Arsenal’s fate: the title will not go to the Emirates this year. What happened? My theory: Wenger’s poor decision making late in matches. Now, calling a manager with an unbeaten team a bad decision maker seems a little wonky, but Arsenal should be on the top of the table right now. Let me explain why they aren’t.
1. Wenger gives players wiggle room that don’t deserve it.
I am not an Alex Song believer. Nor am I that much of a Robin Van Persie fan. And yet, consistently, these two players make nearly every starting eleven. Take today’s game for example. Song got a yellow card, and because he’s so old and injury prone, he was limping around the pitch the entire time. What manager in their right mind wouldn’t sub that player out? Additionally, because he is a defensive midfielder, most of the attacks that didn’t end with a shot on goal were because someone passed to Song and he fooled around with it or just gave it away. This would have been the Rovers’ chance to counter and score, which they weren’t able to do (mostly because of stunningly brilliant performances by Koscielny and Squillaci), but they got close. Song should have been pulled instead of either Ashravin or Nasri, probably Ashravin because Nasri is hurt. The Gunners lost a lot of pace and ingenuity with Ashravin and Nasri gone, and with Song limping around and giving the ball away indiscriminately.
Also to this point, Wenger should not have played Fabregas. He wasn’t fit and he spoiled three chances with poor efforts, particularly the free kick which he thudded into the wall. I understand the point about him being the captain and the spiritual leader, but if Wenger wanted to make that statement, he should have started Fabregas and then replaced him if things weren’t working out. Fabregas is not a substitute. He needs to feel the game out and develop over time. More than ever today I felt like Cesc belongs at Camp Nou, even with all that he means to the Gunners.
Related to this is Wenger’s lack of understanding about the talent of some particular players. For instance, it took forever for Jack Wilshere to make the starting eleven, but people have been saying that he was good enough to do this for almost a year now.
For RVP (Robin Van Persie), I need a new number.
2. Wenger doesn’t understand RVP’s psyche, and RVP doesn’t understand anything.
RVP has the potential to be the next complete forward. Yet he cannot live up to those expectations. Why? He lacks confidence. The thing about RVP is, if he doesn’t score with his shot in the first half hour of a match, he loses all confidence in his shot, which is stupid, because he’s probably one of the premier strikers of the ball in the world, right up there with Ronaldo and Rooney.
BUT that doesn’t mean that he won’t take chances to try to redeem himself. What does that mean? He’s going to go for headers. One problem: RVP can’t head the ball. It’s just not part of his game. Do you know who can head the ball? Chamakh. Now, here’s the thing about heading the ball: only one guy can do it. So what does Wenger do late in the game when he needs a goal? Puts Chamakh in with RVP and Bendtner. Quick note about Bendtner: he’s one of the cockiest players in all of football. He’s dating one of the hottest supermodels in Europe, and also just generally thinks he’s the Eastern European reincarnation of Ronaldo. So what happens? You get Sagna, Wilshere, and Fabregas curling in these beautiful crosses, and Chamakh is getting boxed out of them by RVP who is desperate to answer his critics, and Bendtner who is convinced that he’s entitled to every ball that comes within twenty yards of him. There were three times at least I counted where I could see Chamakh expertly trying to time the header so it was well controlled, powerful, and aimed right at the bottom corner, and then Bendtner or RVP flash in front of him and spear the ball over the top like a couple of drunks. People wonder why Chamakh can’t deliver on expectations? Because he’s supposed to be a solo forward. This is, incidentally, also why everyone says Benzema sucks at Real, because he needs lots of space as a striker. Chamakh is kind of a timid player; he doesn’t really attack the ball unless he really thinks he has a shot at it. There’s a better why to describe this: he’s French. So is Benzema, incidentally. If Chamakh is being thrown off his rhythm not only by a BPL that is violent and all about power and finesse, but also by his own teammates ruining his chances, of course he won’t be able to convert.
This keeps happening late in the season, an inability to overcome adversity late in the game, and I believe that is directly related to Wenger’s complete lack of understanding about the chemistry of his team. Just because you can throw three strikers into a game at once doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. Especially when the skill sets and dispositions of those players are in direct conflict with each other. This is something that Guardiola at Barca understands so well: football is as much about who is on the pitch as it is about how good they are. Iniesta and Xavi are best friends, Puyol and Pique are inseparable, and Messi and Villa are already extremely close, and were so even before Villa’s transfer even happened. That is why those back heel flicks and brilliant through balls happen over and over again in their games. It’s about the flow, and no one can kill flows faster than players like Bendtner, Song, and RVP. If they’re all on the pitch at once, it’s a living nightmare of bad soccer. A compression of this point: Sagna curls in a cross that goes STRAIGHT to RVP with four yards of space around him, clear line to the goal, if at a slight angle. What does the experienced striker do? Wait for the ball to drop and hit it on the volley with enough power that even if the goalie blocks it with his hand, it breaks his wrist and goes in anyway. And trust me, RVP is capable of breaking wrists with his shots. What does RVP do? Control it with his chest and then take TWO TOUCHES before a defender knocks it out of play. I can’t think of any situation where a PREMIER LEAGUE player can expect to be able to take three touches in the penalty area (which is something Berbatov finally figured out this year at United). Why does this happen? Because RVP doesn’t believe in his beautiful, stunning Howitzer cannon of a foot. And because Wenger is too dense to realize it and just take the risk to go with Chamakh and then let Sagna, Nasri, or Ashravin curl one in at him.
This is my first post in a while, I’ll be trying to be more frequent about it now. Thanks for reading, sorry about all the fragments.
