From John : no game management
Hi Myles,
I have one major problem with Mr Wenger and that is Game Management.
His teams for over 10 years cannot manage a game.
They have no clue how to slow down, speed up, or even shut the game down.
They play one way, why the hell do the full backs bomb on with 5 mins to go and two nill up? Close the game out and stay compact, it’s not a 5-a-side training match.
Until the team learns game management they will never win the League or the Champions League. He should be embarrassed.
The funniest comments he made this week were:
1. “I didn’t think Andy Carroll would play.”
2. “The majority of the goals we concede are from crosses.”
Doh – I’m sure SB looked at the stats and said :Oh, they concede from crosses so I will play Andy, and hit crosses to him!
Wenger = Plum. He should go and run a 7-a-side team, they would be quite good.
Here’s to 10 years of stagnation…. and an average points total of 72.
People forget the 8-2 against Man United, for that alone he should have been fired.
Anyone else would have been. No professional team should ever concede 8 goals.
From Sergei in Switzerland : West Ham
Hi Myles,
I just read your piece and have been floating in and out of ANR ever since I stumbled upon your blog.
I have read a lot of blogs and a lot of them pipe up until they are big enough then get corporate support and suddenly the talk and swagger is not as aggressive as they used to be.
Reading your bit about Slaven Bilic him not telling other clubs what to do and all that. He did a great thing at West Ham and although a lot of people doubted he could handle the managerial role in the EPL he is doing a great job. He changed the team where it needed changing and the board supported him as good as they could. Them moving into the new stadium will give them upwind and could boost the Hammers.
Will Wenger really change and invest ? I really think it all depends on Mr Silent who might be dictating from his large ranch that he recently bought that no massive investment shall be done except for one or two.
He moved the Rams back to LA because he was getting more money for them in LA than in St Louis or where ever they were. I dont think Wenger will dump Ramsey unless Barca really will offer the money he wants.
Walcott and Giroud really depends on the Euros. Theo will never be the replacement for Henry that Wenger really wanted and Giroud well we all know what he can do and what he can’t do. Would everything be different with Usmanov and David Dein still around? Who knows?
At least Kroenke cannot rinse the club with Usmanov holding the shares that he has.
Keep up the writing, always great to read!!
Myles :
We don’t know how much money Kroenke is taking out of Arsenal.
But we do know that the ideal manager for his business model is Wenger,.
I’ve never said AW is overpaid. But I have said he’s on £11.5m including bonuses.
His bonuses may depend on profits, not trophies.
From Norrie : Barca
Hi Myles,
A couple of points on Barca:
Suarez: I don’t understand how he hasn’t been charged by UEFA. His kick was clearly picked up by the cameras, even if the seven different officials all conveniently missed it.
Ramos said after the Clasico that the league wasn’t over, as Barca tend to lose games in streaks.
Extraordinary how brittle they seem after a 39-game unbeaten run – perhaps one of the few remaining parallels between them and Arsenal is the ability to find bad form from positions of strength.
… although Barcelona’s 22 trophies in the last 10 years belies that, somewhat!
And a question: what do you think of Koscielny? To me, he is the personification of the second half of Wenger’s tenure: 90% there, 10% missing. Ashley Cole had to move to Chelsea to complete his education as a defender.
With Kos, Gibbs et al (too soon to mention Bellerin?) the feeling is that they plateau, stop improving, but continue to make the same ‘type’ of mistakes.
Myles says:
Koscielny is a skilful, athletic centreback who’s improved a lot since he came to the Premier League. Kos deserves his caps and he’s not a narcissistic cheat. If he was playing against Ireland in Paris, he wouldn’t pick up the ball and carry it into the net.
From Michael Budgen:
Morning Myles,
Refs don’t favour every big club, they favour certain big clubs.
Howard Webb for instance got to referee a World Cup Final, appallingly, for his shocking sycophancy to Sir Alex & the Old Trafford hierarchy !
Refs are humans, and any ref with ambition knows how to climb that slippery pole.