From Norrie : Vivaldi
Hi Myles,
I think Brendan is being a little harsh on poor Jose.
Mourinho is emblematic, perhaps actually responsible for the emblem in the first place, of modern managers.
Look at Klopp and Simeone: both managers have succeeded by super-fast gegenpressing – but at a cost: players burn out, get tired and leave. One cannot press in perpetuity.
Mourinho has never achieved the Vivaldi – The Four Seasons – because he has been smart enough to exhaust each club of every resource available, then get out in time to escape the fatigued collapse.
Arsene, by contrast, is in an exalted, privileged position and inured from the slings and arrows of quotidian pressure, other than that which he puts on himself.
But the next manager will not last past his third season, and as with the rest of football, the trend will correct itself with Arsenal too.
Myles says:
You’re a philosopher who sees the long picture as well the big picture. Bravo!
From Douglas : Arsenal vs Sheffield Wednesday
Hi Myles
“Arsenal’s biggest defeat against lower league opposition since 1959!”
You’re over-reacting with that statement, but spot on about the match as an inconvenience.
Wenger clearly had intentions to chuck this competition away. His post-match conference and body language tells it all.
The Capital One Cup is always a good platform and opportunity for the young lads to test their mettle, but I don’t think Arsenal NEEDS to sacrifice too many first-team players win the Capital Cup, ever again.
As an Arsenal fan I would be more than delighted to see Arsenal lose out during the early rounds of this competition.
From Pete : the thoughts of Raymond Verheijen
If you have not already done so, the comments of Raymond Verheijen are worth a look, on why over a decade Arsenal have experienced more injuries than any other Premiership club.
As you would expect the problem is laid at the door of Wenger, being now some 20 years behind the times, in his training.
Comment is made that although the medical staff has been addressed this only cures the problem, but does not address the cause of the problem, or prevent it happening.
Fatigue being the killer element, with the player suffering fatigue losing the vital element, of control in his muscles and the consequence of injury occurring.
Myles says:
Wenger is a master of rebuttal who typical responds instantly to this kind of criticism, calling it “Complete rubbish.”
He’s a famous, powerful and privileged man who follows (and defends) his own policies in a fanatical manner. But occasionally events overtake him, as in Sheffield.
Remarkably, he blamed his three young debutants. Dismissed them totally, wrote them off, virtually said: They’re not good enough to play for me. That was vicious and that’s where anger sometimes shows, as it did when he pushed Mourinho at Chelsea.
I thought Wenger panicked when Oxy got injured. He didn’t give Walcott time to warm up properly.
When I saw that I thought (1) Further proof that he can’t think on his feet and (2) evidence that he had immediately realised that his team was so badly-constructed they could not play professionally with ten men for 10 minutes to contain a team who are 9th in the Championship.
The score was 0-0 but they could not play until Walcott had a chance to do a proper warm-up by stretching, by jogging up and down the touchline, then running as well.
So he threw Walcott on cold and he got a calf injury.