There's more than meets the eye.
A pithy pop culture cartoon reference aside, the fact remains that a lack of prudent transfers alone is not the problem at Arsenal. A malaise exists at the club that extends beyond the frugal nature of their stubborn managers's player acquisition.
Of course, not buying finished players, who bring confidence, competence and class, has contributed to the decline of a club; once feared both at home and abroad; however there are factors that have been allowed to develop at Arsenal that holds them back while neutering any progress made.
Poor defensive competence is one problem. Name the best defenders in the world. Pick two or three centre halves and a couple of full backs. Write their names down on a piece of paper. Now picture them at Arsenal. Sure, they'll be good for a couple of games, imperious, rugged, strong in the air and confident in the tackle. Restricting player movement and space. Negative and robust. Now give them a few more games - what happens? They start to regress, devolve almost, into shadows of their former selves. Ghosts who are ponderous in possession at the back and somewhat clueless in the face of an attack. Helpless even against the long ball. out of position, seemingly incapable of putting in a tackle with any confidence or potency. They look haggard, amateurish. You're not crazy. You're watching the deconstruction and decline of a defense, Arsenal style, brought to you by wrecker in chief Arsene Wenger.
Not only can Wenger not teach defence, he discourages it. His players are designed to retain possession in a creative way and attack. As a result, they lose the basic tools that are stocks in trade for defenders the world over. In both ability and technique they become midfielders who are simply deployed deeper. They cannot head the ball, tackle, clear first time, clamp down on a striker or even man mark. This is the Arsenal way. This is how the club has defended ever since its legendary back four retired. Their immediate replacements eventually succumbed to the complete lack of instruction and practice their corps required. They say a person who is left amongst animals for extended periods of time loses the ability to speak coherently. At the risk of a poorly constructed metaphor that relies on Reductio Ad Absurdum, one can argue that the same happens to defenders at Arsenal. They forget how to defend.
And it's not just individual ability and competence. It's the attitude, mentality and strategy. Tactical emphasis on defence is de-prioritised. Like an unpopular movie in a box set, defensive training is never shown any light at the Colney colony. Relegated to an afterthought, it begins to wither, before dying completely, just like Arsenal's challenge for silverware, in the Spring of most seasons. Arsenal's defence lack the positional discipline required of a top team. They do not possess the mindset that a team of their stature and ambition should have. They repeat silly mistakes, continue to make the same errors and revisit traumatic defensive lapses with an alarming, some would say criminal regularity. Gluttons for punishment or just lambs being sent out for slaughter by a manager and coaching system that robs them of their principal attributes - the ability to defend. No amount of goals scored can guarantee a win. However a clean sheet always guarantees the absence of a loss.
Then there are set pieces. Despite being a regular source of goals and chances for teams all around the world, Arsenal, are laughingly, less than impotent at them. They regularly concede off of them and hardly ever bring them to bear. An Arsenal free kick's yield is minimal, a corner's return more negligible still. Just like they do not practice defence, Arsene's Arsenal refuse to practice set-pieces. They are effete, unprofessional and impossibly weak at them, resembling uninterested players being asked to do laps, when presented with one. Football is a game of simple things. Arsene's teams have mastered the tricky aspects while forgetting the basics.
A complete lack of fresh ideas exist at the club. Wenger has long dismissed the need for an independent minded number two and refuses absolutely to consider an assistant who is not a yes-man, welded to the Wenger vision. While the need for such sycophantic flattery is not something required by Wenger, it is encouraged. The necessity of a strong, tactical second in command is made all the more conspicuous by its absence. He needs a strong number two who can contribute on his own but will never take one on.
Paul Le Guen was available when he had had enough at Lyon, after five straight years of Ligue 1 titles, and desired a sabbatical; making favourable noises about joining Wenger. He went to an ill-fated spell with Rangers instead, having being ignored and then dismissed outright by the successful end of North London. Former club captain and defensive legend Tony Adams openly admitted to being on his own with regards to collaboration when he went into coaching, despite wanting to, and needing, an apprenticeship. What better place than at his former club, and one crying out for some defensive management as well? Martin Keown, another former long serving defensive lynchpin moulded the rearguard so well; that they went all the way to the Champions' League Final in 2006; on the back of five clean sheets in their last six games, before they took on Barcelona. His reward was a cursory pat on the back that showed little gratitude and more destructive incompetence. The only thing more galling was his prompt relegation to the periphery. Yet another former defender Steve Bould has done wonders with the youth team but is never seen in the company of the manager, where his input would be invaluable. Former captain of the 2003-04 Invincibles, Patrick Vieira, decided to take on a coaching position with Manchester City.
Everyone does things in their own way but Arsene insists on doing it alone. It's a well known fact that he is a workaholic control freak. His attention to detail is only trumped by his craving for managing every minutiae at his club. Now, it appears that this single-minded energy has wrecked the ability of this great institution, reducing its dynamism, power and scope. Arsenal is in the process of becoming the plaything of a selfish tyrant, resembling a banana republic ruled by an absolutist dictator. One who rules out the positive energy of different thought, the bed rock that all strong and vibrant clubs are built on. Without the ability to refresh itself and renew season on season, Ashburton Grove is in danger of housing a decrepit machine, rotting from within and unable to compete. The cancer at Arsenal is finally spilling forth, revealing a sick club about to descend down the slow slope towards death.
Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis seems more peacemaker between management and fandom than visionary who takes the club forward. Where is the power, the legacy building, the desire to take the club to another level? Damage limitation and polite communication are now his biggest, one would say his only, strengths. His contrast with Danny Fiszman and David Dein in this regard is stark. Meanwhile owner Stan Kroenke is beginning to show his hand as a money minded businessman first and sport club owner second. Someone who wants a solid return in the boardroom over a decent haul in the trophy cabinet. Again the comparison with John Henry at Liverpool is damning. More alarming still, is the admittance that Wenger wanted to sign top talent but was discouraged by the rigid wage structure that would not remunerate top talent commensurate to experience and ability. Oddly a comment made by Jose Mourinho, former scourge of the club, about eggs and omelettes, comes to mind.
So we have a club that isn't really after success. It doesn't know how to encourage winning or breed dynamic energy. And a team whose manager insists on neglecting a key part of the game, one would argue the most important, having done the hard part of creating a style of play so irrepressible in potency and so brilliant in execution, that its continued lack of success can be considered one of the great mysteries of the modern game. And all the while building one of the greatest and most modern stadiums in the heart of one of the world's biggest cities.
Arsenal can bring in the best players in the world, but will soon wreck them as the choir conducted by Wenger can only support one pitch, one chord, one song. And a song that now grates on the ears of most supporters. This is a key season at Arsenal that will shape the decade to come. Getting rid of Wenger is one thing but with the hierarchy of denial and approach of least resistance in place, Arsenal's problems may be just beginning.
In an era of financial capitulation, how fitting then that the Bank of England club is slowly crumbling as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment