Wojciech Szczesny says defensive stability has been a huge factor in his consistency between the sticks this year and says he’s matured in the way he analyses his game.
The Pole kept 16 clean sheets in 37 league appearances this season, enough to secure him a share of the Golden Glove award with Chelsea’s Petr Cech, and cut a comparatively impressive figure even on the days when Arsenal got spanked by their title rivals.
Speaking to Gunnerblog in an exclusive interview for the Bleacher Report, the 24-year-old touched on the importance of playing behind the same faces on a weekly basis.
“It’s been massive. It’s made it so much easier. Over the last two or three seasons, we had to deal with a lot of injuries at the back and the defence rotating pretty much every single game.
“There was a time when we had no full-backs available at all, so we had four centre-backs playing. It was difficult.
“This year, Kieran [Gibbs] and Nacho [Monreal] have rotated a little bit, but usually it’s been the same back four. I think when you play with the same defence you sort of understand each other’s body language and you read off each other, and it’s much much better.
“Plus it’s not only the fact that it’s been a settled back four, but also a very good one—especially Per [Mertesacker] and Laurent [Koscielny] in the middle. They’ve been rock-solid defensively—as good as any centre-backs in the league this year.”
Szczesny also admitted that in years gone by he may have been blinded by his own arrogance when it came to assessing his game.
“There’s plenty of things I can improve. If you asked me three or four years ago I would have told you I was pretty much faultless and there wasn’t a lot I could improve.
“I think the maturity and experience of playing the game makes you realise you improve in every single game, and I know I can improve every aspect of my game.
“I’ve managed to add a level of consistency to my game this season—even if I had an off-game, it was only ever for one game. For example, I concede five but then I get back to my clean sheets—that’s been positive.
“Then I had a period of a few weeks of playing not so well, but I want to improve everything: shot-stopping, distribution, taking crosses. Every single aspect.”
Good stuff from our No.1 who, without grabbing the headlines, would be an outside shout for player of the season this year. Do go and read the rest of the interview it’s a very good read, especially his warm words for friend Lukasz Fabianski.
What did she wear…?!
yellow ribbon
Pearl necklace?
One of the unsung heroes of our title campaign, getting very little praise from the media (as with most Arsenal players, mind you). He’s had a great year and hopefully many more to come!
Well done Szczesny!!
Even he wants Fabianski to play.
If he is picked, he will play the best he can, but as he mentioned it, he can also feel for Fab.
Great to hear.
But personally I have no doubt that Wenger will pick Fab to start.
As Arseblood summarized in an earlier post…
‘Sentiment is the enemy of success’
We should have our strongest 11 out there tomorrow which means Chezza over Fabs.
Every aspect huh? Lad needs to sharpen his shooting skills, not one goal since he signed for us.
You nailed it. Dont think he even managed a shot on target…
Seek to especially find new ways of taunting Sp*rs
I have to appreciate Blogs for never taking out a whole article and posting it. He always leaves enough for one to go to the website that produced the article, instead of being parasitic. Very ethical towards other people working on the internet.
A spud supporting friend of mine got really really wound up by his selfie on the WHL pitch, he was ranting and raving for ages about it. So, to make him feel better (cos even though he’s a spud, he’s still a good friend who I didn’t like seeing as agitated that) I showed him this….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFxDQ6chnRE
His fucking head nearly exploded. 😉
There was a time when most fans wanted another first-choice goalkeeper, and maybe some still do.
Schwarzer, Reina, Lloris … someone, somewhere was always demanding immediate action in the transfer window.
But now it’s not a problem – something purely down to Szczesny and his attitude.
Is he perfect? No goalkeeper is. But there’s no one I’d exchange him for in the whole of football.
He’s good. He’ll probably get better. And he’s ours.
Win it tomorrow boys! We’ll be behind you from all over the world tomorrow.
Colorado Rapids ✔ @ColoradoRapids
Want to send our good luck wishes to @Arsenal in the #FACupFinal against Hull City! #GunningForTheCup
My son and myself will be in a pub in Grand Junction, Colorado in between soccer matches at a weekend tournament. GJ geographically speaking would remind you of some old west movies where it’s dry and almost deserty, hills and rocks, some green plants here and there and a river running through it.
I have been reading most footie sites about the FA Cup today. Is it me or does it seem like the media can’t wait for us to lose tomorrow so that they can explode with joy? I’m still trying to understand why there is such a biased agenda against the Arsenal. What have we done wrong?
A few thing I have guessed factor into the “perceived” bias, in no particular order:
1. Wenger is French
2. Consistently good, yet not winning trophies is not good for selling papers and whoring hits on websites
3. We never buy the players we claim they will instead getting players they don’t know making their jobs harder
4. Our own supporters are far too easily drawn into the negativity
Er- “THEY claim WE will” blah, blah, blah. (#3)
Woj, mate, that’s all very nice but, all you have to focus on right now, is tomorrow.
Ya don’t fuck up. Not like last time. Remember ?
All this getting better and better bollocks can wait. Twat.
My sympathies to FAT GOONER you surely must be in mourning tonight and my condolences because as much as I have admiration for Hull City ( was not they the cultural capital) to reach the final and also playing in europe ( without the bearded portugese trans), I believe we will win this one. Never mind mate you can always rant about the world cup.
If we win tomorrow, the media narrative will change from “oh, arsenal has not won anything in 9 years” to “oh, they’ve not won the league in 9 years”. Once we win that, it will be “oh, they’ve not won the champions league”.
And once we win that, it will be “Oh yeah, but they’ve not won the World Cup so they must be shit”. It’s always going to be something.
Arsenal supporters of every kind, it is your duty to participate in the following:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AskJose&src=hash