Arsene Wenger says that despite the win at Man City being based on a more defensive system, he won’t change his style of play completely.
A deeper-lying Arsenal stifled the champions at the Etihad but the Arsenal manager insists that his side won’t simply park the bus in every game, they’ll look to attack the way his teams always have.
He also admitted that he listened to his players ahead of the trip to Manchester last weekend, and that was a factor in how the Gunners played that day.
“You have to listen to your players,” he said, “and preparing for the game against City, I felt they needed to reassure themselves. And so they lined up more defensively.
I was not surprised by the result. I believe in these guys, but one of the biggest jobs as a manager is the mental challenge, picking them up after a bad result and making them believe they are good enough to achieve everything that you believe they’re capable of.
“One of my major tasks is to make them understand how good they are and how good I think they are. And that’s obviously something that plays on their minds. A
“huge part of the job is making them mentally solid and obviously results last year when we were beaten away from home left mental scars.”
And having beaten City, Wenger says that he’s got to find the right balance for the future.
“I go from too romantic to too pragmatic,” he said.
“We are not going to change our style. Of course we want to be defensively strong, but we want to play.”
Let’s hope we can marry the two elements successfully then. Especially before we play a Flock of Seagulls on Sunday.
What’s this hideous image?
Ha Ha, it looks like something spawned by clockwork orange and coco the clown
The Joker from Dark Knight.
Nothing wrong with Wenger becoming a villain against certain opposition such as Pellegrini (Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars) and Mourinho (Dr Evil from Austin Powers).
http://imgur.com/Owu67Kz
I support this. Free speech! This is our leader.
Does that mean the players were largely responsible for how we set up against City?
Wow!
Awesome. So we’ll get hammered again next time we play a big team unless the players choose the tactics.
He didn’t say the players chose the tactics. He said he chose to be more defensive because, listening to the players, they lacked the confidence to take the game to City.
He also didn’t say he felt he needed to be more defensive or that without the players intervention that he would have changed approach. Ergo without the players views being known he would have used his tried and failed tactic once again and will use it again once he feels the team are confident to play that way
He wasn’t talking about the players’ verbal expression. He was talking about their psychological mind set and how he had to read where they were. And by the way, players are mostly responsible for wins and losses. They are the ones on the field playing
Now you’re just making things up, this is his quote “You have to listen to your players”
Definition of the word listen:
: to pay attention to someone or something in order to hear what is being said, sung, played, etc.
—used to tell a person to listen to what you are saying
: to hear what someone has said and understand that it is serious, important, or true
Someone has to vocalise something to be able to listen.
There’s nothing about body language or psychological mind set. Please read and comprehend what he says
He’s some more reading and comprehension for you, further quote from the article
“And so they lined up more defensively”
They, the players, lined up more defensively, not I, the manager, lined them up more defensively
“You have to listen to your players” Seems to me like Arsene had a good meeting with his team about tactics which is the proper thing for any good football manager to do. “..and preparing for the game against City, I felt they needed to reassure themselves.” Seems Arsene definitely made some input about the tactics used against city. It also seems like he intentionally let the players figure out where they went wrong in such games in the past, instead of just telling them what to do, or what they did wrong. “And so they lined up more defensively.”… Read more »
Of course the manager has input into the team. but the way I’ve read this quote; “and preparing for the game against City, I felt they needed to reassure themselves. And so they lined up more defensively.” They, the players needed to reassure themselves, and as such they lined up more defensively. i.e. it was their decision to play more defensively, because there was unease amongst the players playing in a more attacking fashion. It was the players who needed reassurance regarding the style of play not him. Therefore their decision. There’s no we in this sentence, so he is… Read more »
“I felt they needed to reassure themselves. And so they lined up more defensively”
As a direct result of Wenger feeling the team needed reassurance, the team deployed a more defensive lineup.
Wenger would not have said “we lined up more defensively” since that would imply that he was part of the lineup that saw city off.
I always try to remember that Wenger is French, and so might not express himself in English as clearly as he would like to. And in this case, he could have used better terms to describe how he ‘listened’ to his players
Here’s the whole sentence; “You have to listen to your players,” he said, “and preparing for the game against City, I felt they needed to reassure themselves. And so they lined up more defensively. Firstly he listened to the players, and as a result of listening to them felt he needed to reassure them, he did that by playing more defensively. The defensive play was a reaction of the listening therefore driven by the those doing the talking(the players) not the listener(Wenger). This also leads to another question, like how were the players communicating to the manager. From what we… Read more »
Well these futile ramblings got boring quickly… You say potato, I say Wenger, though not without faults, is the best manager in our club’s history by a long way. Let’s just enjoy the victory and the defensive improvements. Up the gunners
I think he meant listen to the mood of your players to determine the sort of reassurance they need
I wonder how many of the 6’thumbs up’ is for your avatar image 🙂
The power of selective reading in this day and age just never ceases to amaze.
I know.
At least he didn’t listen to the scarred fans. They need a confidence boost too!
Which fans should he listen to? The ones who said Jenkinson should be sold in the summer cos he’s not good enough for Arsenal OR the ones who said Wenger was made for sending him on loan? The ones who said he buys and keeps too many injury-prone players OR the ones who said don’t sell TV5 and buy Khedira, Gundogan, Hummels, Bender and Reus – all of whom have missed most of the season. The ones who say he shouldn’t drop/rotate players in good form OR that he injures our best players by overplaying them. The ones who say… Read more »
That’s how I interpreted it, he certainly didn’t say he felt we needed to be more defensive. What was also telling that in the post match interviews the players didn’t credit the manager with the change of approach neither did the manager take responsibility for it. Looks like the players were fed up with being spanked so many times.
You really are trying hard to find a way to hate on Wenger, aren’t you?
No, just what I’ve observed, and I’m not the only one who’s interpreted that way. DFS has said something similar below. I’m only reading his words, if you can find a quote from Wenger where he says he, without prompting from the players decided to play more defensive I’d like to see it. But as things stand, the quotes in this article, made by the manager himself, suggest it wasn’t his choice of tactics.
This is what I suspected.
Post game no player detailed that Wenger/the manager/the gaffer had them change the tactics….Mert and Ramsay for example (see Arseblog posts) said “we” throughout the post game interviews.
From the get go I thought to myself, the players at least have had a role in the Man City tactics.
I wish i had a photograph of youuuuuuuuuuuuu. Or something to remind me…
”…Of course we want to be defensively strong, but we want to play.”
That is all we need.
#COYG #VCC
We should ideally stuff them. Haven’t seen us go on a rampage for a long time
And this is why the line “playing football the Arsenal way” in 49 49 undefeated makes us reminds we play beautiful winning football!
Oh yeah….he loves his team!
These thumbnails are getting way too funny lmao.
He’s a romantic
He wants to play
Tells the players that they’re better than they think they are
And lastly, he’s a romantic!
I’m too romantic too, my bird wanted to go out last Sunday.
So I’m now single
That picture scared the shite out of me.
I do imagine an evening out with Mr Wenger with dinner at a top restaurant followed by drinks at a classy establishment all the while discussing life and football would be quite delightful
Cue the usual headlines.
“WENGER ADMITS ARSENAL ARE MENTALLY SCARRED!”
Well lets see how we play against manure and chelsea…Euphoria over last week’s result should be over.
Time to get that 3rd place. I get this feeling Southampton is going to make the champions league.
If we can replicate the desire and grit shown on Sunday evening in every game then 3rd place would be a disaster. City are more than catchable, and the Russian mafia will drop points.
Ahead of Spuds & ManUre, hopefully. And behind us.
Kiss me….
Wenger’s methods rely on giving the players responsibility and teaching them to take responsibility. This is for their long term benefit, but up to the Man City game perhaps why the current crop look so uncertain in big games. Perhaps the City game is a turning point for the teams collective responsibility.
Wenger at his absolute best. Not only getting talent we paid for sensibly to believe they can beat super high priced players of city but then crediting them with the intelligence of the game strategy. I couldn’t be so generous! I run my own company. I wish I ran it as well as Arsene! Love the man, in or out of football.
Wenger at his best.
Or the players deciding they were simply not up for another thrashing.
So for you it’s:
Team wins = players credit
Team loses = Wenger’s fault
You don’t think that perhaps it’s a combination of credit and fault for wins and losses, or would that spoil your anti-Wenger agenda?
Little wonder the players were so committed at the Etihad – they had to make sure they delivered on their promise to the manager.
Good to know that the boys had a say.
Arsenal will play ball the Arsenal way but in the Stoke and City games, we see the 2 sides of our footballing coin. Each yeilded 3 points and clean sheets. We will employ both as occassion demands.
NO CONFIDENCE: Wenger SLAMS WEAK players with mental SCARS, these players could be axed.
Very well done, you should write for the Mirror! Exactly the right combination of selective quotes, misleading conclusions, and random capitalization.
what wenger maybe fails to see is that there is beauty in a performance like last sunday too. he champions teamwork, and the collective, hates the individual honours of the ballon d’or. but sunday was an outstanding example of an entire team being on exactly the same page, and to a man putting everything into the game. in fact if iwe’d had of been a wee bit sharper in the final third it could have been 3 or 4, and regarded as one of the most complete performances of all time. it wasn’t far off perfect as it was.
There was indeed beauty in the strategy and the win!
Why do you suggest that Arsene Wenger ‘fails to see’ the beauty of the performance at Man City? Surely it is an example of the football style and team ethic that he admires and has aimed to achieve at all times, and did so on Sunday…. I expect he is delighted with the performance of the individuals and the achievement of the collective whole…. I am! More please…..
It makes sense. Tactics should be adapted for each game and situation. The game at city demanded that defensive style but if Chelsea play against at emirates, I think they will be set up for counter attack as well so we have to be aggressive as the onus to attack would be on us. Our challenge would be a find a way to break them down and score the first goal and at the same time stop them from counter attacking. Not easy but that’s arsenal’s next big challenge.
This means nothing to me.
Would you like me to translate?
Vienna???
Ultravox ??? damn these new romantics!
Wenger as Steve Strange – you’re a demented genius blogs!
Boxtobox….
All was ask is to match the needs of the opponent, not to always been romantic or pragmatic.
It’s why I feel we’ll make the top 4 but worry a bit that come next season Wenger will revert to type again, he’s done it the last few season, where he adjusts in the second half of the season, then forget the lessons learn before.
Like when we learnt to beat Dortmund last season by being pragmatic, then this season going back to gong ho this season when we played them.
John C – you’re playing Chess with pidgeons mate. Give it up.
Don’t care if it was an imaginary bird who whispered in his his to line up more defensively against City, it’s a massive win. One that I’m still relishing. Highly recommend anyone moaning on thread!
Blogs sneaked in A Flock of Seagulls at the end of the article! Clever~!
So Santi Cazorla was talking about the cup final and about how AW was telling him that the Hull City goalie was liable to take a step to the side once he’s lined up his wall, leaving him vulnerable to a strike across (or whatever it was – but it’s certainly the kind of detail that would pass me and most of us by). And people say AW is tactically inept. He’s only gone and looked at the Hull keeper’s routine when facing a free kick and explained it to his top free kick taker. And explained it well enough… Read more »
Well said…. but then ignorance is bliss, as they say…
so no more nonsense about how Arsene is not letting Bould do his job every time we fail to keep a clean sheet and how bouldy is being allowed to do his job every time we keep one or two in a row
Pardon
Insane Clown Posse v Flock Of Seagulls remix… That shit is hot, yo!
The team does not have to do anything different. There is no plan B. What they need to do is execute Plan A properly. The defensive side shown against City is an expression of the 4-1-4-1 Wenger has used all season long. Nor has Coquelin been anymore an upgrade to Flamini. What was different is that in sitting deeper (which we have in other games) we were more commited to being organized and moving as a pack safe in the knowledge we now have several weapons to hit on the counter with in Alexis and Ox particularly. Also the fullbacks… Read more »