Laurent Koscielny says his teammates need to repair the damage done to their confidence after Leicester’s 3-0 win over Arsenal left our chances of sealing a top four place hanging by a thread.
Conceding three goals in three defeats in the last seven days means the good vibes built by the consecutive 1-0 wins at Watford and Napoli already feel like a distant memory.
“This week we are in a bad moment but we need to stay together,” Koscielny told Goal.com at the King Power.
“I believe in the quality of each player in this squad because in the last few months we’ve played well.
“When you go 22 unbeaten, it’s not easy and I think everyone fought for this. I want to keep the heads up because this is football. The end is nearly here and we didn’t fight this whole season for nothing.”
“The away form is not good at this moment,” he added.
“We won away at Napoli and it was a difficult game because it’s a very tough atmosphere, but when the confidence is a little bit down then it’s tough to come back. We need to stay together every day to give more for the team.
“We need to give five more per cent every day to get this confidence and come back at our top level. We have the quality and we’ve shown that this season, but now we have five games in front of us and every one is so important for our future. We need to fight.”
Looking ahead to Thursday’s Europa League semi-final with Valencia, Koscielny made clear that our hectic schedule will not be an excuse for another poor performance.
“Of course we’ve played a lot of games every three days, but we have a big squad.
“We need everyone to be ready and help the team to produce the best results. We’ve lost some players with injury but we still have a team full of good players.
“Confidence is the most important thing in football, more than the quality. It’s about working together and giving that commitment to the team. Alone, we can do nothing. Together, we can achieve our targets.”
We need something miraculous to happen for Thursday
May the glory of arse continue to shine through in tempestuous times. Arse glory, in aeternum. Miki is ballax.
Blah blah confidence, blah blah mentul strengff….
Fuck me is Wenger still in charge? Is there no end to these pointless, meaningless post-match platitudes? I’m sick of this. Nothing has changed, on or off the pitch under Emery. It’s still the same weak, clueless defending and hope for some improvisational spark. How about doing some defensive coaching?
Beg’s the question really, how is this still Wenger’s fault? As Henry said in an analysis, the players are just too comfortable. Why chase CL when you are already on 100k+ and will most likely allow the team to get in your new replacement. Compare this to Man city for example where when you don’t perform you are benched or sold end of. In this team whether you play good or not you know you still play the next game.
This is all a mentality starting from the top where Kroenke is comfortable too…
You have a valid point. Some players don’t want the club to get the money to buy other better players that are likely to challenge/replace them in a club where they are being paid fortunes for doing mostly Nada on the pitch and where they and their families are comfortable. Shout them down, they will still remain, unless somehow they are forced into it. Talk of Micky and co.
I can only hope that the reason Mkhitaryan doesn’t commit for a single challenge is that he’s leaving in the summer and doesn’t want to get injured.
No sabe person would pay him £200,000/week
*sane
Right, but we do. That makes our board totally insane and him very very cozy and so comfortable in the club. Just like some of his co big earners in the club.
I doubt that, quite the opposite actually, he doesn’t want the club to get money to buy a better option to him through champions league qualification.
If I read another post about lost confidence again…..C’mon Arsenal man the FCUK up!
Always though this season would be a write off, i’m not in the least bit surprised about where we are, or our results, if anything we’ve done slightly better than I expected overall.
The biggest problems I think we’ll face this summer;
1. Players earning far too much, and that are far too comfortable for us to move on, meaning we’ll likely be stuck with them, or having to loan them out.
2. A lack of adequate investment, but this is nothing new.
3. We don’t seem to have anyone in place to drive our recruitment
We are shite
Plain and simple
Not always, but certainly at the moment
How many of our players would get into the Leicester team? How many into the Wolves team?
Not as many as we would like.
Pretty much any of our starting 11 bar Mustafi.
They had to get one of the players with who has earned a lot of goodwill at this moment to say anything.
With Cech, Ramsey not going to be around next season very limited choice to face the media in difficult times.
Leno is one in the making.
I didn’t have any good vibes after the Watford game, Napoli yes but Watford??? We were shite against 10 men
My glass is finally half empty. 🙁
My head and heart went to the Europa sometime after the 2nd goal at Wolves tbh.
Hindsight makes a sage out of a simpleton, but maybe we should’ve went Mourinho route and risked a few painful losses by playing the kids in the League once it became apparent that our run of fixtures made it highly improbable that we will qualify through the being in the top4.
Now, I may have just said something somewhat complimentary about that The Special Git, so excuse me while I go lean against a toilet and wash my tongue out with stomach acid.
Its more than just confidence. People like to blame Mustafi even for past transgressions rather than what happened today. Mustafi wasn’t the ones caught square for the second goal which came straight from the keeper to Vardy. For someone lacking in pace, Mustafi fared better than AMN at Rback. As I recall, he showed some guts making a foray forward to earn a corner too. We have other systemic issues that need to be addressed : 1) Back 4. We can’t play it. Last 3 matches we’ve been punished for a back 4. Against Palace,we switched to back four second… Read more »
Transitions were slightly better today but we are not focus.
Teams like Wolves and Leicester tend to train for lesser possession in games against top 6 (besides us today), so they are very efficient with their movement and passing for counters.
We are too complicated and careless.
Le Grove nailed it- “That was a nothing game. The reality is that Emery is just here as a transition. He’s solid and dependable, but there’s no next level.”
Probably fairly accurate, keep things steady whilst the hoped for young talent comes through
just watched highlights from the women’s team win today some lovely goals. Maybe we can apply to the premier league for special dispensation to have some of the ladies playing for the men’s first team as the men are shit.
I’ve been here before, recently. I’m not even upset like I would normally be after such an important defeat. I was expecting to lose the last 3 away games, but we beat watford, so that’s a bonus. The palace loss just evens it out
Why is the confidence so fragile? I remember after the 49 unbeaten run came to an end the confidence evaporated – why? They had just gone 49 games unbeaten for crying out loud!!! I think it is a psychological issue and the sooner Emery gets some money to sort it the better!!! I do think it is time for mustafi, Miki and probably Ozil to go!!! We just need to win two more games this season – the first leg of the semi final convincingly and then the final!!! I hope they can wangle two victories in what I hope… Read more »
Broken Arse
What the F are we going to do after this season? So many are leaving us. So many should leave us. Few of them will bring any significant money and no one believes for a second (at least no indications from the leadership have been made) that we will have significant fonds to re-build. Sorry for the depressing state but seriously… What are we going to do? How will this team get the backbone to compete? Please help me find some hope.
I don’t think we can get significant money from selling certain players. Our most valueable one was Ramsey and he left for free. Inter Milan is the only club who wants Ozil but Beppe Marrota won’t sign him for than 20 mil. You know him that old fox… I would be glad if someone would take Mustafi and Elneny for free. Seriously, their level are not enough to play for Arsenal. Koscielny, Monreal are too old. Thanks for everything they have contributed but it’s time to say farewell. There you go! 40-50 mil + 20-25 mil = 60-75 mil for… Read more »
“Confidence is the most important thing in football, more than the quality.”
Unfortunately we seem to lack both confidence and quality :/
Well, this result does not really surprised me.
I know Emery has a record of 0% winning away with Sevilla in a season.
He is turning Arsenal into a “Sevilla”, hopefully we can win the Europa League.
As i mention before, if Kroenke is still the owner with his zero investment, we can only expect to see a new “Sevilla” not a glory hunter 10 years ago.
I heard rumours that Ole Solskjaer has handed 200 mil to spend this summer even when United can’t qualify for UCL.
Look at us…
Sigh.
Oh, here we go. It’s down to confidence again. How many seasons has it been now that this tired, lame excuse has been put out there to explain their pathetic failure. The players aren’t good enough. Lack of investment in players is the real cause. Some newspapers are reporting Kroenke is finally going to spend some money. Read the same reports last Summer. That parasite won’t spend anything. On his limited means, Emery will still improve us for next season. Trouble is, the clubs above us will invest and improve more than us.