Freddie Ljungberg has called on the Arsenal hierarchy to make a quick decision regarding the vacant head coach position because he feels the club are not currently operating on a level playing field with their rivals.
Unai Emery’s sacking was accompanied by the dismissal of the Spaniard’s five-strong coaching team and the Gunners have opted, so far, not to make any new appointments while they decide who is the best person to take over on a full-time basis.
While Per Mertesacker and Ryan Garry have been drafted in from the Academy to be Ljungberg’s assistants and keeper coach Sal Bibbo has taken a more active role, the Swede has made clear that there’s only so long they keep all the plates spinning.
“I’ve said to them [the board] they need to make a decision,” Ljungberg told Sky Sports after the 3-0 home defeat to Manchester City.
“We are here to help and the staff are trying to chip in but a decision has to be made so we can have the same resources as other clubs. When I say that they that say I have to wait and see.”
The Gunners were outclassed on another dispiriting afternoon at the Emirates with fans voicing their frustration at the break before defiantly cheering them on in the closing moments. Kevin de Bruyne set the tone with an opener inside three minutes and the Belgian added a second after Raheem Sterling had doubled the champions’ advantage.
“We know playing against City we have struggled a lot recently,” reflected Ljungberg. “We tried to keep the ball and be the Arsenal we want to be.
“The problem was the transitions, they scored on the counter, De Bruyne is a fantastic player but when they start like that it’s very difficult to get going again and I felt we got low and they got confident.
He added: “I said to the players at half-time it was about pride, ‘you need to show some heart out there and show that you’re proud.’
“For me I think the last week has been good, we played really good against West Ham, qualified top in Europe. We know from history we struggle against City, they and Liverpool are a little in a league of their own. Against Everton we need to have our chests high.”
“I was proud of our boys,” he said. “When you look at the age of the side that finished it was not an old side.
“I felt we kept the ball OK and played well. But we couldn’t get that final spark and when you are 2-0 and 3-0 down early it takes the edge off.
“The players showed spirit but it is hard to play at 3-0 down.
“If you look you see the players and price tags they put in from the bench, we have young kids who we put on. There is a gulf but I am still proud of the boys.”
Freddie certainly has an edge about him. His post match comments resonates that of a fan. Even he is fed up how the folks are running the show at Arsenal
Frankly I think he understands that he is not going to get the job and that is something to appreciate about that.
He understands he is a stop-gap guy and is trying to do his best.
It would have been great if he could done well till the end of the season and then the club could have had more options.
However as things stand the board’s hand seems forced. Can’t wait with Ljungberg at the helm till the end of seaon.
I can see Freddie staying on until the end of the season for the simple reason that there is no one of the calibre of coach that Arsenal needs who’d want to come on board mid-season.
They’re not running it. It’s pathetic.
I wish they were as decisive as daniel levy
But much less of a twat
The two “decisiveness” and being a “twat” seem to go together in this world eh?
you have to be a bit of a dick to get things done properly.
Not that much
With every week that passes, these fools are looking more and more inept. They seem incapable of making a decision and the longer they go on the deeper we fall.
Arseblog on Twitter: “Told that news about the next manager is ‘imminent’.
I don’t know any more than that, who it might be, or what that news is.
Whether it’s the new man, or Freddie till the end of the season.”
Hopefully it’s settled by next game, and even if it’s Freddie until the end of the season, at least support him fully with a proper staff. It’s absolutely embarrassing at this level that he had almost no support even for couple of games.
I hope its Freddie because the names mentioned as being interviewed doesn’t fill me with confidence. I hope Freddie gets a good go, with the backing of the hierarchy rather than stop-gap till the end of the season. We’ll hopefully be in a better position to make a Klopp like appointment rather than an another Emery like appointment.
Have you seen anything though that makes you think Freddie an handle it until the end of the year? We’re staring down no European football – possibly even a relegation battle – and losing Auba & Lacazette this summer possible along with others such as Torreira & Leno unless this rapidly turns around. I was hoping Freddie could handle it until year end but the performances and results simply aren’t improving. It would have been one thing if we lost to city and played well but this was pathetic
My observations: 1. A slight noticeable improvement in attitude when compared to Emery’s last few games. 2. The team selection and formation is an improvement i.e. 4231, benching xhaka against city, starting the youngsters, Pepe, not playing Auba and Laca, benching luiz 3. Leno has been rock solid The injuries haven’t helped. This club should be thinking long term, and I can’t think of anyone better than Freddie. Short term results will required bringing in a top level manager and access to lots of money because they current squad does not have the talents or the depth to challenge for… Read more »
Ljungberg should be freed from this misery. He can’t do it. Everton is a better team under Ferguson but you won’t say that of arsenal under Ljungberg
Freddie definitely is not up for the challenges. Why do u want him to continue. If he definitely does is relegation
Did you read the part about he doesn’t have a proper coaching team and they’re not allowing him to appoint one?
He may not be ready, but This is not a fair read of his abilities.
This isn’t all that unusual for an interim manager – Ferguson at Everton has the same situation. It tells you that Freddie will only temporarily be in charge
He’s got three coaching staff in to help him out.
It’s not sustainable long term having BFG as the only real coach (other than fitness etc) but at the same time Freddie hasn’t done anything to demonstrate he’s the right man for the job and the new guy will want to bring staff with him. Freddie hopefully makes a great manager one day but he’s not ready for this right now – or at a minimum will need a longer term commitment and an acceptance this season is totally lost
Stay strong freddie..
A new manager will not be able to make average players into top class players. The current squad is just not good enough. We need a Major rebuild like man utd.
One world class CB would make a huge difference… huge
Bigger issues in midfield
Who is our other world class center back? Lol
Musti lol
Saliba
Luiz is being benched but don’t think Luiz is our problem. He might even be our best CB
Maybe if you take defending out of the equation.
I am sad to say I agree. We do have a handful of good attacking players plus a great goalkeeper and some excellent prospects, but other than that, this side is weak. What we need is a coach who knows how to get the most out of a disorganized, dispirited and individually mediocre squad. Big Sam anyone?
Minimum we need a DM, a CB and a back up RB. In reality we’ll probably need a lot more depending on Auba, Laca, Ozil, Torreira and Xhaka’s situations, and any deadwood defenders we choose to move on.
This so-called ‘Board’ of ours. Oxygen thieves, the fucking lot of them.
I’m sorry but it’s easy to blame the “board” but realistically they have provided.
£50m for Lacazette
£63m for Aubameyang
£72m for Pepe
£18m a year on Ozil ??♂️
Plus Leno, Tierney, Torreira etc.
It’s the players that have got us into this mess. We really had the wool pulled over our eyes with Pepe. Ozil is Ozil & the rest don’t care.
Too early to say Pépé is a bust. Just needs the right coach.
Ozil, yet again, puts in a disgraceful performance. Why is Freddie persisting with this waste of space? It will be the undoing of him – just like wenger and emery.
Disgraceful performance my ass. It’s the shit defending that lost this match – again.
we had three shots all game. Watford had 4 at the Etihad and they lost 8-0.
This sums up the our performance “he added: “I said to the players at half-time it was about pride, ‘you need to show some heart out there and show that you’re proud.’. Players don’t have confidence and none of our experienced players show leadership. They all try to pass as soon as possible (mostly backwards) so they don’t be a scapegoat for our miserable performance. Other than Leno and Martinelli, no one was even 5/10.
There’s no leadership in this team. Zilch.
And quickly clear out all the defensive coaches at the club, whoever they are they dont know what they’re doing. The club has entirely lost the art of defending, root and branch clear out. Same lacklustre defensive crisp week after week, same mistakes week after week… who are the coaches, what are they doing….
Aaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh
We don’t have ANY proper coaches right now!!! This is complete shambles from the board!!!!
“And quickly clear out all the defensive coaches at the club, whoever they are they dont know what they’re doing. The club has entirely lost the art of defending, root and branch clear out. Same lacklustre defensive crisp week after week, same mistakes week after week… who are the coaches, what are they doing….
Aaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh”
I had to repost this, it is so right.
I find it interseting what Ole is doing at Man Ure. Firstly, he is being given time. He has decided on a style of play. He is blooding youngsters to see who is good enough. I think he will let that overpaid prima dona Pogba go. He will supplement his young home gown players who care with a few very carefully chosen hogh quality foreign players ( not necessarily established names and probably ones with the right attitude). Arsenal could do with a similar approach. We have a great crop of youngsters. It is the others that are the problem.
Ole is a total miss for them. He reminds me of emery as he never accepts responsibility or that the club is not doing well enough. They should have taken Poch when they could, now they will have to pay a lot to get rid of Ole.
You would have a point if Ole wasn’t the only manager who underperformed Emery in the last 18 months
Ole is by no means running the show at ManU right now, it only appears so.
But who ever it is, is giving the players the will to fight.
Lads , I’m not so down.
Fabulous work by the younger guns……….it was a bit like “transition “ day.
Martinelli is leading the change……it’s now going to happen. The change is going to happen.
Ozil et all, goodbye, not in bad way, just things are moving on.
Freddie’s honesty is so good, he deserves the job……he won’t get it (he should get it) but he is respected and will remain at the club. He’s Brillo.
Why should Freddie get the job? He’s won one (1) game so far, and we were shit for the majority of it. Understandably he has struggled with the situation, but you can’t give the top job in a 1 billion pound company to man doing poorly in difficult circumstances, on the off-chance that he will do better in normal ones.
Freddie is stuck, having to play players he is obviously not impressed with, but needs to showcase them for possible sale. He obviously would start with the youth mostly, but their training is very suspect to me, the whole training at Arsenal for years have been suspect.
I must say, despite all that has happened, I was actually very proud of our supporters at the end. Booing and cursing the squad is really criminal. We need to show, as supporters, what we are truly made of. We keep getting on the players to show more fight and resilience, but we too need to stay committed and firm. We’ll come out of this hole, I’m sure of it. Anyone that has supported this club for as long as I have (48 years) has seen some pretty dark times. Another Invincibles are just around the corner.
Agreed, anyone who expected us to get anything from this game having watched us all season is completely delusional. The players tried, they were found wanting technically and tactically. We know this, so i’m not sure what the people who are booing and abusing our players are hoping to achieve exactly. We got rid of Emery, now we just need to hunker down and pull together to make the best of a bad season. Abuse isn’t going to get us anywhere.
Which players tried outside Martinelli?
Leno, Guendouzi, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Torreira, and Ozil. Sakha did quite well with the hand he was dealt. The CB’s, Auba, and Pepe may have as well, but you couldn’t tell today. Auba got no service, and they flooded the midfield where we’re weak. Auba and Pepe got doubled and manhandled at every attempt to do something.
The collective isn’t good enough right now, and they’re very down, but they tried.
@mpls you watched this game? You are saying Ozil tried? You really are fucking clueless.
Yes, I am saying he was trying. City completely flooded him out. They were well prepared for him and Pepe.
Face it, one person is not singlehandedly responsible for how shit we are.
But you go on being an asswipe. It suits you.
Mintoes, I think he put in a decent shift, but the creativity that makes him strong just is not there at the moment and we may have to move on without him.
If Freddie can look at how the dysfunctional board is operating and still want the job, bless him.
I back him totally, but it does nothing good to the kids to talk about them and to handle them in an indulgent way. ESR brought nothing (if you have to get rid of Özil, bring Laca on) and Saka had nothing to do on the pitch instead of a Luiz.
If they gave awards for worst boards we be top of the league.
Fuck Ozil Fuck KSE.
It seems that even the board are fed up with the situation, it’s basically Sanllehi who’s in charge, and I don’t trust him one bit. It’s a disgrace to expect Freddie to work with no coaches and no information, it shows disrespect to him. There’s such a thing as temporary contracts and I’m sure there are ex-players and coaches who would be happy to step in on a temporary basis if asked.
Raul can fuck right off
One of the big differences between us and them today was professionalism. Every time we had a dangerous position they fouled us. They were three nil up and cruising but still picking up 5/6 bookings, all for professional fouls. They stopped most of our attacks before they got dangerous. We could have prevented at least 2 of the goals this way today and the chance that led to Leno’s great save to push onto the post. Our only booking was Sokratis with 15 to go clumping Jesus in frustration. We arguably had as many breaks as they did but they… Read more »
Sad state of affairs that Arsenal just do not seem to get. “professionalism” is just a code word for the dark art of playing football, loved so much in UK. Our team needs more players for this style(massive strong) and forget the small “barca” type player we used to enjoy but never really competed much with.
The problem is, who would want to come in to a situation like this? Henry jumped at the chance to join Monaco when they were in a similar situation mid-season, but he ended up getting sacked with the team near the relegation zone, because he had no time to implement any ideas due to a lack of pre-season, so I’m sure Arteta would rather wait until summer for the same reason. I do still have confidence in Raul after the summer (which I think we were all happy with at the time, despite the revisionism that’s come since), but he… Read more »
Did he say “transitions”? That sounded familiar
It…should. It’s a term used in modern football by many managers.
Benitez. NOW.
I’d take him. He’s experienced and pragmatic, knows the EPL.
Come on, Ancelotti is much better than Benitez!
We are run worse than league 2 sides about to fold in administration.
What worries me most about AFC is the leadership at the very top,they are throwing the Season away yet again,with such mediocre leadership,the team’s performances are destined to be mediocre,someone needs to lead by example….the likes of edu and vinai should just resign if they can’t put things in order…
It’s really hard to reconcile all this. The fact that we are unlikely to be top 4 for AT LEAST another 2-3 seasons. It’s just not going to happen until we’ve got a decent coach AND we get through at least two seasons’ worth of transfer activity and turnover at least half of the starting XI. Even then, not filled with confidence. The rot starts at the top, and until our ownership changes, I don’t think the fundamental changes required will occur.
I think Freddie’s comments are in denial. When he should be coming out post-match and saying that performance was not good enough he, instead, plays the ‘I’m proud’ card and we ‘played well’. This does not go well for the next game because we’re into the Wenger mentality of not criticising players so they can go onto the pitch next weekend knowing that a sub-standard like performance like yesterday will be seen as ok.
I like the fact that he is reminding the Board that we have average players, and that we can’t beat the best in the league
Arsenal have become a joke. If the owners are not careful with investment,Arsenal will become a mediocre club ,unable to compete.
Then the ES will have huge empty spaces . Its share price will drop .
Then the owners will be forced to sell or plough big money to stop the rot.
An unlikely scenario but if you cant compete,you will stay down. Then it
would take 3 to 5 years plus massive investment.
The warning signs are everywhere.
Frankly, no top coach will come to Arsenal right now. Why would you? A rudderless club with penny pinchers for owners. Hardly the stuff to pull heavy hitting managers.