Arsene Wenger says today’s top-level footballers are better protected on the physical front but are still prone to ‘mental burnout’ at this time of the season given the regularity of games and the pressure that comes with them.
At this time of the year, with the fixtures piling up, players seemingly struggle to put mistakes made in one game to the back of their mind before the next.
Indeed, after last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Southampton, the boss hinted that his players showed a lack of confidence that resulted from the poor start made in the previous game against Manchester United.
“I felt the goal we conceded at Southampton was a bit of a consequence of the Man United game,” he said ahead of Arsenal’s trip to West Ham.
“We were a bit apprehensive and not confident enough. We have not to make too much a problem of it. We scored late, Southampton could make a problem of that, it’s part of it [the game]. We certainly did not start with enough confidence.”
On whether fatigue is likely to be a problem, Wenger went on: “Compared to twenty or thirty years ago, the players have a better surrounding on the scientific front.
“They are better controlled, we give them all the medical assistance and technical assistance we can. We have a lot of scientists around the team who protect them well, but there is as well a mental burnout.
“Competition at that level, every three days, demands a lot of energy. The players are under huge pressure today and the resistance to stress is a big part of it.
“It’s more a mental burnout most of the time, players who do not really respond to expectations of themselves, and [players that] question themselves and have problems to deal with the intensity of the demands they have for themselves.”
What a load on nonsense. Per didn’t even play the Man united game and he was at fault for the first goal. Sure things get though around this time but that’s when you have to dig deep and come out with the results instead of making all kind of excuses.
There were about 4 players in position to stop that attack – they all failed it.
Mental burnout? What? We literally have two squads this year. The Arsenal first team are pretty much just playing Premier League games, that’s it. Then our second string is covering the Europa League and League Cup with a mixture of youth.
To say that people are mentally burnout is kind of a joke, and it seems to be only systematically an issue that affects Arsenal players.
City players don’t look mentally burntout.. and they’re crushing the Premier League, and The Champions League.
Relax. This is just another of Wenger’s wacky diagnoses, right up there with ‘ankle button’ and ‘inflamed bone’. I believe his medical opinion on Silvestre, for example, was ‘a little bit the porpoise head’. Guy cracks me up!
Come on everyone, have some sympathy for goodness sake. I certainly cannot think of a tougher life than having to play football twice a week. I mean, the pressure must be unbearable. And all for the peanuts they get paid. Take my wife, for example. She’s only a nurse, caring for people who are too sick to cause her any trouble. In one of the country’s leading cancer hospitals, she has to watch people die young, leaving devastated loved ones behind. But my god she gets paid well for it, so what’s to moan about? At least she doesn’t have… Read more »
Right? They only kick a ball around for 90min. Whats the big deal?
how about the fans out there that can’t separate their own lives with professional footballers. The ones that think life is easy for them. How can it be hard with the amount of money they get paid. Audacity of any pro footballer to complain about pressure.
Great. Mental. Strength.
I do not agree with this.. He’s playing mental gymnastics here.. I don’t understand why he does this in public though.. Who is he fooling? Does he think the players read these things or what? We can all see with our eyes that it’s not mental burnout.. We have literally been using team A and team B we should be less stressed than most rivals at this point
Yep but team A is under stress while watching team B play and vice-versa. HAHAHAHA This all adds to mental burnout 🙂
All well & good AW…but does absolutely nothing to possibly explain or justify exactly why this seems to continually affect us & only us far far more than any other club in existence.
Just when you think he is scraping the barrel to find excuses for his piss poor team performances.
Mental burn out ?
Is being rubbish mentally draining then?
Arsenal have become a laughing stock of Europe.
Run by the clown himself…
So if we concede early against West ham he’ll say it was because of the early goal conceded against Southampton. I just wish the journalists questioned him better. Way too many excuses for a top flight manager.
I can imagine Theresa May, who has the responsibility to negotiate BREXIT and vital trade agreements must be concerned about the terrible pressure these poor footballers are exposed to by having to play two games of football per week.
Its worth keeping this clueless buffoon as manager just for the entertainment factor he brings.
The man has no idea of the world outside of AFC..
I think AW is the one we should be worried about “mental burnout”
Mental burnout is real but it’s hard to pin it on these pro footballers who are doing what they love and Are paid absolute massive amounts of money. They don’t even have to play regularly or might suffer long term injuries and will still receive the big bucks. They are very well insulated from the normal stresses of life. Living and breathing football every day is a dream that they have achieved and are rewarded accordingly. I haven’t heard to many stories of top footballers giving it all up cos of the mental burnout. or asking not to play cos… Read more »
Its called forced retirement when they can’t perform because of pressure. The ones that can’t perform get pushed out. Like you are really going to hear a player talk openly about not being able to handle pressures of being a pro footballer? So society can wreck them in public. Of course the biggest go to reason would be the fact they get paid so much that they should be able to suck it up and be able to perform no matter what.
Just concentrate for 90 minutes. I know footballers aren’t famed for being the sharpest tools in the box, but how hard can it be!
Ha ha this is something new from AW:) “Mental burnout”. This was way overdue. It’s been a while since he produced a gem like this…He used to be more productive in the past “jaded”, “hadbrake” etc
A lot of you are basing the mental burnout origin from the number of games played and it just anit that simple. Now I don’t exactly agree with Wengers opinion/ cause but look at it from a mental front, i.e Weekly bashing from media/ pundits (or some could call it, lack of praise), fan unrest and this meme level mockery of the club could be taxing on the mental front. Then you have a world cup next year and a possible exit of two important players (they who shall not be named) all playing into it. Just ask your self… Read more »
Citeh looking mentally burned-out as well.
What a load of bollocks AW. Sjeez.
Ridiculous statement by AW.
But, what do you all expect or want him to say? Pull a Moaninyo and criticize his players in public? Tell the press that he thinks the BFG is crap and past it, or that he doesn’t trust holding or chambers as far as he could throw them against premier league competition? Yeah, real good man management, that.
Come on. He’s deflecting before the press. They all do that. You think he’d a better excuse, for sure. But who cares. Everybody chill.
We have a saying at work, it’s quite difficult to translate properly, but basically it’s “Fuck up once and that’s fine. We’re all human, we all fuck up. But don’t make the same fuckup twice.” I’m a fan of Arsene, but recently the mood at the club seems to be “We all fuck up, that’s fine.”
Players let down by a manager who has no tactical approach to games or in game mgt. They will feel like they are banging their heads against a wall. Xhaka you sit in cm on your own again. No support. Keep believing. Laca keep running and making options, the lads will ignore you 90% of the time but if we don’t know what we are doing neither will they
Burnout caused by Wenger’s bollocks. I think the players are pissed at Wenger’s tactics. “Play ze high line and pass ze ball sideways until ze opponent wins it back, then take ze hand brake a little off”
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
Someone please footballistically explain mental burnout to me. Is it the inability to handle more than one game per week? If so, what are doing playing in the premier league?
This is a joke, right? Does anyone really still believe this drivel? Every week is ‘we weren’t confident enough’ or ‘we were a bit jaded’. Zero pragmatic accountability. In the last decade I can’t remember one time where he’s directly owned up for mistakes made on the pitch. His ‘we lacked a lil’ bit of the confidence’ defense is tried and tested and it used to work because it didn’t provide the fans a target to point their finger at while still, seemingly, admitting that something is wrong. Problem is, fans are not dumb and they are bound to catch… Read more »
I feel this is just some stupid sh*t Wenger feels he has to feed the press with to keep the debate away from the actual performance and talent of the players. A man like him can’t be serious saying such bull. Or can he?
Its a bit of a mental burnout to call the disaster this season is a ‚mental burnout’.
I am mentally burnt out after reading all the comments on here. Fark. The bloke makes a point. We see peoples performances at work affected by stress all the time.. could be work related, could be personal, could just be they got up the wrong side of the bed. Mental burnout or stress or fatigue or whatever you want to refer to it as IS a real thing in normal every day workplaces. no different here. I do though think its a stretch to suggest thier piss poor start at Southampton was from burnout… that was just a terrible performance.… Read more »
I think the fans are suffering from this too. I know I’ll get called ‘not a real fan’ by some, but this season I far, far less engaged. I think the mental boost and belief will come when the manager leaves and we can move on and try to do something else.
The only mental burnout he should be concerned about is that of the Arsenal supporters.
Getting hot-headed about mental burnout fries my brain.
On the money argument,in my experience,the more money you have,the lesser your motivation to get up for work the next day…no matter what the psycho analytic bullshitters will tell you.
If you all got a million in your bank alerts right now,trust me you all still be sleeping by noon tomorow..
En contraire,i give the boys kudos for having the motivation to still play on at all having banked fortunes already..
Just an alternate view..
stop making excuses for our shit players, and you burned out years ago
Please fuck off Mr Wenger
I guess Wenger wants to say the club is Mental.