Wenger’s late substitutions therefore raise many questions. He talks about trusting his gut feeling but at times our feelings are not always right and we ought to do what appears right before the eyes of all. Brendan Rodgers in Liverpool’s game against us substituted Cissokho for Coutinho at half time since he had been ineffective and Coutinho proved to be worth the gamble.
Wenger therefore needs to take the gamble and he cost us the game I would say. He needs to be tactically adept and he overlooked Serge Gnabry as too young but this lad has got all the tools in his locker. He is defensively sound and attacking wise, he is pacy, incisive and decisive as well and his presence on the field is beyond his age.
After the game, the man of the match Wayne Rooney posited that United had targeted our small players and that they had practiced set pieces all week to take advantage of our small players. This was a fine riposte to Wenger’s claim that we were tactically superior. Our opposition was more aware of our foibles, frailties and imperfections more than we were aware of theirs. The zonal marking was alarming to be specific. Van Persie had a free header.
Anyway, this article does not intend to negate Wenger’s methods. It is just a highlight of our shortcomings. He is a genius of playing a certain brand of attacking football and I am certain that he is wise enough to expect some skeptics especially the fans. After all, when a genius is born, you can only know him by this sign; there are dunces in confederacy against him. Critical football fans are the dunces they say. However, I have to stress that the dunces also deserve to be heard.
Hope we bounce back next weekend.
Take care of yourselves Gooners.
As i have said on previous occasions, Arsene should have more faith in our wide young players, Gnarby should have been on the field from the beginning of the second off running at the united defense, seeing ozil all alone with all that room out wide in the second half was a crime, because ozil is more a creator of chances, but lack the destructive pace a gnarby or ryo would give the team. Arsene has a difficulty changing the team when chasing a game, which other managers do not have that problem. Gnarby has qualities way beyond his years which wenger should have had faith in him. i really feel disappointed, because i felt MANU was there for the taking, but to approach the game so defensive did not allow our middle to control the game, with giroud on his own, i am really disappointed with the result knowing full well it should have been the other way around. i know we will bounce back, but is as if we lost a final thats how i actually feel
I agree to an extent with what you said… I have always said that the advantage man u, Chelsea has over arsenal is more of mental than being better… The mentality of a team is driven by it’s coach/manager. Arsenal mental weakness is a reflection of arsene Wenger’s character n mindset… I didn’t see us beating man u n sum how am not expecting us to beat Chelsea.. Man city? yeah… Gnabry was a factor in d equation man u was not used to starting him or bringing him in to early would only make him fizzle out … d issue was not really d late sub of Gnabry its more of the fact dt we couldn’t finish d chances Gnabry created… Bendtner is in a state of confusion abt d roles of a striker and defender… Bendtner is a decent player dt has lost his confidence. BT I remember him getting crucial goals for us from d left wing then.
This article hits the nail on the head that about tactical failure. Wenger has problem with substitution and tactics sometimes appear to be absent in his choice of lineup. On the bench he more often than not has players who are likes in everything and you wonder where will he get anyone who can change the game when needing to bring off an ineffectual player? There are others issues but this appear to be one that is obvious at
least to me. We have all seen how a mere substitution changes a game for our opponents but we never get anything ffrom our substitutions these days as opposed to when we had the likes of Edu in our team. I recal him coming and scoring a winner at OT.
Yes, its one of the things Arsene Wenger doesn’t do very well.
Sometime he got it right and sometimes he got it wrong. For his status and calibre, we expect him to be right more often than he is.
What I saw in this game was lack of focus. I saw a lot of passes being given away, even the ones that looked and should have been simple. Stats said that this would be a very difficult game but I don´t think it was the players mindset that made us loose the game. To me it was football. We had the game, for the most part, but a lucky bounce for Man U became the difference between three and zero points. After that goal Wenger did something I don´t think I´ve ever seen him do, several quick subs asap and all going forward. Look at the Dortmund game. They had the game but we scored and came out on top. Against Man U it was the other way around. And for fuck sake…….get some backup for Giroud before he ends up with broken neck!!!!