I have been watching Arsenal FC for over 30 years. In that time, I have been privileged to see some of the very best players to ever grace the famous red and white. Last week's Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan was a real eye-opener for many fans of the beautiful game.
Some Gooners who started supporting Arsenal in the late 1990s and who watched this heavyweight battle at the Nou Camp, would be horrified to discover we used similar tactics to Jose Mourinho during our last successful campaign in Europe.
Under George Graham, a similar rigid defensive structure to that employed by the Italians was used between 1992-1995. It was so successful that we won the Cup Winners Cup Final against a fantastic Parma side in 1994 and reached the final the very next year only to lose in dramatic fashion at the end of extra-time to Real Zaragoza.
Football like anything in life is about balance. Respect in football is a much-used term. It is mainly linked to negative aspects such as racism and homophobia. However, in a football sense it can be a positive. Respect is also about understanding your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. To simply focus on your own strengths is totally disrespectful. This is arrogance. Again it comes down to balance.
In Graham's early years, Arsenal were a potent force playing fast and free-flowing football. The team had style, pace and fantastic technique. The likes of Anders Limpar, David Rocastle, Alan Smith, Paul Merson, Paul Davis and Michael Thomas were all top-quality offensive players with international honours. Allied together with the defensive strength from a unit encompassing David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Tony Adams and Steve Bould, this team had backbone and defensive discipline. This was a top quality side able to utilise its strengths. In the 1990/91 season, Arsenal outplayed and dominated opponents in England - winning the league at a canter and only losing one game.
Ironically, Graham lost his way after being defeated by Benfica in the European Cup. The team that had won two from three League Championships was broken up. Replacements such as John Jensen, Ian Selley, Glenn Helder and Eddie McGoldrick were simply not good enough in comparison. The lack of a midfield to compare with the quality of previous campaigns hurt Arsenal - especially in the league.
Bruce Rioch briefly became Arsenal manager for the 1995/96 season. This interim period also coincided with the signings of Dennis Bergkamp and David Platt.
The arrival of Arsène Wenger in the autumn of 1996, finally led to the signing of true midfield quality. Apart from Bergkamp and Platt, the team Wenger inherited was fundamentally Graham's. Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Marc Overmars were true footballers. Under Wenger, they excelled and became world-class. The importance of Graham's defence can't be underestimated and is something Wenger respected.
Wenger respected the individuals and the defensive unit. He recognized it was the very best and didn’t attempt to dismantle it. Instead, he coaxed each and every one of them and extended their careers further.
The current team lacks tactical awareness and is not cute enough. If anything we are too pure. We believe that our football should be enough to win matches. This is total arrogance. We need to earn the right to play our football.
Wenger’s first great team from 1998 understood this and was able to mix it with the worst of them. We seem to have forgotten the basics. You must first win the battle, then the war...
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Mick,
ReplyDeleteI don't think the current team lack tactical awareness. I believe rather that Mr. Wenger is adopting the wrong tactical approach on the whole - with regard to the way we play e.g. too predictable, we play in front of teams playing square, sideways and backwards at a slow tempo in an attempt to keep possession, we over pass and lack not only pace in midfield (apart from eboue, walcott and cesc) but also incisiveness and clinical finishing. We are extremely predictable even though we have good tidy footballers (particularly in midfield) the likes of rosicky, diaby, denilson, nasri, eduardo, arshavin etc, but they often as not fail to get behind defences with diagonals (passes and runs etc). We are really lacking at the moment, but I'd argue that this is Mr. Wenger's fault and the style of football we play (this is similar to some of the points you make above, particularly the "too pure" bit) is not working and is a far cry from the different Wenger teams since 98 in terms (agreeing yet again with the points you make above) of power, pace, experience, guile etc. I believe this is fundamentally down to the Mr. Wenger’s stubbornness and that he really needs to address his and the teams weaknesses in all aspects if we are to really compete once again instead of the now annual merely qualifying for the Champs League. Like you what infuriates me is that Mr. Wenger certainly knows what it takes (or he certainly should do) to win the Premiership title. Whether he manages to do so again will come down to changing the way we play and whether indeed he recognizes this.
Enjoyed your article and analysis, keep them coming.
Respects
Hornsey Nick
Paul Davis :)
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