Did Wenger Ignore the Writing on the Wall?

Coach
By Olosi or AJ The Gunner
February 24 2005

It was a miserable evening for Arsenal supporters as the Gunners crumbled to a miserable 3 - 1 defeat in the freezing conditions of Bayern Munich's Olympic Stadium.

I had raised fears that such a defeat might happen in my article "Did Wenger Gamble Wound Gunners?" Wenger himself has said it was the worst performance ever of the team in Europe.

This leaves the teams chances of remaining in the Champions League hanging on a thread. The truth is that we will need a titanic performance at Highbury to turn this one around. And of course all Arsenal supporters will be hoping for a repeat of the Italian job, or Anderlecht 1970.

Perhaps the poor result should have been expected, a back four without Campbell and Cole, and no Dutch Master. It should have been a moment for Wenger to abandon much of his attacking formation by making sure Lauren and Clichy perform full defensive responsibilities, and minimize joining the attack, then pack the midfield and go for damage control, and strike when the opportunity comes. But what does he do, first stopping his squad from training on the pitch before the game. Reason being that he didn’t want Bayern to know his tactics. What tactics? They already knew we had a poor defense. The players didn’t even have a feel of the pitch before playing on it. Then Arsene adopted tactics which clearly were not working, and that was obvious from very early on, and he had no plan B to change the game.

In 4 minutes of play, poor defensive clearance by Toure gifted Bayern their first goal. Then once again a poor set piece defending plus a poor marking by Toure and Bang! The second goal, as if that was not enough Cygan, Toure and Lauren were sucked to the right, Clichy couldn’t do much, Jens not up to it and what next…the third goal. Toure proved to me once more that he is better of as a right full back, or better still in the midfield as he does not have the discipline of a defender (he is not a natural defender anyway). He should have read the game well and stayed put in his position instead of surging forward on fruitless runs deep in to the midfield thus leaving the defense exposed. What on earth was he always doing on the right side of our defense? And the man whose position he often occupied was in no mans land. I just hope his consolation goal will be enough to exorcize the demons of his worst game so far.

Or was it Lauren that has failed to realize that he doesn’t have the pace he once had? One would begin to wonder why he allowed Bayern to constantly catch him out of position as Ronaldo did in our 4:2 defeat by Man Utd. He was lucky to escape a red card when he made a rash two-footed challenge. Is the problem that both are not natural defenders?

We were totally outplayed and lacked imagination. The midfield battle was won by Bayern and Edu’s injury didn’t help matters. Now we have to win at Highbury by 2:0, which is not likely as our rear guard can no longer keep a clean sheet. The only option is the San Siro score line and more. But Bayern will come to defend deep and not give us any space. I will not say we were disgraced because we were warned at old Trafford that our squad lacked depth but Arsene’ refused to heed to the warnings that were apparent against Middlesboro and Spurs. He refused to update his artillery with experience especially his defense, and further refused to read the writing on the wall and do something when the transfer window opened.

The fact is that every watching football fan has been able to describe our problems. The only person that has failed to see them and act or appears to have ignored them is Wenger. It’s really terrible to only have a plan A, to concede goal upon goal with set piece and not do anything about it. The stark truth is that winning teams defend well. He gambled with the FA cup, which is our only realistic chance of a trophy this season and may pay the price as we now have two key players suspended.

Wenger stated after the game "I feel we had a very bad performance - certainly our worst in seven seasons in the Champions League. We were very disappointed with the quality of our performance. The only positive note is that we should be out and we are still in. there is enough time for crying. I could cry - maybe it would be easier - but life goes on. In this job, you have good and bad nights. This was a bad night - but I still have confidence in the quality of my players, as well as their spirit and desire."

I hope so as he should look back at his own mistakes and performance after he implemented a system his players never looked at ease with, and the fact that we are suffering from his lack of investments in reinforcements in the midfield and defense.

Inspite of the doom and gloom, if this champions league is anything like last year then all is still not lost. we should get ready for the final BATTLE FOR every battle whether you have the weapons or not must be fought to the end