Wenger – We need bigger players to cope with set-pieces
Arsene Wenger thinks that Arsenal have been more criticised by their own fans this season than normal because they were so close to having the perfect year but failed to go that extra 5% needed to actually win the trophies.
“People love what we do but they want us to be rewarded so that they can be convinced we do things the right way – they want proof that we do things the right way.
“For our fans, the frustration was that we were so close to convincing everybody of how football can be great, but in the end not being able to deliver.
“I would call it disappointed love. It was cruel and sometimes you get excessive responses to that. I share that and understand it. But that doesn’t mean we have to change our philosophy or the way the club is run.
“We get it 95 per cent right, but we must gain that five per cent because it’s so frustrating to flirt with success like we have done.
“The fans are unhappy that we didn’t win the Premier League, but we are close. In 2003 we were also the best away team, but didn’t win. We kept going and in 2004 we were very strong.”
He believes that another big problem is that the small defence failed to cope with set-pieces, and thinks it can be fixed by getting the squad to grow a few inches. When Arsenal played Chelsea earlier in the season, there was a comparison made that showed that, on average, Chelsea were 6 inches and one stone heavier than the younger Gunners side.
Wenger agrees that this needs to be addressed. He said: “We conceded very few goals from open play, most of them were from set-pieces in a way you don’t want to concede goals,” .
“It’s something that’s easy to correct. We need to improve the size of our squad – we need a bigger variety in the height of our players.
“We need to be more capable of fighting against some characteristics than we have been this season.”
Well Arsene, you are the only one that can do anything about that, so get on with it…..
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yeah, then get samba!
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We need to sack wenger!! I can believe this man, about we don’t have to CHANGE OUR PHILOSOPHY OR THE WAY THE CLUB IS RUN!!! u idiot your so called philosophy hasn’t won u anything for six years!! This prick won’t change!!! HATE WENGER LOVE ARSENAL
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@Baz the only real loser is you. You just don’t get it.
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Let’s get sahko and samba, need some insurance for TV5.
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If thats the problem, fix it!! i reckon wenger has a better idea of what it is than BAZ!! or maybe Baz is a genuine genius that should be running a top European team, i don’t know! however, this is basically saying hes going to be samba.
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the deluded wenger talking even more claptrap,we the fans new it would all go tits up in the end acouple of new centre halfs and a keeper we could of won at least one trophy and thats what we’ve all been saying for the last two years.
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I’ve said it before and I will say it again, wenger is the only manager who knows what this club needs to move forwards and once he learns to spend some cash we could potentially be a great team but even to have kept us in the top four and challenging for trophies during a period when the club is paying off the debt of the stadium with a midtable budget speaks for itself about his managerial ability but what we don’t need are people like baz who claim to be arsenal fans but are sitting thee flagging off our manager. I’d rather have fewer supporters that are arsenal through and through than these so called fans who do nothing for the club apart from jumping on the bandwagon that Wenger is the problem.
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I’ve said it before and I will say it again, wenger is the only manager who knows what this club needs to move forwards and once he learns to spend some cash we could potentially be a great team. But even to have kept us in the top four and challenging for trophies during a period when the club is paying off the debt of the stadium with a midtable budget speaks for itself about his managerial ability but what we don’t need are people like baz who claim to be arsenal fans but just sit at home slagging of our manager through the safety of their computer screens. I’d rather have fewer supporters that are arsenal through and through than these so called fans who do nothing for the club apart from jumping on the bandwagon that Wenger is the problem.
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hello, drogba has made light work of our defenders for ages. we have had difficulties defending set pieces for ages. and we get NOTHING out of the MANY corners etc that we win…its nice to know that the manager has FINALLY WORKED OUT WHY! Six seasons down the road ffs!
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First step in recover… Admit you have a problem.
So now lets move on and pick up Chris Samba, a proven EPL player…
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If you are to match with the Chelsea and city spending you have got to be generous in your spending. Chelsea splashed 75 millions + on Torres and Luis. You cannot compete at a top level anymore if you want a bargain or make offers that would eventually be turned down. Spend the Cash, make the new comers feel important. Get Samba, Cahill, Hazard and Benzema and a solid experienced keeper.
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If so many people know AW is rubbish or deluded and think they know better than those running this great Club of ours, I have two questions. One, why don’t you call an E.G.M. and try to get him sacked? Two, why aren’t you running a successful Premiership Club rather than just writing blogs that are bordering on the abusive in some cases? To keep us so close to the top while being able to spend a fraction of what several other Clubs have spent, while gettting us a superb, much-envied Stadium is in itself almost genius. Now he’s got some to spend, and knows what he wants as several of the squad in whom he trusted have let him, and us, down – he will do what’s necessary. Have faith, and be careful what you wish for -
we might have had Big Sam ( or somebody like him).
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Really? height? I don’t think that is the perfect solution.
Look at Barcelona. Their only tall player is Pique. other than that they are all about the same size Arsenal players are. The difference is Puyol is a beast heading the ball, and Pique is tall.
And we are actually doing things the wrong way when we play on the sides if the field. We cross the ball when we don’t have a good header at the center of the area. Barcelona plays like we do, but they know heading is not their strength, so only 3% of their offensives end with headers.
Arsenal should reflect on that.
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oh no…… does this mean bendtner stays! noooooooooooooooo
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As an experienced coach, Wenger should know the reason why we failed so many times to defend setpieces.
He says lack of height and build.
I would venture to suggest that in addition it was poor positioning, lack of co-ordination and concentration by a defence that began to lose confidence. Without mental strength, physical power would not be enough.
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Baz, i think you need to shut up damn well. Sacking will only make the squad deep in future crisis, including Fabregas, Nasri and several others. Wenger admitted his failure and most of fans reasonably feel he seriously wants to improve the squad performance.
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So many negative gooners out there. Idiots like Baz are starting to do my head in. We’ll be fine, just be patient. Once this team starts winning we ain’t gonna stop and then these moaning retards will be saying ‘i knew we’d be alright, Wenger is a genius’. Have a little faith and shut the hell up.
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so it looks like protein shakes and high heels for all the players this summer then ! i think this means hes after samba but im worried coz if we are bidding blackburn are being very quiet.
i get the heaby jeabees every time i come on hear expecting to see weve missed out on samba coz blackburn want 12 mill and wengers walked away.
please ADMIN the momment you hear any news on the samba front put us all out of our misery!
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we need to tell our players that we have to get into better shape too, and bulk up, koscielny diaby djourou all could bulk up and put some more muscle on their frames
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We need to sack wenger!! I can believe this man, about we don’t have to CHANGE OUR PHILOSOPHY OR THE WAY THE CLUB IS RUN!!! u idiot your so called philosophy hasn’t won u anything for six years!! This prick won’t change!!! HATE WENGER LOVE ARSENAL
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What a clown you are?
Don’t you have a life?
You do not have to support Arsenal you know, this is just football. We do not need plastic armchair fans like you who is simply a gloryhunter. Why don’t you go and support Chelsea.
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plz go back in for brede hangelaand for me he has been top three in centre back this year and he is an emposing figure. 10mill plus vela loan = hangeland
also denilsons replacement will be taller e.g. lansbury,frimpong,ramsey
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Crouch and zigic up front! What about Anthony Gardner
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“hello, drogba … it’s nice to know that the magaer has finally figured out why!”
“first step in recovery — admit you have a problem”
luv it!
not only is height an issue (then again there’s Bendnter) but while Le Prof is a brilliant trainspotter of first-team talent, he’s too stubborn about what makes a great backup i.e. having Diabys and Denilsons (even Young Guns) instead of people with some freakin’ experience to settle down the side and put games away
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I’d say our current style of play suggests that the aim is to score more than you concede. The balance of this equation can easily be achieved within our set-up without necessarily changing the squad much. We keep talking about conceding goals from set-pieces without considering that these can easily be prevented from happening in the first place. Our players should automatically convert into defenders immediately we lose possession in order to avoid making tackles on our own half that usually result in freekicks and deflections for corner kicks. On the attack, we should substitute crossing with shooting whenever there is a chance. I can guarantee this will fetch us more than 10 goals a season. Deduct 10 goals conceded from set-pieces and that increases the aggregates by +20.
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Samba
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jord_arsenal forever
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Samba’s rubbish
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Avl521 – You are talking about Primera Liga, not Premier league. Also Barca splashes money like there is no tomorrow
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bc – We don’t play game like that. I’d rather what us loose then play like bloody birmingham
Screw Crouch, what is wrong with you?
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At long long last, he has seen what we’ve seen for the last 2 seasons or more.
When he gets these tall strong centre-backs and we start to do well, people will say..”oh that AW ia a genius”.Laughable really isnt it!!!
And just to remind people that say “but who would replace him”?…..he came from grampus 8..so the dread of an unknown manager isn’t valid whatsoever.
And dont forget this genius bought the likes of cygan, senderos, stephanovs silvestre squillacci and koscienly.
Wenger is clearly staying as our manager it seems till the bitter end……so lets hope he gets serious in the transfer market and buys these players he is talking about and tackles the other problems in a similar manner.
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@realistic tony
WOW. What a sound argument: ‘this genius bought the likes of cygan, senderos, stephanovs silvestre squillacci and koscienly.’
First off, Koss will be a top defender. Also, this is also the TRUE GENIUS who bought us Henry, Fabregas, Nasri, TV5, RVP, Pires, Viera…the list goes on. THINK A BIT!
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i really cannot believe wenger says ‘it is something that is easy to correct’ when talking about sorting our shambolic defence on set pieces!!!
is he for real? it has been our achilles heal for at least the last 3 seasons so it clearly isn’t easy for him or the coaching staff to sort out.
im not sure which defender i would sign in all honesty. maybe one with premiership experience. cahill and jagielka seem why over priced so im guessing the rumours about samba are true. im not convinced at all by samba but he would give us a presence at the back which we quite clearly lack.
at the end of the day wenger should be looking to strenghen the team with players who are even better than the ones we’ve got but it looks like its gonna be another disapointing transfer window for every arsenal fan.
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Frustration does not mean that we should be abusive and disrespectful to anyone as some fans unfortunately, continue to display.
Barcelona has demonstrated that OUR philosophy of play is THE right one.
The problem of DEFENCE which we have, is not and should not be delegated to only the back 5. The whole Team has to learn how to defend.
You take a ball from a Barcelona player and the SAME player haunts you and tackles you until you’re dispossessed of it no matter the position on the pitch.
I believe WE should learn from that approach
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@realistic tony & Topgunner,
both of u have a solid points. But in term of defending, i got to agree with tony. Wenger do not has good record in buying the defender. Most of our top defender are inherited from the previous manager.
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Co’mon guys,he has already bid for Samba,hasn’t he???
I really feel we will have some important transfers this season..
Give Le Prof one last chance…
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Mertesacker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I know this sounds crazy. Arsenal must buy zigic- tallest player in the epl. Then convert him into a centre back. My arsenal family pls remember samba was a striker. @BAZ is a man united supporter.
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@Avl521 100% correct…we should be like barcelona in the long run….get our passes rite and have good stamina
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@dutti, blizshit, Jake and the rest of u lickers, Theres two type of people, Theres winners and losers u guys come under the latter!! You mugs have got your heads so high up wenger arse, that when you pull it out for the odd breath, yours eyes are still covered in crap!! This is the time to pull your heads out wipe the crap from your eyes and see the light!! Mugs like you have never had a winning attitude, this reflects in your post and it’s rubbing of on the players, that’s why our best players either want to leave or won’t sign contracts!! You mugs need to man up and know, that life will go on without licking Wengers arse!!SACK WENGER ASAP!!!
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then bring in Mertesacker,Baines and samba for our defence
Felaini for the midfield and Falcao for the forward line
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@jake i’m wit u.
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sign adil rami, vertoghen and charlie adams all this 3 are big and after situation will be diffierent bcz c.adams can score goal from freekick also.
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HA HA HA HA HA …
Well Le Prof – It took you 6 long years to finally understand
Well better late than ever… now the next question – would you now strengthen the squad or talk crap the way u have been doing year after year…
Posts from creosote or arunavameister are so fckng naive- when would they grow up to become mature fans ?
Baz- I agree with you…some of our fans are bloddy deep into AW’s arse that thaey seem to forget reality. they are in their own make-belief world where losers are given accolades… I read some people mentioning that ” so what, we are no. 4 in the PL ” – I seriously doubt these people in terms of their hunger for success….
We are all waiting to see how this transfer window shapes up.
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AM JUST TIRED OF THAT MAN; AW.H e takes long to understand, and when he understands, he takes long to decide, and when he decides, he finally makes a wrong decision!AW, are you tired of lifting trophies?!
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somebody tell topgunner fab, henry, pires , viera, rvp dont play in defence thats ware wenger gets it
wrong..
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Sakho
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This is reflection. In the history of Arsene Wenger and Arsenal, we MAKE players. We don’t buy big names! Arsene does not have to splash cash over big names because A, B and C have done so to be competitive. Every great journey begins with the 1st step. Arsenal will survive despite all the critics and their verdicts. They’re NOT gods of football. They’re just like you and I sharing their unsolicited opinions. Fabregas can leave and Nasri can leave…and that will not be the end. When Henri left we were sad but it created Fabregas and we forgot the past how short minded we seem to be…when they leave we will create even stronger and better players…Arsenal forever and in Wenger I TRUST
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