Arsenal are so naive and it's costing them: Everyone knows how to play against them... can Arsene Wenger find the answers?
By Jamie Carragher
[size=medium]It is still early in the season but already serious questions are being asked of Arsenal. The biggest one, I feel, is this: what is changing?[/size]
[size=medium]Watching them crumble against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night, it was impossible to escape the conclusion that they aren’t learning. [/size]
[size=medium]For a decade now, Arsenal have been unable to contain opponents who go with a fast, physical gameplan. Everyone knows how to play against them.[/size]
[size=medium]Dortmund could have comfortably run up a score similar to the ones posted by Liverpool (5-1 in February) and Chelsea (6-0 in March), but the aspect I found most alarming was the fact they have only kept three clean sheets in their past 29 Champions League away games. That, frankly, is an awful record.[/size]
[size=medium]When I watch Arsenal now, I get frustrated. They play the same way wherever they go — with their full-backs pushed up high and wide — and get caught on the counter-attack. They are the away team! They should be doing that to the home team when they go travelling.[/size]
[size=medium]The penny needs to drop. [/size][size=medium]Why don’t they learn? It is unforgivable that this keeps happening.[/size] [size=medium]When I played in Europe with Liverpool, the firs[/size][size=medium]t objective was always to get a clean sheet: make yourself difficult to break down then, if a chance arose, pounce and pick up whatever you could. If the home fans didn’t like it, so what?[/size]
[size=medium]Yet Arsenal feel they can beat anyone. Anywhere. Playing their own game. It’s naive. The only team able to get away with such a philosophy in recent years was Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona — one of the greatest sides of all time — but even he wasn’t afraid to concoct different tactical plans.[/size]
[size=medium]Look at how last year’s champions, Real Madrid, secured their place in the final by playing on the counter-attack against Bayern Munich — and that was in the first leg at the Bernabeu. It was the best tactic for them to use.[/size]
[size=medium]Doing things differently is vital. Jose Mourinho, for one, always has a surprise up his sleeve. Sir Alex Ferguson, remember, sometimes used Park Ji-sung in man-marking roles in Europe and would have Cristiano Ronaldo up front on his own, as he knew he would not track the opposition full-back.[/size]
[size=medium]With Arsenal, though, it seems there is one way only and you can’t help but wonder where it is all heading. Wenger is a legendary figure in our game; his achievements will stand the test of time but you sometimes question whether there is a negative to him being so secure in his job.[/size].........
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2762792/JAMIE-CARRAGHER-Arsenal-naive-s-costing-Wenger-answers.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
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Carragher has surely been reading this thread! Most of the things he mentioned in that article have been discussed here (check out post #158 on the previous page for example)
