I’ve been an Arsenal supporter for 12 years and must be lying through my teeth to say that I’ve been a happy fan these few years. There are so many things to like about them yet so many things to hate as well. Isn’t that what you get for loving a football club?
I love Wengerball. Fast paced, exciting, illustrious and simply eye-catching. We have extremely quick and creative players with the ability to conjour something out of nothing.
I love being the underdog. Arsenal was never the top dog these 12 years in fact I supported them because they were the underdog. Sure the club has grown but it remains a huge achievement for a club to spend less than 1/3 of the rest of the top 4 and still continually push on.
But there are things that need quick fixing.
1. Fitness Levels
It is no surprise that the main reason why we have not won anything these few seasons is down to the lack of fitness of our players. Our injury list is stunning throughout the season and even though the other clubs have their injury blows as well it is not common for them to lose nearly their entire back four, or all 4 of their attacking players, or both their top two strikers, etc. It has happened to Arsenal season in and out. It is fair to say that our players are seemingly fragile and the only ones that have consistently done well are the fittest who can stand the test of an extremely harsh and physical English football arena. You don’t win trophies if you don’t have your first team ready. Our problem is not just our first team getting injured, our subs get injured as well and we end up pushing our U-19s into the Champions League. Wenger doesn’t need to buy plenty of depth when the depth we have gets injured all the time. Fix the fitness or simply make the priority attribute of our future purchases based first on fitness and strength. After all, without these two attributes, the player would not be even have to space to demonstrate what he can do.
2. Defence
We are Brazil. All attacking style and flamboyance but when the attack is turned against us, everyone gets nervous. The midfield has not been at its best supporting its defence. Some of our DMs play so high up the pitch that we get caught in the cold with a counter attack. Our CBs are both short and we have issues with crosses. Our wingbacks imo are fine but our play style encourages them to play high up the park as well. In short we need to find a balance to keep our defence clean. The huge thing about the other 3 teams is that their defence is top notch. Alumnia makes a fine keeper but he needs the team to play with a defensive mindset at certain times. Wenger has to remember that in our early successful days, the famed back four was rock solid (I remb the season where we only conceded 17 goals) and we were scoring on the break. Soak and strike that was what gave us the doubles. And we have to start using that against the stronger teams. You can’t cut every defense open like swiss cheese. Sometimes you have to let the opponent come forward so you get the space to hit them back with.
3. Youth Policy – Time for Results
Wenger has admitted that his youth policy would have failed if there be no trophies in the coming years. So lets look at it this way. This is the house that Wenger built and the house is averaged out at about 21 years of age. We should NOT be buying 17-19 yr olds to plug holes in the first team. We should be bringing in 21-24 yr olds for the first team. The 17-19 yr olds will form the future backbone and would not develop in time to fit into the first team. We can’t play a waiting catch up game forever. Isn’t this why we let Henry go? He was ahead of the curve. And we should stop pushing the damn curve back or even one day Fabregas would be too old for the team.
Here’s keeping my fingers crossed for the next season. Go you gunners!