I wasn’t
going to write this piece right now, but what do you know? I just did. Actually
I should be attending a Real Analysis class at the moment, but at times human
interactions (I mean twitter) can alter much around and about you. So this
morning I’ve been online on the TL very early (it helps when your crush wakes
you up) and we’ve been dissecting age discrepancies among African players, but
that’s talk for another day. The other subject, as usual, was Arsenal and
that’s going to dominate, once again, here. I may have missed the class, but
what better way to atone for that than to do a real analysis of my own here?
Right? (just don’t tell my dad).
On
Wednesday, as if the Carrow Road capitulation wasn’t enough, Arsenal once again
served us with an insipid and agonizing display in the Champions League at home
to Schalke 04. And this time I was pretty much a part of this. That might have
just been my worst decision of the month. Picture this; I had a CAT to read for
that night which I duly opted to ignore, then there was also a better match on
the screen, Dortmund v Real Madrid at the Westfallenstadion. The Madridista in
me very much wanted to watch it, but I didn’t. Reason?Arsenal. I wanted to see
my side set the record straight from the weekend. And well, they did it…in all
the negative ways possible.
These days
just by looking at the team line-up, I can tell whether we’ll win or not and
almost get it spot on. What am I driving at? If I can do that, then how many
more times can Arsene Wenger, the manager for 16 years manage that? Granted, we
don’t share the same set of eyes, but surely some things are just plain
obvious! I glanced at the line up and team formation just before kick-off and
the only thing that stopped me from switching to the Madrid game was the fact
that we were home at the Emirates. And of course, in some 42 games prior, we
hadn’t lost to a foreign club in the Champions League. Gervinho leading the
line, Cazorla just behind him, Podolski on the left and Ramsey on the right of
midfield.My verdict (at the time…and still now)? Recipe for disaster! Why? I
will explain, don’t worry.
It is every
manger’s or coach’s prerogative to prepare and assemble his team adequately
enough to get the required result for a match. This result almost always (about
98% of the time) usually is a win. Hence the saying in football, ‘you are as
good as your last game’. So back to the game at the Emirates. I think is fairly
obvious that Gervinho is not a striker, but rather what they call a wide man.
Should he be leading the line? I don’t think so. Wenger thought and has been
thinking so. And on the night he was as woeful as you’ll ever see a player at a
corporate get-together match. Cazorla playing in the ‘hole’ is fine, but I’ll
elucidate why it was the wrong decision. Lukas Podolski? I need a new paragraph
for him. So, here goes.
I’ve
followed Podolski closely since he made his name for Cologne as a teenager 7 or
8 years ago. And I may be wrong, but I think his designation at the time was a
striker and still should be now. In the 2006 World Cup on home soil, Poldi
announced his arrival on the big stage by staring for Germany partnering the
evergreen Miroslav Klose in attack. I think he scored three goals and was the
Young Player of the Tournament. He then went to Bayern Munich, flattered to
deceive and was back at Cologne in no time. Anyway, I digress a lot. Accept my
a thousand apologies. My point? Wide left is not for Podolski, not in a long
shot. This is a player with one of the sweetest left foot in the game and has
scored over 40 goals for Germany. If you play a left-footed striker on the
left, he’s never going to score (a lot). And aren’t strikers born to score
goals? Fine, maybe the gaffer wanted him to create chance for Gervinho. Wait,
Gervinho??? And you wonder why the German fizzled very early in game? And if he
isn’t to lead the attack, don’t you think a Robben-style wide right for him is
a more productive option?
What about
Ramsey? I won’t pretend that I’m his greatest fan, so probably this is a bit
biased. In that game he sucked (for lack of a better word). Why? He was badly
out of position. He was tasked with giving our attack pace and width on the
right. We all know he’s not the quickest, so it was always going to be hell for
him. Which brings me to Santi. At the moment, he’s the most gifted player we
have and watching him pull the strings is, as they say, orgasmic. Even on the
night it was evident that in the sea of mediocrity, he was the island of
brilliance. But, Cazorla was ineffective, most thanks to the Ivorian’s
profligacy. Unlike the others I’ve mentioned, he wasn’t exactly playing out of
position, but given how the team was set-up, he would be best utilized on the
flanks. I expected Podolski to be the central striker, Cazorla on the left
Gervinho on the right and Ramsey linking the midfield to attack. I’m convinced
we wouldn’t have lost given how Schalke was set up.
People have
been talking about how greedy and out of touch the Arsenal board is, and that
may be true. I find myself subscribing to that sentiment a lot too, but the
fact is, we are a football club, emphasis on the football. When we lose a game
that we shouldn’t be losing, it is not the board that the buck stops with. It
is the players and the manager. As a fan I’m more interested in the result on
the pitch than the books of accounts and boardroom politics. And on the pitch
we’ve hardly been good enough…for years. When we have a manger that is
supposedly among the best in the world, you can’t help but wonder. I mean, the
best produce the best results, right?
In the
first half of his reign at Arsenal, Arsene Wenger couldn’t put a foot wrong. He
was just the best. Is he still? In 8 years, what has he to show for it, apart
from the club’s overflowing coffers? Yesterday at the AGM he said that playing in
the Champions League is just the same as winning a trophy. Well, not in so many
words, but to that effect. You could tell a six year old all day that
participating is same as winning and he would still think you’re an idiot.
Hasn’t the great Arsene consigned himself to the fact that the players at his
disposal (whom he brought to the club) are too poor to win anything? Well, if
he has, it is true anyway.
Football
has changed radically over the years. You need the best players to win things.
These best players come at huge sums of money, if your academy is not
Barcelona’s La Masia. When you settle for less, you have to work almost seven
times as hard to harness their technique and make them as competitive as the
others. Gooners, football is about two things: winning and not winning. It’s a
choice. Arsene Wenger hasn’t chosen winning. If he is still is what Arsenal as
a club needs, maybe I should just limit my life to the insurance math that is
boring the hell out of me day in, day out.
Totally
unrelated, I thought it wise to cap this up with this verse from Rudyard
Kipling’s most famous poem:
If you
can keep your head when all about you
Are
losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you
can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make
allowance for their doubting too;
If you
can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being
lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being
hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet
don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
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