Arsene Wenger: Arsenal players forced me to change football philosophy before Manchester City win The Gunners held back from their traditional free-flowing attacking approach and defended valiantly in the 2-0 win at the Etihad last weekend Arsene Wenger has admitted player power forced him to change his football philosophy. Wenger was lauded for ditching his attacking principles as he masterminded Arsenal’s victory at Manchester City last weekend. But it now appears that it was dressing room pressure which persuaded Wenger to change and put on a more disciplined display rather than go gung-ho. Wenger said: “At some stage you cannot go against the feelings of the team because it’s detrimental to the result. “The team sometimes needs to be reassured and reassurance comes first from feeling solid and strong and then you can express your talent and our confidence in the big games had been damaged by these big results. “Of course (I listened to the players). Your tactics have to be aligned as well with the feeling of the team and with the confidence level of the team.” He added: “That’s why you hear so many times in the papers or on television “let’s get back to basics”. “It’s not because a team doesn’t know the basics, it’s just to get the priorities right to reinforce the confidence of the team again because you gain it slowly back by feeling that you are not going to get blown away.” TV pundit Gary Neville hailed Arsenal’s victory as “resilient and organised” after accusing them of “capitulating” in big games in the past “four or five years.” Arsenal were hammered 6-3 at Manchester City last season and also took savage thrashings at Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton. Wenger admitted this week that despite the result at Manchester City he remains committed to attacking football. “I go from being too romantic to too pragmatic. We are not going to change our style.” Is Arsene Wenger right to change his football philosophies?
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 08:54:07 +0000
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