Time for Change

As Arsenal's trophy drought is looking likely to go on, does Wenger need to make big changes to bring success back to the North London club?

After this weekend’s set of results, it looks like Manchester United will indeed be adding to their 18 league titles making them, arguably, the best team in English footballing history. Whilst a certain Sir Alex Ferguson looks like he’ll be adding at least one more trophy to his astonishing collection this season, it appears Arsene Wenger may have to wait at least another year to add to his.

After Arsenal’s game against Blackburn Rovers, it’s becoming evident that a very patient group of fans are becoming quite restless. I could see this from the reaction from the Arsenal fans I follow on Twitter and I could hear it from the reaction of the Arsenal fans after the game in the stadium, I can’t recall the last time Arsenal fans booed their own players off the pitch. I don’t blame them, Arsenal fans have given Arsene Wenger a lot of time to do things his way, and it appears the team are going to fall short again.

The first question I’ll ask is how much longer can the Arsenal board give him? It’s scandalous that a club with Arsenal’s reputation has not won a trophy in such a long time; surely they can’t keep giving Wenger contract extensions if he’s not fulfilling his role in his job. I can understand why he’s been given so much time, he brought Arsenal double glory in 1998 and he gave English football ‘The Invincibles’ of 2004, but surely if he doesn’t win a trophy this year, his policies, his managerial style and his position at Arsenal surely has to be questioned.

Every team has its weak points, the normal thing to do would be to address them to try and make your team as strong as you possible. The frustrating thing about Arsenal is that the problems are so glaringly obvious; it’s frustrating that Wenger hasn’t done something about them. I see three main problems with the Arsenal squad, two of them have been evident for quite a while. These two problems are the lack of a world class goalkeeper and the lack of quality and strength in depth in Arsenal’s defence, two problems that you never see in title winning sides. The third problem, Arsenal seriously lack any leadership on the football pitch whatsoever.

For years now Arsenal have been stuck with a goalkeeper that is not good enough to play for a team that should be challenging for trophies. You can clearly see that Manuel Almunia does not command the respect of the Arsenal defence, they don’t trust him and he is too inconsistent. The likes of Edwin Van Der Sar and Petr Cech have helped Manchester United and Chelsea gain points from their heroic performances this season, Manuel Almunia has on many occasions cost Arsenal vital points this season, off the top of my head he’s the reason Arsenal lost to West Brom earlier in the season, and the reason they dropped two points against them in the middle of March. I do have high hopes for Wojciech Szczesny but he’s a goalkeeper for the future, but he needs a world class goalkeeper to learn from, someone he can look up to, Manuel Almunia is neither of these things.

After letting the likes of Sol Campbell and William Gallas leave the club last season, it was imperative that Arsene Wenger signed new centre backs as Thomas Vermaelen and Johann Djourou were the only two senior centre backs at the club. At the start of the transfer window Wenger said he needed at least 5 centre backs in his squad, he signed Laurent Koscielny and Sebastien Squillaci, leaving us with 4 centre backs for the start of the season. Thomas Vermaelen then went on to get injured, leaving Wenger with three centre backs, two of which are very young with little experience in Arsenal’s first team, the other, a defender who is past his prime and should only have been used sparingly. Wenger even had the opportunity to correct this mistake in the January transfer window, he decided not to and as a result, Arsenal’s season has suffered as they now have only two fit central defenders going into the last eight games of the season.

My final issue that has become more apparent since Arsenal’s defeat to Birmingham in the League Cup final is the lack of leadership in the team. After watching the football this weekend I think there were two games that showed how important it is to have leaders in your team. First of all West Ham vs Manchester United, United were 2-0 down at half time and were in risk of giving Arsenal a chance of catching them in the title race, I believe the reason they came back and won so emphatically was because of the leadership and resultant determination Manchester United have as a team. They don’t have one leader, they have several, of those that were playing at the weekend, Nemanja Vidic, Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney would all be considered leaders. They also have the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Edwin Van Der Sar, Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher, all of whom you’d expect to help their team fight back from tough situations.

When you look at Arsenal’s squad at the weekend, I don’t know if I’m being pessimistic, but I don’t see one leader in there. Arsenal have gone from the days of having the likes of Tony Adams, Steve Bould, David Seaman, Martin Keown, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry to having players that would never be considered leaders. The only person I think is worthy of the armband at Arsenal is Jack Wilshere, and that’s saying a lot about the lack of leadership if the best option seems to be a young 19 year old lad, someone who needs to be led as opposed to leading a team.

The philosophy that Wenger has stuck by is refreshing, with all of the money being thrown around at players that aren’t worth a fifth of what they’re being bought for, it’s nice to see a club with the potential to spend money trying something different. But let’s face it, it’s not working. Unless United do something pretty stupid it’s going to be six years without a trophy for Arsenal and that’s just not good enough for a club of this stature.

Arsenal are already seeing signs of a backlash from the way Arsene Wenger wants to run his football club. It’s likely that Arsenal will lose Cesc Fabregas this summer, players of his quality want to win trophies, he’s given Wenger a chance to build a team around him but Wenger hasn’t succeeded, as a result of this stubborn behaviour from the Arsenal manager, it appears that he will lose his ‘captain’ this summer.

Wenger also has a knack of signing players and then playing them out of position, I’ve always been under the impression you should buy players to fit the system you want to play, not try and force players into different areas of the pitch where they’re not happy. It worked wonders with Thierry Henry, but that was a special case, Samir Nasri has repeatedly expressed his frustration at being played out on the wing, he has been quoted as saying on numerous occasions that he feels more comfortable in the centre of midfield. It appears that Wenger will lose Fabregas this summer, and I can see Nasri following him out the door if he’s continually played out of position. Nasri isn’t the only one, Andrei Arshavin was originally a forward before he signed for Arsenal, it was a role that he played that helped him garner interest from the likes of Barcelona. In his two years at Arsenal, Arshavin has shown flashes of this brilliance, but he hasn’t quite lived up to the expectation he brought with him, I believe this is down to him being played in a position he’s not completely comfortable with.

In my opinion something has to change, Arsene Wenger has given these players a chance, he needs to sign players that will add extra depth to the squad and make his current group earn their place in this squad. Do Arsenal need to adapt their style of play? All too often Arsenal get singled out for playing in a predictable manner, they’re hard to play against when they’re on form, but if a team sets up well enough; they can be easy to counter, as the likes of West Brom have shown this season.

Finally, something slightly off topic from everything else I’ve talked about, Arsenal are the most expensive team to watch in the Premier League, this is not justified by the lack of silverware that they have won over the last five years, I believe the only way Arsenal can repay their fans for showing their continued loyalty is by actually splashing the cash this summer and make some massive signings that will help to end this disastrous trophy drought.