Arsene Wenger has been very quick to dismiss the need for any coaching re-enforcements this season and in fact was quite angry at suggestions that he needs a new member of the team, quipping to one reporter:
“I have just completed 30 years of coaching. I don’t want to answer this kind of question.”
But it could be the way in which the media have approach this one and of course, the inability of our board to recognise any failings that couple up with the dismissal of such an idea. I definitely think it will be a good idea, and why I am qualified to make such a comment. Well, it’s simple maths to me. Previously, we had a back four of:
Sagna – Gallas – Toure – Clichy
We’ve gone through mixes of this which have seen:
Sagna – Toure – Vermaelen – Clichy
And even now we’re kind of going between these back fours:
Sagna – Mertersacker – Koscielny – Santos
And
Sagna – Mertersacker – Vermaelen – Gibbs
What is evident there is that there have been several different players in each of those positions, and the outcome is pretty much the same with all of them… individual mistakes and problems communicating and playing as a unit…
Now let me take your mind back to 2005/2006 when a certain Arsenal side managed to make it all the way to the Champions League final with a makeshift defence which looked something like this:
Eboue – Toure – Senderos – Flamini
Four players who you will most likely cringe at if you saw them play at the back together
Former manager Terry Neill said this at the time:
“The ingredients are there. They have the qualities to do as well as their predecessors. They have good examples to follow in what the former players have done. Behind the scenes Martin Keown has been there on the training ground doing his coaching badges and I don’t think they could have had better mentors than Keown and Pat Rice. George Graham made sure the back four defended and kept clean sheets whereas Wenger likes his players to have the freedom and express it and go forward more. The famous back four had a long time together without the disruption of injuries, that makes this makeshift back four all the more remarkable.”
The key thing that was present was that Martin Keown was at the club taking his coaching badges at the time – and what a difference he looks to have made to 4 players who (with the exception of Senderos) are naturally defenders. If Keown’s presence can shake Eboue, Toure, Senderos & Flamini into an unpenetrable fortress, just imagine what he could do with the likes of a Mertersacker, Vermaelen, Sagna and Gibbs / Santos.
Surely it’s worth a go?
