When Is Wenger Not To Blame?
The result against Olympiakos was dreadful and after the match we were all quick to point fingers at who we felt must shoulder the blame. In most circumstances I am an advocate of collection blame and collective praise. The manager picks the team and sets the tactics, the players have to implement them.
If the team fails it is hard to say if it is a tactical error or a failure to implement said tactics so I believe the fairest course is the collective one.
There are those, however, who will have the manager blamed for everything. Ultimately all roads lead back to him and this, they say, is why he must shoulder sole responsibility. I think this is unfair and an overly simplistic way to look at things. Like so much when it comes to Arsenal it nuance.
Did Wenger pick Ospina? Yes. Did he tell Ospina to fumble the ball over his own line? No, of course not. Is Wenger right when he says it could happen to any keeper? Yes. Is it likely it would have happened to Cech? No, of course not, he’s world-class. You could say that this means Wenger is to blame but aside from having no neck, being about 3ft tall and keeping a bucket load of clean sheets behind a solid defence last season had Ospina given signs that this was going to happen sooner or later? Possibly. He had a few shaky moments last season but nothing like last night. Cech had a nightmare debut for us but we gave him the benefit of the doubt because we knew he had the talent. Maybe Wenger and his goalkeeping coach felt Ospina’s dodgy moments were just jitters and he would grow out of it. I don’t know and neither do you. We can only go by what we see on the pitch, Wenger is fortunate enough to see more than that so as much as many will hate this, the stark truth is even disregarding his 30 years in professional management just by sheer access to the players he is in a better position to judge them than us.
I believe Wenger was wrong to pick Ospina because he called it a must win game and if that is the case you have to play your strongest team. I’m not entirely convinced by the injury argument. Cech may well have been carrying a knock and if that is the case it was the right choice to rest him for the weekend in a competition we have a much better chance of competing for but why bench him? If he is fit enough for the bench, he is fit enough to start. Ospina could have been knocked flat out after 2 minutes and Cech would have had to play for 90 minutes. It was a strange decision but that does not make him totally responsible for Ospina’s error. He is responsible for picking Opsina but it is David who is responsible for his clanger. Had he not made it the selection may well have been justified but just because he did make it does not mean it was not justified. Collective responsibility.
I find the whole ‘all roads lead to Wenger’ line a bit intellectually bankrupt. If you applied this logic to life you could blame your parents for everything. Did you get drunk last night and verbally abuse an employee at a fast food outlet? That’s your parents’ fault for not raising you properly. Did you spend more than you brought in last month? That’s your parents’ fault for not teaching you basic financial management. Do you live in a run-down area? That’s your parents’ fault for not earning more money so you could afford somewhere better. Do you have greasy hair? That’s your parents’ fault for giving you greasy hair genes.
Where does it end? Is it even your parents’ fault or it is their parents’ fault? Does it go all the way back to the spark of life? Or Adam and Eve and ultimately God if you are a creationist?
It can’t all be Wenger’s fault. He is the manager so he must shoulder a lot of the blame but sometimes he is let down by the players. Last night is one of those times I genuinely don’t know who is more to blame so I share it equally. This is not a pro-Wenger post, but more a pro-logic post. If you feel his time has come, that’s cool. If you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, that’s cool too. Don’t try to apportion him, or absolve him of, all the blame though because it’s usually somewhere in the middle.
Are Chelsea’s woes Mourinho’s fault? Are these not the same players who won the title last year with the same manager? Is it his fault Fabregas has gone missing and is a half season player? Obviously that is Wenger’s fault.
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Thing is, if you’re constantly being let down by the same bunch of players whilst having gazillions locked away in your vault, then naturally and rightly so, people will point the finger of blame squarely at you.
Trust me, the players are at fault but it’s the manager who picks them, has faith in them, coaches them and see them make the same bollocks mistakes week in week out, year in year out.
My “Parents” are not being paid £8m a year!!!!!
Which is their fault. See, the logic works.
You seem to have said “the players are at fault too but Wenger picks them” which implies it’s his fault and absolves the players. Apologies if I’ve misinterpreted that but that’s how it comes across.
How is Wenger to blame, he picked a team that if they performed should have been able to win that game easily. Yes he dropped a few players with the man Utd match in mind probably. But those on the pitch were good enough remember also the cazorla effort blocked on the line and chamberlains fluffed chance another time they would be in and we would have won that 4-3. The players are responsible a for the unprofessional manner in which they took the restart after hauling themselves back into the game. Is it bad yes and we have a mountain to climb to qualify from the group but it’s not impossible. But our priority has to be the title this year first and foremost.
Like I said, I prefer collective responsibility. The team he picked was good enough to win.
Very good and logical piece Dan. The whole “it’s his team, he buys them, selects them, coaches them” in order to justify blaming Wenger for everything I also find ridiculous logic. No better example than a goalkeeper error to show how silly that reasoning is. When a team goes out onto the pitch, players have been instructed on what the plan is and the manager expects and trusts them to execute. Sometimes a manager’s tactics are wrong, sometimes players fail to execute a good plan. I just think if we’re not privy to what the instructions were, it’s hard to determine who between the manager and the players has dropped the ball. One can see what football management is considered a thankless job – when the team plays well, players get the plaudits. When things go wrong, manager (or at least for our club, it’s always him) gets the blame, even when it’s clear some of the players did not perform.