zimgunner
12-11-2013, 11:35 PM
Wenger is a tragic character. He has a fatal internal flaw that compels him to make erroneous decisions at watershed moments.
We saw it when Dortmund visited and they sucker-punched us as we pressed forward.
And we saw it today when he brought Ramsey on for Cazorla, when we were 0-0 going into the last quarter.
I shook my head and remembered the old purist we have as a manager. The zealot.
All we needed to do was keep it 0-0, whatever happened in Marseille. Monreal, Vermaelen -- goddamit even Wilshere -- are on the bench. And if for some unfathomable reason he wants to make an offensive substitution, why not throw Walcott on to pull back Napoli's defensive line and in turn their midfield?
Perhaps there was some unapparent reason Ramsey needed a run-out. But I can't imagine what it could have been.
No -- I think Wenger just decided that our attack was missing a piece (which it was), saw that Cazorla's passing was poor again (which it was) and gambled that we wouldn't give anything up defensively if we switched Cazorla for Ramsey (which we did: egg on face).
That thought process sums up bad Wenger perfectly -- take some reckless purism, add some unnecessary risk, and hope that mesmeric passing and goals result.
It's lovely when it comes off, but look what happened to us tonight --
We bleed a goal.
Worse still, Arteta is sent off and therefore unavailable for the first leg of the next round.
Worse still our next opponents, after Dortmund goes ahead, are now potentially Barca/Real Madrid/Bayern/PSG.
Worse still, we bleed another goal, which will test our mental toughness at a point in the season when we just don't need something else to worry about.
Worst of all -- every single one of these mishaps (apart from the Dortmund one of course) was substantially influenced by that bone-headed decision to bring on Ramsey and not a defender.
Sure, we scraped by without Arteta.
Sure, he is not a key player, and his absence probably won't affect the result of our next game.
Sure, we'd have to face a team from that elite cadre in the quarters anyway.
Sure, we may be able to marshal ourselves in time for the City game.
But that's not the point. The point is that great managers, even ones who implement an ideology, do so while controlling all the other variables as best they can.
Wenger pursues his ideals while blind to, or perhaps even in willful disregard of, the other variables. He is either a negligent or a reckless dreamer.
Either way, he is not maximizing Arsenal's chance of trophies, whatever the shining peaks we sometimes see.
I'm still fuming. All I can think of is that ridiculous substitution, even though I know there are other things to note from the game: e.g. Kos and Flamini had blinders, and it's quite something that Arteta, one of our best midfielders last season, is now finding it hardest to keep up.
Aaaaaargh.
We saw it when Dortmund visited and they sucker-punched us as we pressed forward.
And we saw it today when he brought Ramsey on for Cazorla, when we were 0-0 going into the last quarter.
I shook my head and remembered the old purist we have as a manager. The zealot.
All we needed to do was keep it 0-0, whatever happened in Marseille. Monreal, Vermaelen -- goddamit even Wilshere -- are on the bench. And if for some unfathomable reason he wants to make an offensive substitution, why not throw Walcott on to pull back Napoli's defensive line and in turn their midfield?
Perhaps there was some unapparent reason Ramsey needed a run-out. But I can't imagine what it could have been.
No -- I think Wenger just decided that our attack was missing a piece (which it was), saw that Cazorla's passing was poor again (which it was) and gambled that we wouldn't give anything up defensively if we switched Cazorla for Ramsey (which we did: egg on face).
That thought process sums up bad Wenger perfectly -- take some reckless purism, add some unnecessary risk, and hope that mesmeric passing and goals result.
It's lovely when it comes off, but look what happened to us tonight --
We bleed a goal.
Worse still, Arteta is sent off and therefore unavailable for the first leg of the next round.
Worse still our next opponents, after Dortmund goes ahead, are now potentially Barca/Real Madrid/Bayern/PSG.
Worse still, we bleed another goal, which will test our mental toughness at a point in the season when we just don't need something else to worry about.
Worst of all -- every single one of these mishaps (apart from the Dortmund one of course) was substantially influenced by that bone-headed decision to bring on Ramsey and not a defender.
Sure, we scraped by without Arteta.
Sure, he is not a key player, and his absence probably won't affect the result of our next game.
Sure, we'd have to face a team from that elite cadre in the quarters anyway.
Sure, we may be able to marshal ourselves in time for the City game.
But that's not the point. The point is that great managers, even ones who implement an ideology, do so while controlling all the other variables as best they can.
Wenger pursues his ideals while blind to, or perhaps even in willful disregard of, the other variables. He is either a negligent or a reckless dreamer.
Either way, he is not maximizing Arsenal's chance of trophies, whatever the shining peaks we sometimes see.
I'm still fuming. All I can think of is that ridiculous substitution, even though I know there are other things to note from the game: e.g. Kos and Flamini had blinders, and it's quite something that Arteta, one of our best midfielders last season, is now finding it hardest to keep up.
Aaaaaargh.