We just are too honest « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
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By Walter Broeckx
We just are too clean and honest in this game. And as we are young we are also still a bit naïve at times. In a way it makes me proud because this means we are the good guys. But alas in the bad world out there being nice and honest doesn’t always win you games.
Sometimes you have to do the wrong things to win games. Sometimes you have to bend the rules to win games. Or to not lose games. And this is something we have to choose.
Will can go over to the tactics used by other teams or do can stick to our principles. A difficult decision to make. I like us being a team that plays football like it is supposed to be played. We don’t go out to hurt other people. We don’t go into time wasting tactics or at least very rarely do this. It never is a tactic we use these days and no one says before the game that we should use it.
But we can do something about some aspects of us being far too naïve and honest. And we don’t have to get ourselves to completely change things. When I name certain people in what follows I do not intend to criticize them for what they have done. I just want to show on how we can improve without really going in to the tactics I really don’t like myself.
So let us take the game against Liverpool. After our goal they tried to score from the kick off. Szczesny shows he is very much awake and smothers the ball under the cross bar. Now imagine if this would have been Lehmann. He would have fallen to the ground with the ball, and taken a look around to see if the cameras have picked it up. Then he would get up slowly as one can expect of a man of his age, he then would walk around with the ball a bit. And it would have taken some 20 to 25 seconds off the clock before he kicks the ball out of the field. Because with his experience he knows that the further the ball goes out the better it is because it takes a few seconds of the clock.
The other option for Lehmann would have been to palm the ball a bit further and then take the ball at his feet and start walking around in the penalty area. If a Liverpool player comes to attack him he would run as far with the ball as he could before taking it in his hands. And then he would go slowly to the backline and take a few seconds before actually kicking the ball as far away as possible and if possible aimed at the corner flag of Reina.
But here we have a young goalkeeper who has the potential to be one of the finest we have had. But he is still a bit inexperienced in such a situation. The rush of adrenaline was still in his head I think and therefore he didn’t take enough time to do such things. And so when the Liverpool player came near he rushed himself. He should have seen on the other side that Reina took all the time in the world when he wanted to. So he should just have done the same thing. Because now he didn’t steady himself before the kick and he kicked the ball hard but too high and not far enough.
I’m sure Jens will have seen it and will have told him by now to try to do it a bit differently in future. But then again our outfield players could have done a better job in trying to win the ball back because I saw a lot of them not really attacking the ball when it came down. And believe me this is not intended to criticize Szczesny as I really think he is a great keeper and I know he can do the tricks Lehmann did in his days. But that youth and inexperience is something that you cannot cancel out after some 15 games in the first team.
But in such small details sometimes is the difference between winning and not winning a game. Jens, please tell him – and if not you then someone please tell him the answer is here. Just a small tip from a former goalkeeper you know.
But also our players need to realize that the game isn’t over after scoring what they think is the winning goal. I can imagine wild celebrations going on after such a late goal. But then again we seem to take our position on the field and look at each other and say: great work, guys job done. And then we find that the ref is not happy with the outcome and wants to play more minutes than they have indicated.
And then we have to refocus and prepare ourselves. On such a moment we don’t have to play the nice ball to a team mate when we intercept a pass. No, at such a moment we have to kick the ball as hard as we can towards the other team half of the field. And one of our forwards (if possible the most fresh one) should chase that ball as if his live depends on it.
But we don’t do that. No, we just try to pass the ball to a team mate and keep the ball near our own goal and if you then slip up or miss control the ball you are in trouble. And so it did yesterday. At least two of our players could have kicked the ball forward and far but they didn’t do it.
This is something we should learn to do. Use the combination of the keeper taking all the time the ref has allowed the other goalkeeper on the other end and our players keeping awake till the final whistle and ready to run and chase after every ball.
These are things that go against the nature of most of our players. So it is hard for them to do this. But I think we should have players who can tell the other players that now is the time for such tactics when it really matters.
And maybe Arsenal should let the clock run further during extra time. Even if it is against the instructions. What can they do about it? Give us a fine? Well fine, fine us then I would say. But then the ref wouldn’t be able to add Fergie-time to the game as he would know that all the people in the stadium will notice what he is doing.
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