Written by Wenger Boy on Wednesday, 06 April 2011 08:59

First of all, let me start by offering a smiley, happy welcome to the whole (and I mean the whole) of the Arsenal blogosphere. Whatever Arsenal fans have been feeling this past few weeks I doubt ‘smiley’ and ‘happy’ have been a part of it and I therefore advise that you greedily gobble those concepts up while the chance is there.

A lot has happened since I last wrote an article on here – both in terms of football and real life. The major news on a personal level was that me and my flatmate were burgled, which was just super, but I suppose it at least affords me my first ever opportunity to confidently scream the phrase ‘we woz robbed’ without any nagging uncertainty whatsoever. 

My absence from writing was also due to a typically grey interlull as well as the frankly depressing plight of our mutually beloved team. For once I felt absolutely no urge to share my feelings with anyone since everyone was doing a sterling job of sharing many of those same feelings amongst themselves and I was more than content to take a back seat – right at the back, behind even the cool kids and the ghetto soldiers lighting up and blasting tinny grime tunes through their Nokias on the top deck of the bus.

Pre-ramble out of the way I am back here today to discuss an issue which I believe is fundamental in understanding why Arsenal are in the position we are at the moment. This issue is the cause of many an angry debate betwixt fans of this glorious club and is I feel also, in part, the stimulus for other infamous topics of discussion such as ‘The Great English Centre Back Paradox’. 

The issue I am referring to is, as you probably guessed from the title, leadership. 

There initially appears to be just two basic schools of thought on this matter: the first is that Arsenal have a problem with leadership and the second is (amazingly) that Arsenal do not have a problem with leadership. The first is an argument often used by critics of Wenger and the second used by Wenger himself and it is this two conflicting viewpoints which I aim to explore.

Before I start the investigation I want to quickly highlight the important, if slight, difference between the above question and that which asks whether or not Arsenal lack leaders. The difference between lacking leaders and having a problem with leadership may be hard to see on the surface but to my mind it is pivotal to understanding both sides of the coin. Hopefully, once you see why they are not the same it should become clearer why both sides think as they do.

Let’s begin then by looking at the players who give their all in every single game we play. The concept for this article occurred to me while reading Mean Lean’s excellent piece earlier and I would have to agree with him that there are really just three players in the whole team who have this quality - Sagna, Vermaelen and Wilshere.

These are leaders by example in the truest sense of the word - those who have put in 100% almost continuously throughout the season (last season for Vermaelen) and who fight to the death in every game to run that one extra yard that might just be the difference between winning and losing. They are therefore beacons of light to the rest of the team and the fact that there are (debatably) only three players in this category is quite a worrying fact and serves to highlight the flaws in our otherwise talented and exciting squad.

But taking a step back it soon becomes apparent that this does not tell the whole story. 

Fabregas, Van Persie, Nasri, Song, Clichy, Walcott and even Arshavin and Bendtner have shown glimpses of this quality in the past and there are numerous occasions when one or more of them has grabbed a game by the scruff of the neck and pulled us over the line when it has really mattered. There have been several games over the past two seasons when a goal or assist from one of the above has changed a game in our favour - West Brom two weeks ago fits the bill perfectly, but also West Ham earlier in the season, Nasri at Fulham and countless other examples - and for that reason I think it is completely unfair to say that these players are not leaders at all. That is very far from the truth in my opinion.

The problem in fact does not lie in the capacity for leadership – plenty of our squad has this –  but in the consistency of its application. All it takes is one, just one, of these people to step up to the plate in a game to make a difference and the real difficulty occurs when they all fail to do so at the same time, and it is this which happens to often. 

It's ultimately a very strange affliction - to give your all only some of the time. Surely if you are a player capable of putting in the required effort some of time you are capable of it most if not all of the time. Sure there will be periods when you lose confidence but you should never lose heart and especially not when you are fighting for the most coveted prize in English football.

Unfortunately for us our most consistent leaders, Sagna, Vermaelen and Wilshere, are not regular game changers (although Wilshere will undoubtedly become one) and our game changers are not consistent enough leaders. That is The Leadership Conundrum. 

This is why the leadership criticism is such a difficult one because it is both true and not true. When Wenger says we do not lack leaders he is correct, since we possess many players who have shown themselves capable of leading the team. But when his critics say we have problems with leadership you can’t help but feel they are right since we desperately need more players capable of leading the team consistently.

In understanding this it becomes clear that there are two ways to approach this problem: the first is to bring in players with the required leaderships skills and the second is to cultivate a more permanent desire to lead amongst the current crop of players. Both I think are possible to a degree and both will help our cause. 

Whether or not Wenger is the right man to do this is another debate for another time but at least we have part of the problem. All that remains to be found is the solution so let us together hope that Wenger can begin to uncover it before our season fades completely.

WB

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Comments (14)

• 06-Apr-2011 09:35 | | Zama
  

  Good article Wenger Boy. As your name suggests you have a lot of faith in the manager, so do I. Your observation about the three players who give the mythical 110% on the field is spot on. Again as you said we have amazing players, game-changers even, in RvP, Nasri, Cesc, et al. But some performances this season make me question the motivation of some of our players or in fact lack of it. e.g. where is the Nasri of the earlier on in the season gone, is it just that he's proven to the French football establishment what a big mistake they made when they didn't take him to South Africa and now he's satisfied to go through the motions. I am probably wrong though - its been a long season & he could be knackered. I chose Nasri as an example because I didn't want to pick on the usual suspects.
  My mind goes back to the almost there season of 07-08 and I remember Cesc dragging us over the finish line so many games, we of course had a very vocal presence of Flamini in the centre of the pitch, Arshavin in his first half-season for us was amazing, RvP when fully match-fit is unbeatable. All we need is all of them playing at even 80% of their capabilities for two thirds of a season.
  Sorry for the long post, once again a good article, well done.

• 06-Apr-2011 09:49 | | Wenger Boy
  

  I agree with many of your sentiments and it just seems as if different players put in the required effort at different times and therefore their self-motivation almost counts for nothing.
  
  If we had, for example, Arshavin's desire from the second half of 08-09, Van Persie's from January 09 (when every goal was either scored or assisted by him), Fabregas' from 07-08, Nasri's from the beginning of this season etc...then we would win the league in my opinion. But there are too many periods when no-one steps up and we suffer as a result.
  
  The blip may only be five or six games a season but that's enought to cost you the league.

• 06-Apr-2011 10:10 | | Rambo
  

  Interesting article and though I am pro wenger i am still feeling disillusioned from the past few weeks. What we need is an 'icon', we need a tony adams. a captain who will not accept anything but 100%, a player who is willing to call you out in front of everyone and someone who you would not want to cross. Vermaelan is the closest thing we have to that. Wenger has created many wonderful players but you cannot create a captain, you are born one. For whatever reason we have a squad of players who are not naturally this type of player. Very rare thing at the elite level of football.

• 06-Apr-2011 11:36 | | Wenger Boy
  

  I agree. There isn't really anyone who naturally assumes command. Our players will complain to each other in a half hearted way but no-one will vocally demand better . They are all leaders by example but no more than that.
  
  So you're suggesting we need to bring in someone with these qualities?

• 06-Apr-2011 11:44 | | CHGooner
  

  Leadership starts at the top. As I have said on numerous occasions, he STARTED with a squad of leaders and the next generation learnt from them. He discarded the model, frittered away the legacy of our club and replaced it with his own litlle dream model of how football clubs should be in his World. Now look at what we have got. He famously said' Leadership is an outdated concept in football'. Yes Arsene mate, course it is...

• 06-Apr-2011 12:04 | | MeanLean
  

  Agree with you totally WB.
  
  We have seen so many of our players provide the inspiration needed to win games, even games where many others were not at their best.
  
  I think back to the games post Old Trafford in the league. Everyone worked from the front, worked collectively as a team and we looked like we could beat anyone.
  
  I have heard Theo, Robin and a few others express how successful this was and it was mentioned that everyone worked together.
  
  My questions would be, who decides this?
  
  Wenger's management style has often been about trusting his players to make the right choices, treating his players as adults and let them learn how to win.
  
  Does this apply to the system we play? Do the players decide if we are going to put in 100% or not?
  
  I really would love to know about this side of our game. We do not always put in the same shift in matches and I do not understand that. Especially when it has worked so well in certain games.
  
  So we acknowledge that having a couple of extra fighters would be good for the squad but then I ask the same question I asked in my article. Who do these leaders replace? Robin? Nasri? Theo? Song? Ramsey? Djourou? There is no point saying something like replace Denilson for player x because Wenger has a first 11 and those players are the ones he wants to base his team around. This wonderful gritty leader is no use sitting on the bench and waiting for his chance to get a cup run.
  
  I have said all along that if our squad including the likes of Diaby, Bendtner, Denilson et al gave everything in every game including against the West Brom's, Blackburn's, Wigan's etc in the same way we did against Chelsea and Man City at home then we would comfortably win this league even without new faces.
  
  But we have proved more than once that we do not always give everything and that for me is the problem that we face.
  
  Sorry for the rant, hope it made some sense.

• 06-Apr-2011 12:05 | | MeanLean
  

  I am sure he said the captains armband was outdated and not actual leaders

• 06-Apr-2011 13:04 | | CHGooner
  

  Actually he said 'captaincy' so we are both a bit right and wrong ML. But the point is it demonstrates the type of thinking going on. If he had then gone and shown that his players were all full of character and fight and therefore a focal point was unnecessary he may even have had a point. As it was i think it was more of a reaction to a criticism that Arsenal lacked any clear leader or leadership from within the team. A very valid one then - and now - as most seem to agree.

• 06-Apr-2011 13:40 | | Man United Killa  - Many captains--> no leaders
  

  I agree..How a club like Arsenal has many captains but no leader is beyond me.Unbelieveable!!

• 06-Apr-2011 15:29 | | richie
  

  I want to address this in a round about way.
  I loved Tony Adams as a player, because he embodied all that was Arsenal in those days. Not the richest club, not the most glamourous of clubs. But a club with great spirit. Maybe not the quickest defender, for sure not the most technically gifted of players.
  As his critics said a bit of a donkey.
  But our beloved Donkey had everything else!
  1st a will to win and never be 2nd best.
  2nd not being the quickest he had a great positional sense.
  3rd on the field he led from the front, giving orders but also giving his all.
  
  Do we have this type of player now? No! Absolutly not!
  But hang on who in the prem does have this type of player?
  Cesc leads our team by example but he doesn't shout, he's not a rucker he leads by example. Patrick the captain after Tony also led by example, he had many of the same qualities with the exception that technically he was a more naturally gifted player. Plus like Adams he was vocal, giving encouragement. Then we had one of Arsene's mistakes Gallas. Never a captain. Never ever an Arsenal captain.
  
  Like many others I would love for us to have another Patrick (type) on the field because obviously that type of player would make a difference to any team but, to our team particularly. Why do we need this type of player? Well because many of our youngsters often seem to be looking for leadership on the field, its not that Cesc doesn't inspire especially when he's flying. Its simply a leader who inspires only by his own example can't help but fail everytime he has an off day. It's then or when he's injuried that we don't seem to have the leadership we need.
  
  RvP is a great player but he needs only to concentrate on his own game he's not really a captain. I agree out of this group of youngters
  Jack could become a captain one day but he's not there yet, he needs expirence and I think it would be unfair to burden him with the captaincy I think it would harm his progress.
  
  Rambo makes a good point its hard to create a captain. Leaders show themselves. I say its also difficult to buy one in. Because you might buy a natural leader but captains are better if they come through the ranks.

• 06-Apr-2011 15:41 | | Rambo
  

  Wengerboy, do you feel these blips are too long because we are missing a Tony Adamsesque captain who may bring the best out of them if they were having an off day?
  
  we are currently a fragile team with tonnes of ability which is useless if we do not want it enough.

• 06-Apr-2011 15:49 | | Rambo
  

  i think buying a captain is not the way. its difficult because i don't think you can buy someone in and install them as your commander on the field. there is something not quite right in the development of our young players that there is not enough of this winning mentality and a dogged mentality. Jack has it, he has that ability to fight for it, but i don't think making him captain is the answer (at this point anyway)
  
  it almost seems that wenger feels leadership qualities isn't something he is looking for. this being only a decade from when we had (viera, bergkamp, henry, campbell, lehmann) on the field at one time, all not just leaders, but Winners. Maybe we don't have enough winners?

• 06-Apr-2011 22:24 | | richie
  

  Started with a squad of leaders?
  Fritted away the legacy of our club?
  And thats your analysis of the Wenger years?
  Often CHG its very hard to imagine you really are a Gooner?

• 07-Apr-2011 10:00 | | Wenger Boy
  

  Possibly yes. It's difficult to say. An Adams-esque leader might be the catalyst for driving the team forward and it might not but my gut instinct is that it would certainly help.
  
  However if we could teach those already in the team to assume more responsbility on a regular basis then there wouldn't necessarily be the need for someone in his mould. This would be a better solution because then the responsibility is spread out and you are not relying on one individual to provide the spark.
  
  All of the players I mentioned above are capable of driving the team forward but we just need them to do this when it really counts. If we were 1-0 down in the second half of an important game and Cesc suddenly upped his effort then he might well turn the game in our favour. But he might not.
  
  But if Nasri, Cesc, Walcott, Van P, Clichy, Sagna, Wilshere and Vermaelen were all able to think "enough is enough, it's time to do something" without looking to others for inspiration then the team would spring to life as a collective unit and, given the obvious talent in our squad, more often than not produce the required result.
  
  It's about every member of the team taking responsibility for their own mentality I feel.

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