Should Wenger consider substance over style as Arsenal legend claims?

Posted on Tuesday, 19th April 2011 by Taaza Banda

Arsenal legend David Seaman has called upon on Arsene Wenger to consider shifting away from style in favour of substance.

The ex-England international, who won 3 league championships and 4 F.A Cups trophies with Arsenal, told Sky Sports News:

‘The manager’s done great there, but Arsenal is a club that should be winning trophies – when I joined we were expected to win trophies.’

‘The way we did it wasn’t the best football in the world, but at the moment Arsenal can play the best football in the world but they don’t win anything. It’s about getting that fine balance of effective football as well as playing some great football.’

I totally agree with him here. David Seaman admitted that he played in a team which did not play the best football in the world, but it brought home silverware. Now Arsenal are known for playing the best football in the world, but ultimately, have nothing to show for it. Maybe the former Arsenal player has a point. We need to stop trying to walk the ball into the back of the net and just try belting a few in from outside the area. We always make one pass too many in the opposing box, which leaves a number of fans frustrated and shouting ‘shoot!’ at their TV screens.

It seems Wenger has failed to find the perfect balance between defence and attack, and as a result, footballs biggest critics have tagged Arsenal as a team that attack like men but defend like boys.

Maybe we should change our style of play. Maybe adopt Blackpool’s style of play where their main objective is to out score their opponents. Maybe we should try a more physical approach, or just stick to our free-flowing football which seems to have no effect on physical teams that are able to disrupt our game with their beefy players and hard tackles.

When you have no idea of how a tactical change may affect the team’s performance, a change in philosophy can be described as suicide. However, we have kept the faith for nearly 6 years now and still have no trophies to show for it. Maybe its time we took a gamble.