EPL Monday: Arsenal and Liverpool Continue to Struggle

According to lore, the first soccer-related tweet six years ago was a simple hashtag: “#WengerOut.”

That’s not exactly true, but Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has consistently — eternally — been under fire in the age of social media. From his constant battles with his zippers, to his team selection, to his club’s shortcomings in important games, the Twitter-era hasn’t been kind to the Frenchman. Amazingly the club’s win in the FA Cup in May — the first trophy since 2005 — didn’t buy Wenger a buffer. For years I’ve defended The Professor, under the premise the he has forgotten more about soccer than I’ll ever know. Even earlier this year, I wrote that Wenger should go out on his own terms.

Admittedly, this is an over-reaction to Arsenal’s 2-1 loss at the Emirates to an under-strength Manchester United on Saturday, but defending Wenger is becoming increasingly difficult. Previously, Arsenal’s reputation was for playing attractive, flowing soccer which produced trophies. Now? The Gunners’ rep is, in fact, losing games like Saturday vs. United. How do you shake this ethos so long as Wenger is still involved?

United breaking through on a Kieran Gibbs own goal would have been comi-tragic if not for being so predictable for everything save a sad trombone sound effect.

Wenger hasn’t become a poor manager overnight, but his tactics and the players he’s picked continue to underwhelm. Arsenal’s possession system was a revelation years ago, but teams caught up. Opponents against Arsenal know they’re not going to see a lot of the ball, but if they’re quick on the counter-attack they can exploit the Gunners high-line, compounded Saturday by Laurent Koscielny’s injury and Per Mertesacker’s lack of pace. Wayne Rooney’s late goal that made it 2-0 was United’s first shot on target of the match.

Arsenal also lack a true out-and-out goal-scorer in the box, which — like a rug — would tie its whole offensive philosophy together. Alexis Sanchez is in fine form and a great addition to the Emirates, but although he’s a direct player, he’s not a pure scorer. Nor is Aaron Ramsey, who was second behind Olivier Giroud with 10 league goals last season. Club captain Mikel Arteta told The Guardian, “It’s [a lack of] ruthlessness, for sure. When you are in the box and you can’t manage to score in that many situations, you can’t expect to win.”

Tactics in soccer continue to evolve and adjust, yet Wenger seems stuck in his ideas from a decade ago, choosing players to fit that mold and ignoring the same problems over-and-over.

Other issues, like the club’s continual injury problems — Wilshere is the latest casualty — compounded by Wenger’s lack of defensive options are less defensible. Or how about this? The club can’t use Giroud in the Champions League vs. Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday because they forgot to register him in time. Let’s not even talk about the team’s continued failures to sign an adequate defensive-minded midfielder.

For Arsenal fans, the frustration levels must be off the charts. What is the point of being a “big” club like Arsenal if you’re going to come out at home against a makeshift Manchester United side and play so timidly? No, Arsenal doesn’t have the bankroll of either Chelsea or Manchester City and, yes, Stan Kroenke has proven to be thriftier than you’d imagine the owner of a huge English soccer club would be on paper. But this is still Arsenal. The club still matters. The Emirates is a huge, revenue-producing stadium. Playing in the Champions League and the club’s pedigree is attractive to high-level professionals around the globe.

Whatever Arsenal does, it’s worth examining at the current squad … which is filled with internationals but not exactly as powerful as you’d think an “Arsenal” team would be in 2014. Going forward here’s how I’d break down the current squad:

Focal Points: Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Calum Chambers (long term).
Useful squad players: Kieran Gibbs, Wojciech Szczęsny, Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud, Nacho Monreal, Danny Welbeck, Per Mertesacker (with the right partner next to him to mask his lead feet), Santi Cazorla (??).
Enigmas: Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott.
High-priced enigma: Mesut Özil
Time to go: Tomáš Rosický, Mikel Arteta, Lukas Podolski, Mathieu Flamini, Yaya Sanogo, Abou Diaby,
Jury is out: Mathieu Debuchy, Serge Gnabry, Joel Campbell, Gedion Zelalem, Héctor Bellerín, Isaac Hayden, Chuba Akpom

Speculation will likely increase this week linking Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp with the Arsenal job, if only because there aren’t any viable options in England. Bear in mind, at Dortmund Klopp is the manager, with the decisions above him for the roster made by the club’s sporting director, Michael Zorc. So if you’re replacing Wenger, you almost need to fill two jobs.

Also consider that Klopp’s greatest success at Dortmund came using a style now called “gegenpressing” — a high-energy pressing system meant to create chances on the counter. For this system to work you need fit, healthy players all working with one mind. Players such as Oxlade-Chamberlain or Walcott could thrive here, but the rest would need time to adjust.

Whatever happens in the future, it’s a tad demoralizing, isn’t it, that even a club with the resources of Arsenal is stuck in a purgatory where finishing fourth and gaining access to the Champions League every season is mostly considered acceptable.

For all the doom-and-gloom it’s worth remembering that even with the loss, Arsenal are still only two points off fourth place. Wenger isn’t going anywhere, but the club probably isn’t going anywhere better than fourth so long as he’s making the decisions.

United Steps Up:

Admittedly in the world of sportswriting its usually easier/meatier to pick through the bones of a losing team than praise a winner, but Manchester United deserve plaudits for grinding out a win against Arsenal which moved the Red Devils into fourth especially with a piecemeal defense of Chris Smalling, Tyler Blackett and Paddy McNair.

Keeper David De Gea remains United’s most-important player and his denial on Jack Wilshere — along with a few other key stops — kept the game 0-0. How much you want to build around Marouane Fellaini long-term is a good question, but the big Belgian is making an impact on games with his physicality which clearly rattled Arsenal, notably Wilshere.

United gets Hull City and Stoke City the next two weeks at Old Trafford. Let’s see if any of the goodwill from the Arsenal win carries over.

More of the Same From Liverpool:

What happens when you combine two toxic forces: a team where zero players are “in form” with a manager struggling to find a coherent XI that works? You get the situation at Liverpool, which continues to deteriorate and sits in 12th place with 14 points. The club slumped to its worst start in the Premier League since 1992-93 following a 3-1 loss at Crystal Palace where former club legend Jamie Carragher say the Reds were “bullied.” Compounding issues is Liverpool’s trip to Bulgaria to face Ludogorets on Wednesday in basically a must-win Champions League affair. (It’s still a winnable match for Liverpool but with the club’s confidence low according to Rodgers it’s not going to be as simple as it looked back in August when the draw came out.)

I’d tend to doubt Brendan Rodgers’ job is jeopardy, as my online friend Nate argues, there simply isn’t a ready-made replacement for him. That’s a saving grace for many managers in the Prem. England, for a myriad of reasons, doesn’t produce all that many managers. The EPL imports most of its players, so it has to import most of its managers, meaning bringing someone in to replace someone like Rodgers at a prominent club like Liverpool likely happens over the summer. A “caretaker” manager situation doesn’t help much here.

The problem is for Liverpool, unlike a year ago it doesn’t have the one-two punch of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge and their 50-ish goals to make up for the rest of the club’s wobbles — and right now the Reds’ defensive unit looks about as solid as a Jenga tower, allowing close to 1.5 goals per match. Granted, Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel haven’t received much help from Steven Gerrard in front, but the defensive issues can be masked over sometimes by the play of the keeper. Simon Mignolet isn’t having a banner season either from a shot-stopping or decision-making standpoint.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the one that applies. Liverpool just need to start winning some games. Look at Newcastle United — the fans wanted Alan Pardew gone a month ago — and now the Magpies are in fifth place. Winning, temporarily, won’t affect some of the long-term issues at Liverpool — what to do with Gerrard, why the defense is continually so poor, why the Reds can’t mark at set pieces, but it does cool down the fire. Liverpool plays Stoke, Leicester and Sunderland before a trip to Old Trafford on Dec. 14.

Stat of the Week:

Bony signed a one-year extension with Swansea this month. Smart move by the Welsh club even though they could have cashed in on the Ivorian international.

Odds & Ends:

Tottenham came back to beat Hull City, 2-1. If not for Christian Eriksen’s late goal it was almost time for Spurs to start focusing the rest of their efforts on winning the Europa League. … Manchester City still doesn’t look like its clicking on all levels, despite a 2-1 win vs. Swansea in a game it fell behind 1-0. City plays Bayern Munich this week in a do-or-die Champions League affair. … Chelsea won again. Diego Costa scored again. Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard were great again. This concludes the CTRL-V portion of this post. … Leon Osman scored the winner for Everton vs. West Ham. This always makes me happy as Osman is one of the ever-present players since I began following the EPL closely earlier this century. … Burnley is off the bottom of the table following a 2-1 win at Stoke.

Looking ahead:

Sunday is the better day in the EPL next weekend, so save some turkey sandwiches for Southampton/Manchester City and Tottenham/Everton.

[Photos via Getty Images]