Nigel Winterburn: Arsene Wenger cannot protect the players forever

Written by Jeffrey on May 5, 2011 – 21:00

Former Arsenal left-back Nigel Winterburn believes it’s time for Arsene Wenger to stop protecting his players as they have yet again failed to deliver.

Speaking to the Weekend Sports Breakfast, the Englishman explained that the manager has been protecting the players even after they failed to achieve their objectives but how it’s now time to evaluate the campaign, understand what went wrong and take the right decisions ahead of next season.

The 47-year old believes the Frenchman is to review the whole season and not just the last months in which the Gunners crashed out of all competitions and fell six points behind leaders Manchester United in the Premier League.

On Sunday, Arsenal will face Stoke City away from home knowing that they are mathematically still in the title race but also fully aware that the Red Devils and second-placed Chelsea have to drop points if they are to stand a chance of becoming Champions.

Ahead of next season, Winterburn said:

From Arsenal’s point of view we’re now hearing from one or two of the players that Arsene Wenger has been protecting them.

But you can’t protect them forever and the fact is that they’ve come up short again this season. They’ve been in a great position and they’ve not followed it through again.

At the end of the season Arsene Wenger will evaluate the whole season, not just the last few weeks and say where do we have to be stronger to make sure that if we’re in this position again next season that we can actually follow it through and be there in the last three or four games.

Share this Gunning Hawk article:

Reply to this comment »

Simmer 10 says:

May 5, 2011 at 22:00

Hello!

Reply to this comment »

Chris says:

May 5, 2011 at 22:12

Is it me you’re looking for, Simmer?

Reply to this comment »

SeattleGooner says:

May 5, 2011 at 23:57

Let me help you Wenger:

1. Learn to defend the counter-attack.
2. Learn to defend set pieces.
3. Learn to score from set pieces.
4. Teach Chamakh to shoot.
5. Discover Bendtner’s, Walcott’s, Vela’s best position, or sell them if you can’t make them fit.
6. Sell the dead weight, and evaluate the future of several others.
7. For god sakes, RESIGN NASRI.

Reply to this comment »

Charlie says:

May 6, 2011 at 2:51

@ Seatle,

I fully agree on what you said, particularly on point 5. and 6.

Reply to this comment »
Hunter says:

May 6, 2011 at 7:35

You forgot to add. Teach the team to counter attack with pace and get players in the box like we used to when we were winning things. Half of the players are clueless on what positions to take up and where to run. Every time we attempt a counter there is no one in the box to play the ball to so it ends up being 1 attacker on 3 defenders. We are not near as dangerous now as we were a few years ago. The only time we really have countered well this season was against Barca. Remember these days?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSyaVhuIqCU

Reply to this comment »

AFC says:

May 6, 2011 at 10:06

Sell cesc and buy Bojan n Affelay.
Get Eden hazard n Gary cahill/sakho.
We will be the next invincibles.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Move Nasri back to midfield.He is useless in the flanks.He cannot try his skills there.Imagine his 2 goals against Fulham when he was playing in the midfield.He is very very effective and dangerous in the midfield than in the flanks.He was one of our main goal scorer when playing in midfield before.He has scored 13 goals in midfield and how much in the wings?I think two.He has no idea playing there n he could make better crosses.

Szch

Sagna cahill/sakho Vermaelen clichy

song
Nasri Wilshere/Ramsey

Afellay/Walcott Bojan/Hazard
RVP

We now have the Best starting XI and Best Bottom XI so that we can compete very effectively on all four fronts especially in UCL n EPL.We now have major goal threats in RVP,Hazard,Bojan,Nasri,Ramsey,Walcott and Afellay

Reply to this comment »

Hunter says:

May 6, 2011 at 15:38

Bojan is too light weight. We don’t need another little kid in our side, we need a big strong type who can score goals and not get injured every time someone bumps them.

Reply to this comment »
- Hunter says:
  
  May 6, 2011 at 18:33
  
  You also still have not solved the problem of having a forward who will get into the box. There is no one in that lineup who could stretch a defense.
  
  Reply to this comment »
  - AFC says:
    
    May 6, 2011 at 20:47
    
    Have you seen Hazard play?He creates real headache to any defence and stretches the defence perfectly from the wings.Bojan may be light but we need some more agile players in front of goal just like messi to Barcelona.All the above we have our goal scoring machine RVP with ruthless finishing.In case he is injured we will have Bojan and Hazard.
    
    Reply to this comment »
    - SeattleGooner says:
      
      May 6, 2011 at 21:16
      
      I’m with hunter here. I’m all for hazard, the kids quality, bojan has la liga written all over him, he’s just too little. One or two seasons of getting bumped and kicked around and bojan will be looking for the first ticket out of England. even if he does pan out, Arsenal is chock full of players like bojan, the skinny, fleet-footed type. Why buy bojan when Ryo will be ready In year or two?
      
      Arsenal need a forward who is going to make his home in the box. Someone to poach goals and be a reliable target for crosses. My personal preference is Edinson Cavani. but milito could fit the bill too.
      
      Reply to this comment »
      - AFC says:
        
        May 7, 2011 at 8:28
        
        Cavani?He cannot come into wenger’s budget if he is gonna buy Hazard.Hazard costs 20 mil-25 mil so no way arsene will put another 25 mil on another player.Definitely bojan will not stay forever at Arsenal but at the moment we need those kind of players.You want tall and strong players right?So you say that we need to get more chamakh’s n Bendtner’s.These players will be more suitable for Physical teams like stoke city,Man city.But for Arsenal’s style of play we need more agility and quick feet.We need some contrasting players in front of goal.
        Hazard – skillful,physical,good n timed crosser,strong feet
        Bojan – small,agile,fast,quick feet
        RVP – Clinical,quick feet,long range shooter
        The reason why we are struggling when RVP is injured is that we have same kind of players like chamakh and bendtner.Bendtner will be a very good striker if he plays for some other PL team.
        
        Reply to this comment »
        
        Hunter says:
        
        May 7, 2011 at 16:12
        
        I would rather have Cavani than Hazard. We have Ryo who can play the same as Hazard in the wide roles but we don’t have a top level pure striker. RVP has become a great player but he is more of a Bergkamp type player. We need a poacher. Someone who is going to get 25 to 30 goals per season.
        
        We don’t need anymore of these little fleet footed players who are injured for over half of the season and especially not one who is not going to being any experience to the squad.
        
        Reply to this comment »
  - tonygunner says:
    
    May 9, 2011 at 1:08
    
    I don’t agree with this comment. We have too many who get into the box and then try to play intricate, “thread the needle” passes to score the perfect goal. The problem we have is that most EPL defences have figured us out and we know only one way to play. Pretty football with no end product.
    Lack of strategic flexibility is the basic problem.
    
    Reply to this comment »

nassir says:

May 6, 2011 at 10:10

It is true that the manager unnecessarily protects players and because of this they do not improve and it encourages complacency which is one of the major factors we have not won a trophy in recent seasons. It is a fact that the team has no substitute for song for neither wilshere, Ramsey, fabrigas or Diaby can realy play the defensive role effectively and the only distant replacement is Frimpong but there is the question of the learning curve, Is the team realy ready to wait for another 3 yrs when he is mature enough to start wining trophies? my answer is a definate NO for us fans. So we need an experienced defensive midfield player ASAP in the mold of Tiote, De jong, Essien, Ramires type.

Of course we need a decent centre half and that is out of question, even barca needed Pique to start really look invincible. A barca team without pique look all over the place defensively the way we are now.

The other position that we need a decent player that everyone has been overlooking is the strike force. We have only one really decent striker in the team RVP and that is not good enough. All the talk about Nasri & Arshavin being striking options is nonsence, they will never give you 25 goals a season. Chamack is not decent enough n cannot shoot n Bendtner is very lazy, his work rate when he plays is very low. So that leaves the team wanting on strike force n that is why we have been either drawing or loosing our home games. So we need atleast one decent striker and i will put my head out for Odemwingie. He rightly fits our play, works hard and can score from any angle with either foot. He also still has 3 or 4 decent years of play in him.

If the manager really doesn’t make this reinforcements in the team i will be amongst the first to say he should go. We know everyone will improve next season, Man U for one may buy De Gea, Sneider and A. Young. Will we have a chance against this team with our current team? The jury is out there.

Reply to this comment »

tonygunner says:

May 9, 2011 at 1:14

Bendtner’s work rate is not the problem. It’s his percentage success rate and his attitude.
I suspect a super ego with this guy.

Reply to this comment »

rickygunners says:

May 6, 2011 at 17:30

A stubborn Wenger, stupid will never listen and will not read your blog. Almighty Wenger wil lose his immortality soon.

Reply to this comment »

rejoice says:

May 7, 2011 at 11:50

The number one problem of Arsenal is the fans-too negative, hyper critical of players and the manager, divisive, reactionary and impatient. And they don’t seem to know that they (fans) have contributed to the failure of the overall team performance of the players. Our negative outbursts has affected the confidence of the team.

Remember that praise and encouragement boost confidence while criticism inhibits it.

Reply to this comment »

Hunter says:

May 7, 2011 at 16:17

If they are that fragile that they cannot handle criticism then they are in the wrong line of work. The world is not make of roses and fairy dust. If you don’t do your job well no matter what line of work you are in then you should be prepared to be told that you are not good enough.

When you go to work, if you screw up does your boss just keep telling you how great you are even though you are under-performing and costing the company money?

Reply to this comment »
tonygunner says:

May 9, 2011 at 1:18

These players are earning tens of thousands of pounds a week and more.
They don’t produce and shouldn’t be criticized by the very fans who love the club and idolize them?
Get real.

Reply to this comment »