They are kindred spirits, men in their sixties with a combined 55 years of management between them and plenty of successes along the way. When Arsene Wenger and Manuel Pellegrini meet on Monday, they do so as two of the Premier League's elder statesmen. Yet past glory and their status amongst league managers does not spare either criticism. Defeats tend to lead to accusations that each is an impractical idealist who rarely learns the lessons of past setbacks. It is the manner of Arsenal and Manchester City losses, rather than the number of them, that forms part of the case for the prosecution of both. Yet while an examination of their records rather clouds the issue, the main charges against each are similar.
Strangers to silverware
In the days when Jose Mourinho could mock other managers' records, Wenger and Pellegrini were two of his main targets. Each had a golden period either side of the millennium, the Frenchman in England and the Chilean in South America, before a drought as Mourinho entered his prime. Yet each is enjoying something of an Indian Summer. Between them, they swept the board in English football in 2014, when Wenger won the FA Cup and the Community Shield and Pellegrini the Premier League and the Capital One Cup. After a nine-year wait for a trophy, Wenger then retained the FA Cup.
Yet the case for the defence is that it is hard to accuse either of underachieving in their fallow spells. With the exception of a season at Real Madrid, when he secured what was then a club record 96 points, Pellegrini's time was spent at Villarreal and Malaga. He took each further in the Champions League than ever before -- to a semifinal and a quarterfinal respectively -- in an era when Real and Barcelona shared virtually all of the Spanish silverware.
Wenger, meanwhile, is the most consistent manager of all, with 19 consecutive top-four finishes while qualifying from the Champions League's first group stage for a 16th successive season in dramatic fashion in 2015. His spending was limited as he financed the building of the Emirates Stadium and the major honours went the way of clubs with greater purchasing power. Where he was once a winner, he became the greatest damage-limitation expert in football, forever preventing Arsenal from losing their place in the elite in the way Liverpool did, Manchester United did in 2013-14 and, probably, Chelsea will this season.
Accident prone
The sense that Arsenal and City are not ruthless winners is underlined by some of their surprise defeats. Wenger's season has already featured home losses to Olympiakos and West Ham and away defeats at Dinamo Zagreb and Sheffield Wednesday. City have gone out of the FA Cup to Wigan and Middlesbrough in successive seasons. They took one point from a possible six against relegated Burnley last year.
Theo Walcott admitted that Arsenal did not show Monaco enough respect when they lost at home to the French underdogs last season and it is no stretch of the imagination to say complacency was a factor in both clubs' more embarrassing setbacks. It is as though their gifts are so abundant that players and managers alike take victory for granted.
Yet the counter-argument is that every team suffers defeats, including the occasional shock loss. Even when indomitable champions, Chelsea conceded four times at home to League One Bradford in last season's FA Cup. And in between the occasional pratfall, Wenger and Pellegrini are more consistent than is often acknowledged. Arsenal have taken 75 points in 2015, more than anyone else. City have 50 from their last 22 games, a run that began in April when some wondered if they would drop out of the top four and Pellegrini would be sacked.
Defensive failings
Both managers are essentially attacking. Pellegrini admitted last week he would rather win 4-2 than 1-0 and, even if Wenger has not expressed the same sentiments, he may share them. Both inherited an excellent defence assembled by more dictatorial predecessors, in George Graham and Roberto Mancini. Both now seem to rely on one high-class centre-back, whether Laurent Koscielny or Vincent Kompany, to bring order and organisation, rather than having the structure to succeed regardless.
A tendency to commit too many men forward has been shared and, when Wenger eschewed the use of a proper midfield ball-winner or Pellegrini picked central midfielders who were caught upfield, there have been times when neither defence has been afforded enough protection. Some of their most damning days have come in Europe. Arsenal have conceded 13 goals in their last eight Champions League games while City have one clean sheet in their last 21 continental clashes.
Where they differ, however, is in their domestic records. City have only conceded once in eight league games Kompany has started this season but, despite spending £74 million on Eliaquim Mangala and Martin Demichelis, 16 in the eight he has missed. In contrast, Arsenal's excellence dates back almost a year, despite changes of personnel. They have only conceded 24 goals in their last 34 league games. Buying Petr Cech and promoting Nacho Monreal, Hector Bellerin and Francis Coquelin have all been factors. Now Wenger has the more reliable rearguard.
Tactical naivety
There are times when defeats seem familiar. Sometimes Arsenal's players converge infield, allowing opponents to defend the middle of the pitch, rather than stretching it, and seem to seek the perfect goal, rather than any scrappy effort. There are games, and not just against Bayern Munich in Germany, when they fail to protect their fullbacks. There are matches -- think of the 3-1 loss to Monaco -- where they stream forward and get caught on the counter-attack. At such points, it feels like history is repeating itself.
City have experienced their own case of déjà vu. Younger, faster opponents have rattled them with a pressing game. It brought 4-1 wins for both Tottenham and Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp used a false nine, Roberto Firmino, against City. It worked, so Stoke's Mark Hughes did the same, with Bojan Krkic. That worked too. Too many of City's European missteps, meanwhile, have come when Yaya Toure is deployed as one of just two central midfielders. On such days, Pellegrini's experience appears irrelevant.
And while the pattern is decidedly mixed, each has progressed in some respects and neither is as passive as caricature suggests. Pellegrini has been weaned off the 4-4-2 that proved so disastrous against Barcelona and Liverpool in the spring. He now plays a more flexible 4-2-3-1. He has experimented with a false nine -- Kevin de Bruyne scored a winner against Sevilla as such -- but also picked the moment to abandon one, with Wilfried Bony coming on as Raheem Sterling switched to the left to score twice against Borussia Monchengladbach last week. The win in Sevilla, with a solid central-midfield trio of Toure, Fernando and Fernandinho, amounted to a savvy European away performance. So, admittedly, did last season's win against Roma, before Pellegrini reverted to 4-4-2 against Barcelona, but as he showed in the Manchester derby stalemate, he can adopt a policy of all-out defence when required.
As for Wenger, he is entitled to argue that 2015 has been a breakthrough year. After years of wretched away results against the contenders, they won away at City in the Premier League and United in the FA Cup. The introduction of Francis Coquelin, giving him a specialist defensive midfielder, was pivotal as Arsenal displayed more nous. That was a seismic switch; while the image is of Wenger simply sending his side out and hoping they out-football the opponents, he is capable of more subtle mid-game moves, such as swapping Walcott and Joel Campbell from their original flanks in Greece last week. It proved an inspired alteration.
Stubbornness
In their different ways, these are two of the most stubborn managers in the league. Perhaps they have to be to remain wedded to their ideas, regardless of what outsiders think. Pellegrini is invariably adamant he will not compromise his style of play. He persists with his particular favourites: Jesus Navas, who made the most appearances of any City player last season, and Martin Demichelis, who weathered an error-prone start to life in England, became their best centre-back between March 2014 and May 2015 and has relapsed this season. It was nevertheless typical that, rather than sending on a youngster, Pellegrini brought on Demichelis in midfield when City were 3-1 up against Championship Hull two weeks ago.
If the Chilean is accused of showing too little faith in youth products, Wenger is often deemed to display too much, sometimes long after they stopped being young. Yet he can argue that for every Abou Diaby, who lasted nine-and-a-half years at Arsenal, there is a Coquelin, summoned from a loan spell to become a cornerstone of the team. Campbell's belated surge to prominence is a reminder why he is reluctant to jettison his many protégés. Arsenal are scarred by those, such as Philippe Senderos and Denilson, who regressed. Yet others have developed, like Aaron Ramsey. Wenger's obstinate reluctance to spend is a further cause of frustration but Olivier Giroud's recent prolific run suggests that, whatever outsiders felt, perhaps he did not need a new striker.
If the accusation is that Wenger and Pellegrini are too stuck in their ways to affect radical change, too purist to show the pragmatic streak required to win trophies, the table suggests otherwise. Their teams aspire to a higher brand of football than Manchester United and Chelsea but Wenger and Pellegrini, despite their imperfections, have outperformed their more defence-orientated managers so far this season
Their sides can exasperate and entertain, they can display destructive and self-destructive streaks. Their flaws may frustrate, but their teams' flair means the probability is that one will be crowned a champion. Monday's meeting will provide an indication which.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét