Arsenal Injuries: Gremlins or Just Business As Usual?
ByAsk most Arsenal supporters, and they’ll probably tell you that one of the most frustrating things about following Arsenal in the last few years has been the roll call in and out of the Physio room at London Colney. Injury has been the bane of this team in recent times.
This season, Arsenal has this far suffered 67 different individual injuries with a few players bumping up their frequent flyer miles into Colin Lewin’s treatment room.
I think that what’s actually amazing is the fact that against all the odds, Arsenal is still 6 points behind the pace and well in the mix of the title challenge. There’s a statistic being bandied about that Wenger has not played the same players in over 100 consecutive games.
I can’t find any source to back this squad rotation figure up, and my only reference of any substance was that it was mentioned severally on Arsenal TV Online last week. If this were the case, then you begin to wonder what the hell Arsenal is capable of if we had a fully fit squad.
Wishful thinking I know – but you can’t help but wonder. It was only recently that Andrey Arshavin was pontificating about the issue of Arsenal’s prolific injuries – concluding that it’ll be a miracle if Arsenal can get to play with its entire complement of players.
Of course that was a cue for the tabloid press to spew some diatribe about Arshavin’s comments. They decided it would be easier to sell papers if they hashed the story and said that the Russian actually said that Arsenal need a miracle to win the title.
The issue of constant injuries is a disturbing one though, and it should be a cause for concern for the team. I have a strong conviction that barring the unreasonable amount of injuries sustained by Arsenal (we of course have to allow for a representative amount of injuries), Arsenal has probably the best squad around. The dilemma is that we’ve rarely had the chance to use this squad to its full potential.
Saying that, injuries should not be an excuse for not getting on with the business of seeing the team through the season. You can’t legislate for certain freak injuries, but for the garden variety injuries any team suffers through the season – it’s the manager’s responsibility to make sure that there is enough cover.
I’m one of those who believe that there’s absolutely no reason of waxing lyrical about the strength and depth of your squad, yet when injuries hit, you get coy about using your understudies. In any other business, the management are responsible for ensuring that day to day, the business is staffed appropriately so that it delivers its objectives.
In this respect, I feel that it’s only fair and square that the responsibility falls at the feet of Arsene Wenger.
Some people have suggested that maybe we need to have a look at our medical set-up. Some have even suggested going the Anderlecht way, following the Belgian club’s decision to fire its entire medical team for the disproportionate amount of injuries the team were suffering.
Now that’s what I call a breath-taking over reaction. For one, the medical team is not responsible for creating injuries – that happens on the pitch. Their job is not to stop players from getting injured, their job is to work with injured players and there’s a distinct difference.
Some theories have also been suggested as to why Arsenal get a disproportionate amount of injuries. Firstly, Arsenal’s style and brand of football (Wengerball), is seen as a contributor to the injury situation.
The suggestion is that The strain and stress placed on the players’ bodies as they twist and turn makes them more injury prone. Arsenal players also frequently use bursts of pace to open up spaces and play fluid attacking football – as well as to recover defensively, and this is also seen as a contributor.
The other theory suggested is that the age and development stage of Arsenal players makes them more prone to injury considering what they put their bodies through. As they approach the mid to late 20s, their bodies will have settled and become more resilient and will stand a better chance against injuries.
There is of course the small matter of the strategy employed by teams that are technically inferior to Arsenal. It’s that ”if we can’t play like them, we’ll bloody well kick them out of the pitch” mentality that you see. It takes the form of two types of tackles.
There’s the type of tackle designed to take out an Arsenal player for strategic reasons ala Martin Taylor and Liam Ridgwell tackles on Eduardo and Theo Walcott respectively.
Then there’s the strategic rotational fouling that opposition players indulge in to stop our creative midfielders and slow down our game. It makes it harder for the weak referees to do something about it for each innocuous tackle is executed by a different player. It’s the ’death of a thousand paper cuts’ scenario that wears down our players and takes them out slowly.
I suppose that in a sick way, you can think of it as a compliment. Teams that can’t cope with Wengerball sometimes only have an option to take our players out.
There are also some ridiculous theories abound – like the one recently offered by former Arsenal player and now Arsenal TV pundit Kenny Sansom. His view is that Wenger has made the players soft and brittle from his diet regime. The players don’t eat proper food anymore and they’re not ‘ard enough. Sorry Kenny, if that statement wasn’t funny, it would be tragic.
All in all, Arsenal have no choice but to get on with playing their fixtures. It perhaps is a good idea to look at it from the point of view that injuries, however disproportionate) are part and parcel of the game today.
That’s why I come back to the view that it’s solely Wenger’s responsibility to adequately staff the playing squad to cover for the absences through injuries.
I think the jury will be out for a while considering whether the Arsenal manager is adequately fulfilling this responsibility.
Related Articles:
- Why Ivan Gazidis Is Arsenal’s Most Important Player
- Guest Post: Arsenal – At A Critical Crossroads?
- How ‘English’ Is The English Premier League? Part II
- Arsenal tackle the Sunday blues
- Arsenal: Room For Optimism And Concern In Equal Measure
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
Darius,
Yes it is Wenger’s job, and I believe he has done or is doing it. Arsenal has nearly three teams albeit not all of them are first team quality. If you look, almost every position has two or more players. In some positions Arsenal has more than is required. I do not think one can legislate for the many injuries Arsenal have suffered over the past two seasons, even worse for the ongoing season. Would you want Wenger to have four first teams? How will he keep them happy? Right now Merida and Sunu, who are still babies really, are dragging to sign new contracts because they have had limited playing time, and Silvester is complaining of not getting enough playing time. Now, if the squad was bigger than it is right now (e.g. next season, when many youngsters would be vying for places), how many unhappy players would Arsenal have? Imagine how that would impact on morale of the squad? I believe the injuries at Arsenal are disproportionately too much, something is terribly wrong and needs a special look in. In your analysis, you did not point to the responsibility of the referees, and particularly the FA. The kind of tackles that are inflicted on Arsenal players are, in actual fact, malicious. The referees and FA encourage them by not punishing them and by going with the general misguided view that Arsenal are soft. Arsenal suffer because of their “foreign-ness”, both the referees and FA see them as foreign, and so its like they have no right plying their trade in England, particularly playing such attractive football which the indigenous / local population associate with softness and laziness. I do not agree with the view of having a larger squad than what Arsenal already has.
I concur with you Gennie,I’d put alot of the blame on the referees as there is alot of discrepancy in their refereeing as far as I am concerned. An opposition team can get away with about 4 fouls without suffering consequences but the same foul (1) from an Arsenal player and it ends up being a card. Its not bad enough we don’t get awarded fouls but we end up suffering injuries as a consequence.I have also taken issues with “Arsenal don’t like it up in their faces” comments before our games which teams go ahead and apply without the refs taking notice or punishing it.
Wenger is surely doing his job properly, We are still in the race albeit 6points adrift, Manu and chelsea would have been far behind if they had suffered injuries to their key players (Rooney/Drogba) so we should commend him for keeping us above water inspite of everything we have undergone this season. We surely have depth in the squad. Infact the team has done pretty well, I can’t remember the last time we played the same team twice in consecutive matches. I dream of the day we will have all players fit, Wenger will have a headache to choose the lineup, but a wonderful headache to have all the same.
I also agree with Gennie’s comments above, particularly about the referees not doing their jobs impartially and allowing opposition teams to get away with murder.
According to the iZombies, “Arsenal don’t like it up ‘em”. I wonder which teams – and individual players – do “like it up ‘em”? (‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that!’ as they would say in Seinfeld).
We certainly have not on any occasion been able to play our strongest (on paper) side, whilst we have been at the Emirates.
If memory serves me right the CL final was the last time a full squad was available for selection. A strange coincidence perhaps? Even that season we couldn’t field the same LB for 2 consecutive games.
This has really been going on throughout the Wenger era. We went to Everton in 2002 with 10 regulars missing.
AW has said it is a mystery,
Arsenal have always been renowned for having the best sporting medical facilities right back to the 1930s. Our ‘enery Cooper was treated there & I believe Frankie Dettori(?) amongst many others.
It is a strange phenomenon, because we won the double in 70/71 with, I think, 16 players, 2 of whom played 1 or 2 games at most. That was about 70 games in much harsher conditions than now.
It seems to be a combination of things. The players are much more like athletes now & athletes are notoriously temperamental fitness wise. Amazingly could there be something in Sansom’s theory? He had a good fitness record but his habits meant that when he went downhill he went very fast. Are they over-trained or over restricted with diets? Our players normally last the game better than almost any opposition but then you hear later that 2 or 3 of then are out for a few weeks. It is the pulls & hamstrings that seem so much more prevalent.
Our style of play certainly accounts for attracting kicks, intentional or not, from the opposition. We have 2 examples of that with Nasri & Eboue limping quite badly by the end of the game. That I feel is part & parcel, we are not blameless in that respect. Sometimes it is blatantly deliberate, like the Brum guy on Walcott. As Gennie says, that is the sort of thing where the refs are letting the more talented players down.
What it has done is allow a large number of players to get games, so that they have the experience at an early age to make to not radically reduce the quality of our team. Saturday was a good example.
The biggest problem with the injuries has been the inability to get a settled side, however if we had a full compliment available each week then there would be an awful lot of talent being aggrieved at not getting games?
Strange that so many still say we have a “thin” squad!
Great points for discussion everyone. Figured this would be one topic to get the juices going.
Gennie – more power to you for bringing up the referees angle. I hadn’t even thought of that. That alone is material enough for a specific post on its own.
I agree with the notion that there’s an urban legend that has been engrained in the psyche of the establishment that the way to teach ‘these softies’ how to play football is hard tackling.
Firstly, we should all accept that tackling, and the beautiful tackle at that, is part and parcel of the game. We thrive on it and we’ve seen our players like Gallas, Campbell and Rosicky execute world class tackles that remind you of how the game is beautiful.
This is however very different from the malicious “Let’s take them out” tackle. Arsenal are always subject to this thuggery disguised as good ole fashoned grit and steel’ – and it’s pretty much violence sanctioned in the name of association football.
I don’t recall where I read this – but apparently, FIFA had a recent ruling that referees should protect technically gifted players (and Arsenal do have them) from the mindless thuggery and reckless tackling that could end their careers.
I heard Talk sport radio a week or so ago suggesting that referees should protect Wayne Rooney for this reason. If you don’t know Talk Sport radio better known as Talk Shite radio, then you’ll understand how ironic it is for them to suggest this since Wayne Rooney is English.
This is the same station that is openly xenophobic towards Wenger and Arsenal and would rather the soft and brittle glove wearing foreigners at Arsenal get on with it and deal with the tackling in the game and stop whinging like boys.
Firstlady.
Rotational fouling particularly on Cesc in recent times has become an art form. I agree with you that referees blatently turn a blind eye and yet are trigger happy to dish out cards our way.
What is more amazing is that Arsenal is on the top of the fair play league table and if I’m correct, we’ve now gone close to 70 games without receiving a red card. We are also statistically the most fouled team in the league.
The disproportionate amount of bookings we sometimes get in relation to the fouls committed are ridiculous. Just today, a retired referee thought he’d fill his pathetic column in one of the worst newspapers by having a go at Wenger. This is the same referee that committed the cardinal sin at the last world cup and didn’t realise he had given a player a second yellow card and let him play on.
He eventually gave the player a 3rd yellow card and earned the nickname 3 Cards Poll (his name is Graham Poll). I’m even surprised he has the audacity
Magneto.
We occasionally get ‘up the noses and in the faces of opponents’ – and the end result is that we’re charge by the FA for violent conduct…LOL! Last time Nasri and Song gave Hull City a taste of their own medicine – Arsenal got fined £25,000 for failing to control their players.
Flint.
I love Kenny and enjoy his summarizing and punditry on ATVO. However, he’s just way off base on this diet thing. I’m leaning towards him suggesting this in a tongue and cheek manner as part of the comedy he provided during Saturday’s match commentary on ATVO.
I thoroughly enjoyed his commentary and remember one comical moment when Dan Roebuck suggested that Capello was in the stadium watching Theo Walcott. It was during an Arsenal attack – and Sansom matter of factly commented that the Sunderland defender is the one who should be watching Walcott not Capello.
He also revealed why his nickname was ‘White shorts Sansom’ and that’s because he couldn’t be found dead tackling anything hence his shorts always remained white.
Malicious tackling most definitely plays a role in skewing our injury numbers. I remember when we played Stoke on 23rd of January – Robert Huth blatently got away with a studs up tackle that was ridiculously high on Carlos Vela, and if the young Mexican hadn’t attempted to jump out, he’d probably had broken his knee or something.
The ref didn’t even bat an eyelid and Huth – who was playing right back in that game – got away with murder. Vela was out with an injured knee a few days later. The only reason I can think Huth did this is because it was the team’s strategy to stop Vela from using his trickery and pace against a neanderthal right back.
Saying that, I wonder how teams used to survive in the 60s, 70s and 80s with just 15 or 16 players in the squad. Clearly, most played through the pain barrier – but the substitutes bench must have been empty most of the time.
Afternoon all,
I think it the casue of our ongoing injuries “crisis” is a combination of the issues mentioned above.
Whenever this topic comes up I can’t help but think about the renowned AC Milan fitness centre:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Welcome-to-Milanello-Ac-Milans-groundbreaking-medical-centre
AC Milan seem to be able to keep their players going practically forever (although Serie A is in my opinion slower than the EPL). Maldini, Pirlo, even Baresi in the good old days!
Although we are leaders in most football related matters I am sure Arsenal could learn a thing or two from Milanello – perhaps Wenger and the medical staff should pay a long visit this summer whilst the World Cup is underway?
I agree with all the comments mentioned above but there is also a popular saying that he who fails to prepare has already prepared to fail. Having known that the FA and referees will do anything in their power to stop a free flowin and fancifully young football club like Arsenal from achieving any success in England. Wenger should have strenghtened the club in January so as to have readily available replacements for any forth coming injuries.