EPL News: Arsene Wenger encourages tackling, or so he wants everyone to think
Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger has made it public that he despises the fact that players these days, are protected a little to much by referee's and hence as an end result the game itself becomes slightly boring.
However despite saying that the manager also insisted that, that doesn't mean that he wants to see people flying in from all angles.
In Arsenal's last match against Bolton, the team suffered another injury to one of their key players. Abou Diaby was caught by a late tackle and was forced out of the game since he couldn't carry on much longer.
It was however an offense that the referee felt was fair and didn't even stop play for it. It was a rather bizarre decision considering the referee had shown Gary Cahill a red card just minutes prior to that for an offense that was not even half as harsh.
The manager is well aware of the fact that their will be a completely different breed of referee's adjudicating the matches once his team sets foot in the Champions League.
The Gunners manager, who is one of the longest serving managers at the club, has admitted that he likes matches to become gruelling and competitive, but he also expects them to be fair. The manager was caught saying:
"I would say even the English referees are different when they have matches in Europe. There is less permissive on goalkeepers, on commitment."
"But more protection can become boring as well - I have seen some countries when every little push or shoulder-to-shoulder is a foul and then it becomes boring because they interrupt the game too much.
"I prefer, by miles, the philosophy of the English game - but you need to know everyone goes for the ball and only the ball."
"I must say I love the way the English game is played in England and the one restriction has to be full commitment with the intention of going for the ball and only for the ball," the Arsenal manager reflected.
"Then, I prefer English football 10 times as much to the European game.
"The English game becomes dangerous when the players go to hurt each other."
The manager was being fairly optimistic; however one has to admire his approach and his point of view. He already has four of his star players injured due to bad tackles, but he still defending the art of making good tackles.
He also admits that the English game is played at the best pace in the world and that is mainly due to the referee's that the country has. However he made it very clear that the chances of players getting hurt in England is far greater then any other league in the world and there is no better example of that fact, other then the team that Wenger manages himself.
Arsenal who have their players like Theo Waltcott injured are suffering from a severe deficiency of strikers. They have headed in to the Champions League with out them, the results of which are yet to be observed.
Nevertheless it seems quite hard that the club will be facing some kind of “Dark November” this season as the majority of their team will be making a comeback just before the start of November therefore the will have a full squad by then. They would have to face some real bad luck to head in to November again with some kind of tragedy.
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