Guardiola, Mourinho, Ferguson and Wenger combined couldn’t help Arsenal!’: Paul Merson worries his former club will never succeed as they ‘can’t pass the ball five yards’
- Paul Merson believes that Arsenal make too many basic errors to be successful
- Merson says that Arsenal players are unable to pass the ball more than five yards
- He claims that defenders worry too much about their statistics than the game
Former Arsenal and England star Paul Merson claims that the Gunners will fail to succeed if they do not correct their basic errors.
Merson says that the combination of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger could not help them if the players ‘can’t pass the ball five yards’.
The 52-year-old also worries that players have become too focused on their statistics, rather than playing the game that is in front of them.
Paul Merson believes that Arsenal make too many basic errors to be successful in the league
Mikel Arteta’s side were most recently beaten 2-1 by Tottenham after initially taking the lead through Alexandre Lacazette’s excellent strike.
Though Tottenham prevailed, with Son Heung-min and Toby Alderweireld scoring due to a lack of defensive judgement by Tottenham on both occasions.
Arsenal’s back three – Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz and Sead Kolasinac – endured a difficult afternoon.
Though Merson believes it is a common occurrence for Arteta’s men, telling Sky Sports: ‘Against Spurs, I don’t care if you’ve got Pep Guardiola sitting on Jose Mourinho’s lap, on top of Sir Alex Ferguson’s lap, on top of Arsene Wenger’s lap and all four of them are one manager: if you’ve got a defender who can’t pass the ball five yards to another defender, you are in trouble.
‘When the manager puts on a training session and you’re doing five-yard passes to start off with, everybody is moaning: “What the hell are we doing this for? Who can’t pass the ball five yards?” But that is why.
Merson says Arsenal defenders such as Shkodran Mustafi are unable to pass the ball five yards
He believes that even the best Premier League managers combined would not be able to help
‘It’s concentration, so you can keep on doing it without even thinking about it, like you’re brushing your teeth in the morning.
‘Footballers are so obsessed with pass percentages. Defenders want 88, 89, 90 per cent pass completion, but they’re all five-yard passes to each other! Who cares? Honestly?
‘There are so many stats now, and players are scared of them, so try to play the easy ball!
‘All these players should care about is keeping clean sheets: that should be like scoring a hat-trick for a defender. You want defenders who think that way.’
Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger were those mentioned
