Did Wenger Cut Off a Voodoo Priest in Traffic?

By: jg | September 7th, 2011

I mean, come on, it’s a valid explanation. Did he?

Apologies for the lateness of this post. I have a tight schedule on weekdays, so writing and posting stuff is harder for me now. We’ll get back to regular programming this weekend for the Swansea game.

Injuries, well…. injuries SUCK. Seeing an important member of the team go down in a stretcher or in a spasm of pain, and then hearing the dreaded phrase “out for x-x+1 months”, is painful for any supporter. Alas, the worrying and at times tear-wrenching reality that are football/soccer injuries are a part of a supporter’s life. And while it is certainly true that every team of every league of every country suffers from their fair share of injuries throughout each season, I think every Arsenal fan can agree that we have suffered a not-so-fair load of injuries, both short and long term, especially over the last 4-5 years.

Obviously...

However, the notion that Arsenal are an injury-stricken club is conventional wisdom, and conventional wisdom is often times wrong (looking at you, spinach/carrots/Laffer curve myths). Do Arsenal really have bad luck when it comes to injuries?

Naturally, almost everyone will not only say “yes”, they would add “not bad luck, but Elmer Fudd bad luck”. Of course, I’m inclined to agree. But if there’s anything high school science class has taught me, it’s that you need to have cold, hard, data to prove your point (also, don’t confuse acid for Gatorade. Ever.). To that extent, I’ve created a nifty little table that shows our record of long-term injuries over the last 4 years:
(Long-term, in my view, is 2 months or more, and with a big impact on the team at the time.)

arsenalrecord1
excelrecord

Notes correlate to the listing of injured players (e.g. Rosicky is the first player listed in both charts)

As you can see, I think it’s fairly clear that we have had an above average number of long-term and serious injuries over the last 4 years. Some of these injuries can be attributed to nothing but bad luck- Eduardo’s and Ramsey’s injury can only be blamed on Martin Taylor and Ryan Shawcross (respectively), two good ol’ English boys who were just showing how Arsenal “don’t like it up ‘em”, safe in the knowledge that they would be well protected by the repetitive “HE’S NOAT THAT KIND OF PLAYAHH!!!!!!!!1111!!!!SOBS” from the usual line of suspects.

But for some of the other injuries, it’s a combination of poor management, poor monitoring, and poor playing practices. And I think a lot of that can be traced back to Wenger. He has a record, often times a successful one, of blooding young players by making them jump off the deep end into First-Choice Land at an early age- Cesc in 2005, Clichy in 2006, Song/Denilson in 2008, Jack last year, and Gibbs, if it weren’t for his injuries (ahem), would have continued the trend this year. While some of the players he has brought out this way have turned out to be huge successes (Cesc and Jack immediately come to mind), this also increases their risk of burning out or getting injured at an earlier age, when they haven’t fully developed physically and thus run risk of some serious damage or stunt in their growth. Diaby is a perfect example of this- true, his injury was the result of a bad tackle, but getting such a bad injury at an early age has ruined his career with the persistent injuries that have followed. Jack, although he hasn’t landed in a bad tackle yet (knock on a huge, lumbering piece of wood), clearly showed signs of burnout at the tail end of last season, due to playing 40+ games at such an early age. Just that can be enough to cause physical fatigue and make it more likely to receive injuries, as Jack did this summer. Now, he’s out until at least late November, and our midfield will suffer for it.

Look at Manchester United, because we have to. They, too, have in recent year start putting younger players into the first team to make immediate contributions: Rooney, C. Ronaldo, Nani, Anderson, and recently Smalling and Cleverley are good examples of this. But while they were young when they became first-team regulars, they also had veteran players as their mentors and companions, to guide them and, yes, protect them. Not only did guys like Giggs, Scholes, G. Neville and Ferdinand help them and mold them into better footballers, they also made sure that they wouldn’t burn out or risk receiving debilitating injuries at an early age, thus ensuring they would stay in top chance for a longer part of their career. Unfortunately, that’s not happening at Arsenal. Imagine last year, if we had Scott Parker (we were never linked to him last year, so this is purely hypothetical). Would Wilshere have played as much as he did in reality? No. Would he have gotten a chance anyways and still shown what he was capable of? Probably yes. Would he have remained in top fitness and truly started this season in full throttle, improving our game and midfield overall? Definitely. The only downside of having experienced, veteran players is that for a 1-2 seasons, the young starlet will only average 15-20 games a season. But boy, those few games will ensure he has 10 seasons of 40-50 top class games for the years to come. Just a thought.

Some Related Stories:

Category: Cesc Fabregas, Eduardo, Jack Wilshere, Johan Djourou, Kieran Gibbs, Lukasz Fabianski, Philippe Senderos, Rants, Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Tomas Rosicky, William Gallas

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Gigi_man

Hey wheres the preview?
Homey_Mills

I can confirm that Darren is working on it. I don't know when it will be up.
Andylowe14

I think all this article shows is that we recieve a similar number of injuries to other clubs, but when we do get them, it impact our season so much more than elsewhere. The reason for this, strength in depth. Cant cover the area that are exposed by injuries so it affects us so much. Wouldnt be the case at man u, chelsea, or city.
ggobs

I wonder why guys like Messi and C. Ronaldo never get injured. They play EVERY game for their club/country. Don't they get burned out??

Anyway, I feel that Arsenal have a special case of injury prone-ness. Maybe it's that diet regimen Arsene Wenger has been known to implement with the team. I mean, if you look at our team, there is no one bulky other than Sagna. Pretty much everyone else is skinny and, as we've wintnessed recently, fragile. I wonder maybe that their diets do not provide enough protein/nutrients for proper recovery between matches and practices, leading to a plethora of injuries.
Gigi_man

Messi did get injured, in a key moment, but it wasnt "his" time, and then Ronaldinho and Co went to beat us in Paris, in 06. I think it was semi finals.
But generally agreed that it seems that our players are always more injured than others.
BTW I am NOT saying Wenger has to do anything about it :P
Perry S.

La Liga is weak in comparison to the EPL in terms of physical play.
ggobs

plus, have you noticed Fabregas at Barca? He's clearly gained a noticeable amount of weight.
Gigi_man

I totally agree, I wrote something about it a while ago, he seems stronger.
Felegy

He seems stronger because suddenly he cares about his play! I'm convinced that he had not given Arsenal 100% the last two seasons with us becuase he did not want to be here. He was playing at 80% max (which is scary because he was still damn good). He looks like a different player when playing for Spain and now for Barfa. Screw him.
Orion

That's what we all say about our exes, isn't it?
TJ_UGA

I really can't wait for Saturday.
Martin

I assume you mean for your Bulldogs to get crushed by my Gamecocks?
gener4

*whipsers quietly*

roll tide
brenton

Homey and I are thinking of doing Gamecocks posts every week.
Martin

I'll save you the time and trouble:

"Everyone thought they would be kind of good, but they're not."

Same as every other year...
TJ_UGA

As good as Lattimore is, I don't think he dominates us as well as he did last year. It seems our pass rush is pretty anemic, so if whoever topped Garcia has a decent arm, Jeffrey should make us look retarded. That being said, Go Dawgs! I feel the end of Richt era after this game, though they'll give him the rest of the season.

And this is my favorite time of the year, Arsenal at 11, college football from 1-11, early Sunday game, then time for my Falcons to kick the shit out of the Bears, and NFL till 11ish. It's amazing.
brenton

That was my first draft. I've since rejigged it to be a long college football adaptation of Moby Dick.
Darren_V

Chiellini didn't injure RVP actually. It was a perfectly clean tackle, RVP rolled his ankle on his own
Benjamin Dockter

Either you're a huge fan of Chiellini or I can't see the sarcasm dripping off every word in that sentence...
Darren_V

I'm the biggest RVP fan in these parts. It was a clean tackle. Check it out. RvP said so himself
Orion

On a different but not unrelated note, I just read an interview with Mark Lawerenson, the man who played with Liverpool in the 80's, and he said Man United are obvious favourites for the league. The journalist asked him why. He replied that they could probably field three different teams, and if the three teams all competed in the Premier League, they'd probably all finish in the top ten. The third XI included players of high calibre such as Kuzcsack, Pogba, Giggs and others.

My point is, everyone suffers injuries. Look at Sp*rs. Their team has been ravaged by injuries for a long time now, especially their back four. Its not about the medical team. Its not about having brittle players. Its not about the training. These factors do weigh in, but the thing that matters most is squad depth. Do you imagine Arsenal having the capability of fielding three squads that are all able to finish in the top ten? Our second string conceded 8 goals in one match, the worst defeat of Arsenal Football club since the 19th century, for heaven's sake.

Having players like Diaby, Almunia, Squillaci and other dimwits who are either injured or playing badly is not squad depth. They are a liability that are a parasite to the club who are only there to suck money out of the club's tit. Get some squad depth, a decent squad depth, and we'll finally talk about challenging with the big boys.
brenton

I also think a comparison of clubs, using cold, hard data, would be very useful in this regard.
formos

I would like to see similar correlations for other top clubs in UK, Italy and Spain.

Honestly, I don't think they will come so much different. I know for sure that Juve suffering quite a bit with injuries, Mourinho was begging for reinforcements last year after injuries accumulated. Barca was forced to play Mascherano as CD due injuries. Torres was thought made of glass, Gerrard is still out I believe. Poor Hargreaves was supposed to be key player for ManU, Fletcher was out for 5 months, Essien, Lampard, Terry all of them taken their fair share.

It might be just case of not having adequate replacements. Arsenal lacked them while other teams had plenty.
Gigi_man

Yes. I ve been calling for depth (I guess thats the word, I am not an English speaking gooner), because its always the same, even though we added some, we still lack some depth in the squad, and quality depht, so then when someone gets injured you have a same-level replacement.
HarlemGunner

I agree with you (formos) 100%. It is the replacement that is the problem and not otherwise. All teams have injuries some of the unlucky ones, the injuries just happens to their key players at wrong time of the season. Sometimes we are just unlucky. imagine if Gerv hadn't have the red card and Sagna hadn't caught flu before the ManU game, would the hammering at Old Tra ever happened?
Ketansonly

absoultely right..the problem is not so much injuries as lack of adequate replacements..pick any team worth its salt from last year..everyone had injuries but could fall back on great replacements..chelsea didn't have adequate replacements to departing ballack and carvalho and hence lost the league..its a squad game man..barcelona beat madrid in supercup this year w/o starting xavi, puyol, pique, busquets in the first leg..tht is like a who's who list!

arsenal need cover up front..RVP, chamakh and park with walcott doesn't cut it for me..also one more CB..
Patoux21

totally agree the squad quality just isn't good enough so Wenger overuses the top players. for example how many times Fabregas came back to play from injuries too early last season and aggravated his condition
Homey_Mills

Interesting subject line. Also, when I saw the big photo of RvP, I was fearing there was a new injury that I hadn't heard about just yet. There isn't though, right? I mean, he's ok, right?
torrit

Heh, this is exactly what I felt.
Gigi_man

Good subject.
I would like to check the physical preparation and fisio sessions, not hat I am an expert but Mrs Gigi is, and maye see what is it that makes our guys seem so fragile.
I remember Trezeguet in an interview saying that his 1st impression when joining Juve was the important physical training that he could easily be broken in two and he never experienced something like that in Monaco. Monaco? any bells?
Jerry

Seriously? Wenger left Monaco for Japan in 1995, and had already won the double at
Arsenal YEARS before Trezeguet moved to Juventus in 2000. The Wenger bashing around here is getting a bit silly...
Gigi_man

Jerry, Jerry, I havent seen you comment before, and you re not registered, so I guess you havent read my comments.
Go back and read my love for Wenger, then my hate becaue he dodnt act, then my love for him again, then my clarification because we did not have someone at his level to replace him.
Theeeen, read about my rquest for a medical post.
Theeeen, you can go back and check how I got to be an Arsenal fan the year Wenger came in, when I was in France and well aware of Monaco and Japan many thanks.

and then you tell me where do you read Wengers name in here, since I am actually releasing him of being responsible directly, and getting at the MEDICAL STAFF, and by that doing a "bad luck for Wenger" kind of comment.

But if you read all my comments you d realize that...
Zigg2633

these are the people who think managers like Mourinho are God.With no money or big names they start running for cover and use all excuses like no funds.Why was Mourinho sacked from chelski? because Abram could not understand why with all the millions he invested the football was so cap even when winning.They will keep bashing Wenger because most of these so called fans are just glory hunters and don't know anything pre-wenger.
Gigi_man

Read my answer to Jerry.
Anf if by wanting trohies for my team (who have , actually, won a lot of trophies) makes me a glory hunter, then so be it.
I will be a glory hunter AND a gooner, too bad for people like you who in my book might as well be underachievers,