Paul Merson has launched a scathing attack on Arsenal and their manager Arsène Wenger in the wake of Tuesday’s Champions League capitulation against Anderlecht, branding the team “tactically clueless”.
Arsenal had been coasting at 3-0 before a second-half collapse earned the Belgian champions an unlikely 3-3 draw.
The former Arsenal midfielder Merson, who was a pundit for the Group D clash for Sky, said: “I think they are tactically clueless, that’s an honest opinion. This is not the first time it’s happened, it’s happened a lot. It’s absolutely clueless. For me the manager has to get a message on, but these are international footballers, they are not little kids.
“They play for their countries, in World Cups, in the Premier League, and they are all bombing forward. Surely something in your head, if you know football, you say let’s stop here, let’s have two banks of four, leave two up front and let them break us down. It’s clueless as football knowledge.”
His fellow pundit Dietmar Hamann labelled the performance as naive. “The naivety is staggering, they were still attacking at 3-1 and 3-2 with five or six men,” said Hamann. “Collectively it comes back to the manager to make the changes. At 3-0 or 3-1 he could have brought Walcott on to maybe get another on the counter.
“The players never thought about the team success, they wanted to get on the scoresheet and they got the ultimate punishment tonight. As Mikel Arteta said it’s not acceptable for a team that wants to win and challenge for trophies at the highest level to be 3-0 up against that team and let them come back to get a draw.”
Wenger was scathing about the defensive performance, although he disagreed with the accusation that his team had been too open as they continued to press for goals. Besnik Hasi, the Anderlecht manager, said that Arsenal had “tried to play the same way” and “didn’t just sit back [at 3-0]”.
“We dropped off too much and we didn’t go into the challenges any more,” Wenger said. “Then, you are always open. We didn’t stop the crosses, the long balls. In the second half, it was bad defending more than being out-numbered.
“We gave a poor defensive performance from the first to the last. We never felt comfortable. There was a bit of bad luck because the first [Anderlecht] goal was offside but our defensive performance was not good enough. Across the pitch defensively, we were very, very poor.”
