Arsenal: Should Arsene Wenger adopt a little Jose Mourinho?

Former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has accused Arsene Wenger of being tactically naive, and has suggested that he should adopt Jose Mourinho’s approach in the big games. But is he right?

Arsene Wenger is far from the perfect manager. There are many issues with his style of management – his hesitancy in the transfer window, his neglect of the defensive side of the game, his stubborn loyalty to his players that hinders the assembly of his squad. However, he is also someone who has brought great success to Arsenal over a sensational 21-year period.

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But of his shortcomings, Paul Merson has added another to the mix. Speaking to Sky Sports, Merson revealed that he sees Wenger as a tactically naive manager, suggesting that he should adopt some of the more defensive principles that his old adversary, Jose Mourinho, employs against the biggest sides:

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"“If they keep Wenger, I don’t see them getting close to the top. I just think tactically Wenger has lost it. Sometimes you’ve got to play games like horses for courses. Mourinho goes to places, sets up and makes sure they don’t get beat, Wenger does not play that game. He opens the game up and says: ‘You have a shot, we have a shot, best team wins.'”"

However, I’m not quite sure that Merson has checked Mourinho’s record against the big teams in recent years. In fact, of the other top six, away from home, Mourinho has lost three and won two, scoring just one goal in a 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur a little over a week ago.

In fact, if you include the four games that he managed Chelsea away from home against the other top six (he had been fired by the time that Chelsea took a trip to face Liverpool at Anfield), then his record in all nine games stands at five losses and just four draws. What is even more striking, is the number of goals that they have scored in those games.

Wayne Rooney’s goal against Spurs just a week ago was the first for a Mourinho-led team against a top side away from home since New Year’s Day 2015, where his Chelsea team were dismantled 5-3 by a rampant Spurs side. That does not mean that no elements of Mourinho’s management style would improve Wenger if he were to adopt them.

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Simply, Merson’s suggestion that Wenger should look to replicate Mourinho’s ‘success’ in the big games is ridiculous because he hasn’t had any success. Wenger must change many aspects of his management if Arsenal are to win an increasingly elusive title, but assuming Mourinho’s approach in the big games away from home is most certainly not one of them.