Arsenal: When does perseverance become foolishness?

Shkodran Mustafi has stated that he and his Arsenal teammates must continue to practise Unai Emery’s approach. That’s all well and good, but when does perseverance become foolishness?

Sometimes, compounding a mistake is worse than making the mistake in the first place. We are all human. Mistakes, unfortunately, are a part and parcel of life. We should not be surprised when we and others make them. It is the learning from them that is important, not the committing them.

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There comes a point where we must accept that we have got it wrong or that we are unable to achieve what we are trying to achieve. But that point can be difficult to take note of. Sometimes, we give up too early. At other times, our efforts linger on to the point that they are no longer effective. Neither is good.

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For Arsenal, as they try to adapt and take on Unai Emery’s new style, they must be acutely aware of sensing when they have reached this point, that being the point when they realise that they are not capable what Emery is asking of them.

This is Shkodran Mustafi speaking during the international break. He is speaking about how he and his teammates are adapting to Emery’s new approach:

"“It’s a process. We have tried everything in pre-season but then when you make a mistake in pre-season it’s not that bad. In the Premier League, you don’t want to make those mistakes, but you have to show your personality because we are a big football club with big players. We have to show the personality that we can play from the back because that’s our football and that’s how it suits us to play. We just have to keep working on that. Hopefully, in a few games, we’re going to look a bit more comfortable.”"

For me, this is a fascinating answer. The company line is certainly being towed by Mustafi: ‘it’s a process’; ‘we just have to keep working on that’. But there is also an understated acceptance that major mistakes have been made and that that, in the Premier League, is unacceptable.

There is this tension between being patient, persevering at what Emery is trying to implement, but also admitting that the current level of performance is not of the required standard and that if improvements are not made, change will have to come. This, for me, is at the heart of the hottest discussion surrounding Arsenal at this current time: the new ideas that Emery is implementing.

From Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher on Monday Night Football to the fans on the terraces, the debate about the team is almost solely focused on how the players are adapting to Emery, and whether Emery should adapt to them if they cannot successfully execute what he wants them to. It is the age-old debate: When does perseverance become foolishness?

I do not know for how long Emery and his players should persist with this current system. But there will come a time when a decision must be made. Either the system is changed, the players improve, or the players are changed. Until that time, the tension between perseverance and foolishness will persist.