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Taken from Arsenal-Mania, written by Chris Michaels.
http://www.arsenal-mania.com/?page=articles_controller&view=full&article_id=250
Is it more than just a hamstring injury we should be worrying about here?
As the inquest begins into Arsenal’s capitulation to Chelsea in the Champions League, following the loss to Manchester United on Saturday, it’s worth asking: what’s wrong with Thierry? Where exactly has he been these last four crucial (and ultimately tragic) matches?
Sure, he’s been out there. He even scored a rocket-powered goal against United in the league. But Thierry Henry has not been himself. John Terry, William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre and Wes Brown – all top class defenders – have had the Arsenal forward, rated by many as the best player in the world, shackled like never before these last two weeks. And despite their own qualities as players, Henry has not looked to have an answer to their close attentions.
Why? Is it a failure of nerve, a failure of ability in the Highbury hero? Surely not. There is no doubting Henry’s class, no doubt at all. The goals tally tells its own story, and memories of all his goals against Manchester United, his demolition of Inter Milan’s vaunted backline, his performance in the Euro 2000 final – all of these show that Henry has the temperament and the skill required to prosper at the very highest level, when competition is most fierce.
If there are doubts, they are mostly painful reminders of last year’s title run in, when, just as has happened these past two weeks, when Arsenal needed Henry’s goals the most, he couldn’t score them.
I’m unconvinced by those criticisms. I think the most one can ask of any great player is that in half the vital games they ever play they make vital and telling contributions. That seems to me about the mark one could expect. And Thierry is at about that level.
I think perhaps the answer might not be one of a problem with nerve, or any lack in ability. I think in fact it might be a tactical problem – one that only Henry himself can learn how to deal with. Because what I’ve come to notice about Henry, is that he rarely plays well when the striker playing alongside him takes on the role of leading man. That sometimes it’s his own team-mates who seem to quell his competitive appetite. And that could be a real problem, because as was absolutely evident on Tuesday night, Jose Antonio Reyes is a brilliant young warrior quite willing and able to lead the battle along the front line. His brilliance in the last two matches has been quite enough to convince me that Arsenal now have what Wenger’s been looking for all this time: two strikers equally capable of destroying opposition defences with that mix of pace, cunning, art and fire the boss most indulges in his forwards.
But does Thierry like that?
In his career there have been two partnerships in which Thierry has really flourished, that with Dennis Bergkamp for Arsenal, and that with David Trezeguet for Monaco and later for France. Bergkamp and Trezeguet could not be more different as players. Bergkamp is a classical number 10, best when pulling back to just in front of the midfield and supplying the subtlest of passes or crafting delicate flicks on the edge of the box. Trezeguet, Henry’s close friend, is the opposite, a number 9 who lurks in the penalty area, snatching on half-chances and high balls.
What both players share however is a willingness to let Thierry be the star – and the workhorse. Neither Trezeguet nor Bergkamp could ever match the volume of running and fleet-footed invention Henry is capable of. Nor do they attempt it. Both are quite set in their very different roles, and both leave it to Henry to run with the ball from deep. Henry seems most comfortable with that – the line is marked for him as the ultimate unconventional winger-striker, and with Robert Pires playing alongside him for both his club and his national team, he knows what he needs to do and when. When the gameplan depends on his unconventionality matching the classical play of a number 10 or a number 9, his genius is given its fullest chance to shine.
But apparently not when the player he is supposed to team up with in the strike-force is just as unconventional as he, or willing to do the same kind of work.
This first became noticeable when Sylvain Wiltord came to the club. In the first ever article I wrote for Arsenal Mania, I suggested that what Wenger was looking for was a perfect team in which the players on the right hand side of the pitch directly mirrored those on the left. A system in which Gilberto (and later the more skillful Edu) mirrored Vieira’s workrate and drive; in which Lauren provided as deep an attacking threat as Cole, and Ljungberg as much as Pires. At the start of this season, it was Wiltord who was given the job of mirroring Henry.
What was most evident about that spell of games was that whenever Wiltord played extremely well, those were the games when Henry was quietest. One particular example stands out: the game at the City of Manchester Stadium last September. That afternoon, Wiltord was quite simply superb, a menace all over the pitch. Henry was nowhere however – Wiltord was doing his work for him, and it seemed to induce a mood in him that said ‘if he’s doing it, I don’t need to’. So he didn’t.
It’s been the same these last few games, when Reyes has quite magnificently stepped up and taken the responsibility of leading the line, of being the one driving from deep, and even, last night, being the one on hand to score the goal which seemed to be so crucial. Reyes is a special talent – infinitely more capable than Wiltord – and will go on to be amongst the world’s very best players in the next few years. That should be all well and good, shouldn’t it? Two of the world’s best forwards playing for Arsenal? Two players you can look to to find moments of genius?
It should be, but Henry’s the one who’ll have to adapt, and be willing, for the first time in his career, to indulge in kinds of play he’s not used to. To do the jobs both Trezeguet and Bergkamp have always done for him.
Quite simply, when Reyes is on that kind of form, there are going to be times when Thierry is going to have to be the big striker flicking the ball down for his more diminutive partner, or the number 10 releasing the ball. He’s going to have to be willing to let Reyes be the star, do the glamorous work and provide the electric genius. If he doesn’t, both Thierry and Arsenal are going to suffer. There’s a way to go yet, and despite the horrors of the second half, Reyes’ goal – from a Henry header across goal – showed the kind of play Arsenal will have to indulge in more if they’re to get the best productivity from their two forwards.
Henry is not unique in these difficulties, because over at the Bernabaeu, Raul – perhaps even more illustrious a figure than Henry – has been going through exactly the same problems ever since the arrival of Ronaldo after World Cup 2002. Real Madrid also fell out of the Champions League, and a large part of the reason why is that their entire gameplan has become about providing Ronaldo with chances to score. Ronaldo, so relentless a chaser of goals, has subjugated Raul, Madrid’s captain and the national hero of Spanish football, to the role of feeder of balls to him. And Raul’s not coped very well. Just as Henry may be by the tenacious Reyes, Raul has been overshadowed by a player not more technically able than him, but by one more focussed than him on producing an end result. Raul, the highest scorer in Champions League history, has been forced to be both architect and foil for Ronaldo’s vampiric quest for goals. He doesn’t like it, and neither, seemingly, does Henry like the threat of Reyes to his dominance up front.
Well, quite frankly, get used to it Thierry, because Reyes is here for the longterm, and like Kolo Toure alongside Campbell, I think there’s every chance that the junior partner might go on to be an even more luminous figure than his illustrious and feted partner. What I see in Reyes is something of the Maradonna of the mid-eighties – and that’s not praise which should be offered lightly. Compact and brutally direct, he’s a remorseless attacker who seems to fear nothing, nor be prone to the ennui which always seems to effect more gracious players. Like Toure, he’s full of the will to win at any costs. He’s going to be sensational. He already is.
Maybe he scares Thierry. Maybe Thierry likes the limelight too much. Whatever it is, Henry needs to change. Fast. There’s a league left to be won, and if we fail in the most important race of all, it’s not an inquest that will be started, it will be a humiliating witch-hunt. And none of us wants to have to go through that. Particularly as Henry might be one of the victims of it if this torpor continues.
All we can do now is forget the cups, they’re gone. We’re still eight games from history. And we need Henry to help us cross the line.
http://www.arsenal-mania.com/?page=articles_controller&view=full&article_id=250
Is it more than just a hamstring injury we should be worrying about here?
As the inquest begins into Arsenal’s capitulation to Chelsea in the Champions League, following the loss to Manchester United on Saturday, it’s worth asking: what’s wrong with Thierry? Where exactly has he been these last four crucial (and ultimately tragic) matches?
Sure, he’s been out there. He even scored a rocket-powered goal against United in the league. But Thierry Henry has not been himself. John Terry, William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre and Wes Brown – all top class defenders – have had the Arsenal forward, rated by many as the best player in the world, shackled like never before these last two weeks. And despite their own qualities as players, Henry has not looked to have an answer to their close attentions.
Why? Is it a failure of nerve, a failure of ability in the Highbury hero? Surely not. There is no doubting Henry’s class, no doubt at all. The goals tally tells its own story, and memories of all his goals against Manchester United, his demolition of Inter Milan’s vaunted backline, his performance in the Euro 2000 final – all of these show that Henry has the temperament and the skill required to prosper at the very highest level, when competition is most fierce.
If there are doubts, they are mostly painful reminders of last year’s title run in, when, just as has happened these past two weeks, when Arsenal needed Henry’s goals the most, he couldn’t score them.
I’m unconvinced by those criticisms. I think the most one can ask of any great player is that in half the vital games they ever play they make vital and telling contributions. That seems to me about the mark one could expect. And Thierry is at about that level.
I think perhaps the answer might not be one of a problem with nerve, or any lack in ability. I think in fact it might be a tactical problem – one that only Henry himself can learn how to deal with. Because what I’ve come to notice about Henry, is that he rarely plays well when the striker playing alongside him takes on the role of leading man. That sometimes it’s his own team-mates who seem to quell his competitive appetite. And that could be a real problem, because as was absolutely evident on Tuesday night, Jose Antonio Reyes is a brilliant young warrior quite willing and able to lead the battle along the front line. His brilliance in the last two matches has been quite enough to convince me that Arsenal now have what Wenger’s been looking for all this time: two strikers equally capable of destroying opposition defences with that mix of pace, cunning, art and fire the boss most indulges in his forwards.
But does Thierry like that?
In his career there have been two partnerships in which Thierry has really flourished, that with Dennis Bergkamp for Arsenal, and that with David Trezeguet for Monaco and later for France. Bergkamp and Trezeguet could not be more different as players. Bergkamp is a classical number 10, best when pulling back to just in front of the midfield and supplying the subtlest of passes or crafting delicate flicks on the edge of the box. Trezeguet, Henry’s close friend, is the opposite, a number 9 who lurks in the penalty area, snatching on half-chances and high balls.
What both players share however is a willingness to let Thierry be the star – and the workhorse. Neither Trezeguet nor Bergkamp could ever match the volume of running and fleet-footed invention Henry is capable of. Nor do they attempt it. Both are quite set in their very different roles, and both leave it to Henry to run with the ball from deep. Henry seems most comfortable with that – the line is marked for him as the ultimate unconventional winger-striker, and with Robert Pires playing alongside him for both his club and his national team, he knows what he needs to do and when. When the gameplan depends on his unconventionality matching the classical play of a number 10 or a number 9, his genius is given its fullest chance to shine.
But apparently not when the player he is supposed to team up with in the strike-force is just as unconventional as he, or willing to do the same kind of work.
This first became noticeable when Sylvain Wiltord came to the club. In the first ever article I wrote for Arsenal Mania, I suggested that what Wenger was looking for was a perfect team in which the players on the right hand side of the pitch directly mirrored those on the left. A system in which Gilberto (and later the more skillful Edu) mirrored Vieira’s workrate and drive; in which Lauren provided as deep an attacking threat as Cole, and Ljungberg as much as Pires. At the start of this season, it was Wiltord who was given the job of mirroring Henry.
What was most evident about that spell of games was that whenever Wiltord played extremely well, those were the games when Henry was quietest. One particular example stands out: the game at the City of Manchester Stadium last September. That afternoon, Wiltord was quite simply superb, a menace all over the pitch. Henry was nowhere however – Wiltord was doing his work for him, and it seemed to induce a mood in him that said ‘if he’s doing it, I don’t need to’. So he didn’t.
It’s been the same these last few games, when Reyes has quite magnificently stepped up and taken the responsibility of leading the line, of being the one driving from deep, and even, last night, being the one on hand to score the goal which seemed to be so crucial. Reyes is a special talent – infinitely more capable than Wiltord – and will go on to be amongst the world’s very best players in the next few years. That should be all well and good, shouldn’t it? Two of the world’s best forwards playing for Arsenal? Two players you can look to to find moments of genius?
It should be, but Henry’s the one who’ll have to adapt, and be willing, for the first time in his career, to indulge in kinds of play he’s not used to. To do the jobs both Trezeguet and Bergkamp have always done for him.
Quite simply, when Reyes is on that kind of form, there are going to be times when Thierry is going to have to be the big striker flicking the ball down for his more diminutive partner, or the number 10 releasing the ball. He’s going to have to be willing to let Reyes be the star, do the glamorous work and provide the electric genius. If he doesn’t, both Thierry and Arsenal are going to suffer. There’s a way to go yet, and despite the horrors of the second half, Reyes’ goal – from a Henry header across goal – showed the kind of play Arsenal will have to indulge in more if they’re to get the best productivity from their two forwards.
Henry is not unique in these difficulties, because over at the Bernabaeu, Raul – perhaps even more illustrious a figure than Henry – has been going through exactly the same problems ever since the arrival of Ronaldo after World Cup 2002. Real Madrid also fell out of the Champions League, and a large part of the reason why is that their entire gameplan has become about providing Ronaldo with chances to score. Ronaldo, so relentless a chaser of goals, has subjugated Raul, Madrid’s captain and the national hero of Spanish football, to the role of feeder of balls to him. And Raul’s not coped very well. Just as Henry may be by the tenacious Reyes, Raul has been overshadowed by a player not more technically able than him, but by one more focussed than him on producing an end result. Raul, the highest scorer in Champions League history, has been forced to be both architect and foil for Ronaldo’s vampiric quest for goals. He doesn’t like it, and neither, seemingly, does Henry like the threat of Reyes to his dominance up front.
Well, quite frankly, get used to it Thierry, because Reyes is here for the longterm, and like Kolo Toure alongside Campbell, I think there’s every chance that the junior partner might go on to be an even more luminous figure than his illustrious and feted partner. What I see in Reyes is something of the Maradonna of the mid-eighties – and that’s not praise which should be offered lightly. Compact and brutally direct, he’s a remorseless attacker who seems to fear nothing, nor be prone to the ennui which always seems to effect more gracious players. Like Toure, he’s full of the will to win at any costs. He’s going to be sensational. He already is.
Maybe he scares Thierry. Maybe Thierry likes the limelight too much. Whatever it is, Henry needs to change. Fast. There’s a league left to be won, and if we fail in the most important race of all, it’s not an inquest that will be started, it will be a humiliating witch-hunt. And none of us wants to have to go through that. Particularly as Henry might be one of the victims of it if this torpor continues.
All we can do now is forget the cups, they’re gone. We’re still eight games from history. And we need Henry to help us cross the line.
