Wenger Talks Sense - Nation In Shock

For me it's a very rare occasion that I find myself agreeing with Arsene Wenger, but today I completely agree with the Arsenal Manager.

Arsene states that the format of the Euro 2008 qualifying rounds contribute to dull and dour games because the larger nations find themselves facing the minnows whose only concern is preventing a thumping.

I've seen it first hand when England took on Andorra last year and the opposition felt it necessary to just pack the defence, play rough and utilise tactics to slow the game down. Fair enough you may say, but you may be forgetting that the underlying purpose of football is "entertainment". Without that ingredient, people wouldn't watch and sponsors wouldn't continue throwing money at the game.

Back to Wenger, he said in the Guardian:

"If you want to see a good game of football, then both teams have to play to win and that is not what happens," he said. "I feel very sorry for many national coaches because of this.

"In these games, they are expected to be 2-0 up in the first 20 minutes and if they are not, then they are booed. But the other team is only interested in 0-0 and that is all."

He was also correct in that we took 4 points from two away games and in the greater scheme of things we should be happy. But games need to be put into context of what happened before. Had we beat Macedonia in the previous game then we wouldn't have been too upset. Also had we had a decent display against Spain in the friendly 4 points from 6 wouldn't have been all that bad.

I just hope that the final game against Croatia at home proves to be a complete contrast to the games we saw in the recent away games.