Thursday, October 14, 2010

How do we get a winning mentality?


The answer is to this question is surprising simple. Win something. 

Our beloved captain has come out and said that the current Arsenal side does not have a winning mentality and this ingredient is what’s missing from the squad. Well it is kinda like a chicken and egg situation. 

You get a winning mentality when you win title and to win titles you need a winning mentality. There is no two way about it. I guess that’s where our conundrum lies. We have not been able to cross the threshold from being superbly talented to extremely successful. For some years now, the Gunners have fallen short of the final hurdle, always stumbling at the end of the line. Therefore I don’t disagree that we need that winning mentality to get our first silverware in five years.

However, first we need the team to be hungry and develop the KILLER INSTINCT that we are missing. Although we started well this year, the team has not been clinical in games. That has cost us games not only this season but for the previous few as well. You can see it in the play of some players. When we get the lead, there seems to be a reluctance to go in for the kill. It’s like a boxer after falling his opponent, chooses to let the other have a breather instead of going in and try to end the match. Most boxers would step up the attack once the opponent is down but the Gunners do not have that desire at the moment.

Another thing that we do not have is BELIEVE. I know how Arsene has said that his current team has the hunger and belief that they can be successful. Unfortunately I don’t see that in many of them. Whenever the team goes behind to a major opponent like Chelsea or Manchester United, shoulders tend to go down for at least 20 to 30 minutes before they eventually pick themselves up again. In a game of such importance, not having the belief for a third of the match is like throwing the game away. The boys cane use youth as an excuse because most of them have been around for a couple of seasons already. Also, some of the biggest culprits are the experienced ones like Arshavin and Clichy. 

A winning mentality is made up of different parts. We know that the team has the skills but the killer instinct and believe in team is what’s missing from our winning mentality equation. Arsene has to find a way to cultivate both to make good this experiment of his.
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1 comment:

  1. i agree that they dont seem to have that twinkle in their eyes. but to be honest, they may be professionals but they're still human. i strongly believe injuries are solely to blame for no silerware. to put things in perspective, imagine you wanted to climb this mountain, as you make your way up this thief keeps popping up and stealing a piece of kit from you making it harder to climb. but you persist..now you can see the top and you think its within reach, but the little bugger comes back and just kicks you all the way down. this happens again and again year after year and you begin to lose the will to climb as you know this guy will just keep showing up. would anyone still have that drive if you know theres always going to be someone to kick you down no matter how hard you try. im sure they still believe they can do it but theres always going to be that thought lingering in their mind that theyll never see a season through at full fitness, frankly it would be very frustrating. trust me they know as well as we do the importance of having a full team, and no matter how pissed off we are, they're even more pissed

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