Even though Arsenal failed to win this premier league title despite having much favorable odds on the card, yet manager Arsene Wenger is not willing to leave the attacking style of football his side has been following off late. In fact, Wenger has always been a strong supporter of ball possession with a maximum output and his hard work delivered this English season as well with a maximum 57% of the time in tournament his men kept the ball with them closely followed by league winner Leicester who could only possess ball for 44% percent of the time. Even though many experts are not supporting Frenchman’s style of putting pressure on opponents yet Wenger supports his line of attack and denies any plan to change his style of field dominance. Factually, the success of both Leicester in premiere league and Atletico Madrid in championship league has been an alarming bell for other sides who have long been the strong followers of their style since Foxes led the tally despite having been at number 18th out of twenty sides. Similarly, Atletico as well entered into the European league final for the second time in last three seasons which shows how fruitful their field combination has been in last few sessions.
Anyways, no matter how successful other sides have been following their own style of play Wenger wants to only focus on his age old strategy to keep the ball in possession for a maximum time, he said, “I don’t think so. I go to the European managers [meetings] for 20 years, and we always have the same debate. When Barcelona, who always have the most possession in the Champions League, go out everybody says maybe it’s the end of possession football.
“It raises questions about efficiency and football based only on efficiency. Because it shows that if it’s done well, it can be very successful. I think over a longer period, possession will still dominate. But when you’re not successful it’s questioned, and I can understand that.”
Explaining a different approach Gunners followed in last few occasions which was completely opposite to Wenger style, like in last season game against Man City when they played more defensive than attacking yet won the game by 2-0, he added, “No, because we have the type of players as well. If I say tomorrow we only defend, with Ozil in the team it will become difficult.”