Arshavin explains why he ignores British media
Andrey Arshavin has lifted the lid on why he hasn’t given an interview to a British newspaper this year, admitting that they are ‘inaccurate’ and ‘twist’ what he says.
Last season, the outspoken Arsenal midfielder was misquoted as saying he ‘wants to leave Arsenal’, with the Russian maestro quickly having to deny those reports.
Arshavin’s refusal to talk with British newspapers means that the Russian media provide the main source of information for the 29-year-old, and he confesses that the situation still hasn’t improved because of the poor interpretations from English news outlets.
“This year I didn’t give a single interview to the English media – not because I don’t like them, but rather because I understood one thing: there are some nuances which can be expressed with very accurate words only. I’m not always able to find such words in English. Because of this, the meaning gets changed – and you should also add here the journalists that would twist what I’ve said,” Arshavin told Sport.RU.
“However, it didn’t get any better after I decided not to talk to them. Now the British media take my interviews in Russia and translate them at random. And the situation gets even more absurd, when some of the domestic media take this English translation and it back into Russian.”
Arshavin joined the Gunners during the 2009 January transfer window and has scored 28 goals in over 100 appearances for the club.
He featured in all bar one of Arsenal’s games in the Premier League this season, but is not a guaranteed starter in Wenger’s starting XI due to his inconsistent form.
This is the bias you must face as an Arsenal fan Andrei. Next year score a few more goals and they won’t be able to mis-translate a 15 goal and 15 assist getting player! Come on arsenal
Arshavin is a great offensive player. But defensively he is non-existent. In modern football all 11 players must defend when the team is not in possession. Van Persie, Drogba and Rooney all do it. First, Arshavin must realize that before he can stay on the team, no matter where he plays. But if I am Wenger, I would definitely not put him as a winger. A winger must defend a lot, especially in a system like Arsenal which the full backs attack a lot. If Arshavin does not leave, then he would best perform in a 4-4-1-1 position. The wingers would be Walcott and Nasri as they are willing to run back and defend. In central, put Wilshere as the secondary playmaker, with Song or Parker as the shield. Arshavin would be playing behind Van Persie as the primary playmaker. In this position, Arshavin would be less liable to defend when we are not in possession.
TO george: if we change to a 4 4 1 ( which i prefer) i would want van p as the 1 behind the striker cuz that’s his natural position! and the striker should be someone similar to chicharito a natural born striker who will run the channels like bent/falcao/benzema etc
@George
Arshavin’s preferential position is not on the wing. There’s a reason he is not accustomed to defending much. He has said it so many times that he prefers to play up front or behind the strikers. But as Wenger always does, he fucks up strikers and turns them into wingers. (Eduardo,Bendtner)
Arshavin can improve on defending I agree, But to view him as a 100% winger is inaccurate. Like you said he should be playing behind RVP where he’s awesome at assists.
@TQ
I don’t agree. Van Persie is a natural born striker. He is big, strong, fast(ppl don’t give him credit for that) and with an amazing strike. Play him there next season, with Chamakh as backup, no need to spend money on another striker, save it for defense.
@Mr K
The reason Eduardo and Bendtner played as wingers was because we played a 4-5-1 for the last couple of seasons. Strictly a 4-5-1, with 3 central mids and 2 wingers and only with 1 striker. We do not have enough wingers (only walcott, nasri, rosicky can legitimately play there) and too many strikers (eduardo, bendtner, vela, van persie, chamakh). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a 4-5-1 or a 4-4-1-1, it will give us control in the middle where we are stronger than most teams and also some stability in the defense structure. However, Wenger got a few things wrong. First, too little wingers and too many strikers. So what to do? Move some of the strikers to play as wingers. Second, wingers are supposed to defend too. Wenger puts Arshavin there, someone who is not willing to defend and put clichy as a backup if an opponent goes through Arshavin? Sorry, doesn’t work. Third, you may ask why so many goals leaked if we were supposed playing a 4-5-1 which will provide better stability. Well, Arshavin and Clichy down at the left is a huge reason. Then, Song. His qualities is at defense not offense, so stay the hell back when we have the ball, unless we are desperately chasing the game. Do you see Gilberto Silva going past the halfway line often? Vermaelen being injured for the whole season plays a part too. And the keeper situation, don’t even want to talk about it.
Wenger should ship out some strikers and buy some wingers as I still believe 4-4-1-1 or 4-5-1 is the right formation. Out goes: Bendtner. Dont have to find a replacement for him as we only play with one striker everytime. Put Van Persie as first choice, back up by Chamakh and Vela.
Song is good but please tell him to stay back, get Scott Parker to act as a mentor for him, they can share the games.
Sell Arshavin, i dont see him suddenly defending and he does not have the stamina and it is not going to get better. Either put Nasri at the left wing, or place someone like Downing there and move Nasri behind Van Persie.
At the back, I am really fine with Vermaelen and Djourou, but getting either a Samba or Mexes to share the workload really would be a big plus. Also, ship clichy out we have been beaten too many times at the left hand side, look at solid Sagna. Get someone solid there and Baines come to mind.
Goalkeeping, damm. Szczęsny was hits and misses last season, still have a bright future though. Get him a mentor for a couple of seasons. I would seriously cry happy tears if we can get Given in, what a waste at the bench.
In my opinion if Nasri goes to Manchester United he is worse than Ashley Cole at least Cole won two league titles, three fa cups and a couple of community shields to be able to demand more money. Nasri has only played well for us for five months at the most and he demands 120 k that’s disgraceful.
@ george: yeah ok van p guarantees goals ( just look at his record) but he doesn’t score any tap ins or headers like an eduardo, etoo, van nistelrooy, ian wright. this is not a criticism but his more of a del piero/bergkamp type of player. if wenger wants to play him up alone then he has to get wingers who will make runs for Van P without the ball like a ljunberg/pedro/pires/hulk.young not cmf’s come wingers like rosicky who want the ball played to their feet.
And we need to buy another striker we cant rely on van p alone! a team like arsenal has to have 4 top strikers not 1 !! in the past we had henry-bergkamp-kanu- wiltord-suker as our strikers. now van persie-chamackh-vela- bendtner! none of these strikers will even make the bench on that team except for van persie and as sub NOT a starter!
WENGER OUT
arsha is one of my favourite players, and to those of you who say he can`t defend WELL HAVE YOU SEEN THE LAST GAMES??? he played great defensively. leave the offense aside, with a crappy 4-3-3 with players not adjusted to it, we scored a lot of goals.
what really annoys me is that there are no news about certain defensive singnings. i mean, clubs start spending, and we stand in place. i read somewhere that wenger had delivered 9 milions offer for samba0and then nothing. if we buy 2-3 players in defence, we are ready for next season.
if arsene keeps on playing this 4-3-3 formation, he will have to buy another striker. it is a must-we cant rely on inconsistent and injury prone strikers. yes, we did score a lot od goals, but in games like blackburn, filham, sunderland when we cant score, we have a need of someone who will do an individual move and win the game. right now, imo we dont have such player.
and friedel was perfect for arsenal, can anyone tell me how we missed out on him???
Wenger can do the following if he wants to top his ‘stingyness’ from previous seasons.
1) Sign experienced Marcus Hahnemann as a backup to Sczceney.
2) Ramsey can take Fabregas place when he leaves. Sign Giles Barnes as a backup to Diaby who is the backup for Ramsey.
3) Sign Gianni Zuiverloon as the replacement for Eboue.
4) Sign Nigel Reo-Coker as the backup for Song.
All these cost NOTHING!
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3284/euro-2012/2011/06/06/2519910/introducing-little-xavi-marvin-martin-is-frances-new look this up peeps.
Now I’m p*ssed of about Nasri situation, I feel we only should have the TRUE ARSENAL players, such as RVP, Wilshere and Vermalen, people who actually put 100% effort everygame.. I worked out the ammount of money we’d get if we sold EVERYONE accept about 4 or 5..
GK-5mill
DEF-55m including Song
MID 120m
ST-30m
Bringing total of 210.. + additional budget of 40m.. 250m.
Now I decided to think of a really strong team who we could afford to buy with that amount. And everyone will say about unrealistic, but every player would want to play in a team with ambition with other great players, like they have with man city.. so..
Given-8mil
Vanderweil-15mil – Jones-15mil – vermaelen – Baines-15mil
Sneijder-40m – Masherano 10m – Wilshere
Hazard- 20mil – R Van Persie – Robben-45mil
subs;
-szcesny
-ramsey
-mertersackre-10m
-samba – 10m
-gervinho – 10mil
-benzema 20 mil
More dutch than french now.. How ammount for all those is 218.
Much stronger team, affordable.. would win things! No doubt!