Vieira was a star turn of Wenger’s thrillingly successful teams in his formative years at Arsenal, yet that early success has been replaced by a regular diet of disappointment in the Premier League over the last 12 years.
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Do you think it would be good to have a former Arsenal player work with the players? Every game we play we want to win the game. For me, it was like the French national team in 1998, when we had physical players with flair, with pace, it was a similar team.
Viera told British media, “I quite admire that, in the world where some clubs have so much money, they go and buy players who are £40 million and are worth £10 million”.
The Germany worldwide star provided 19 assists in the Premier League last season and was widely regarded as the Gunners player of the season despite.
Although I agree in principle that being a collective team is better than throwing a bunch of players together in hope they can win something, most teams have quite simply integrated a few players into an already strong side. This last five-six years Arsenal went more with this type of mobile, technical players who are completely different.
Vieira said he could not understand why the club were not allowing former players such as Thierry Henry, Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires both to develop their own coaching and management skills and help to influence and inspire the next generation of players coming through.
“I enjoy watching Arsenal play now”.
He said he was loving his first season with Major League Soccer side New York City FC, where he manages Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo and David Villa, and has guided the team to the top of the Eastern Conference.
“But sometimes the collective can be better than individual players”. “Players want to do it and not having the opportunity they feel disappointed”. The door’s always open for them.
“But I have a feeling that they are missing something and this something is the physical presence, the personality”.
“Arsenal are the first team – with Manchester City of course – that I watch”.
‘I have no real solution at central defence at the moment and he had a big back problem on Friday when he [Koscielny] came out of the training, ‘ Wenger said.
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Vieira has in the past bemoaned Wenger’s failure to keep his former players involved, saying in May 2015 that his former boss had turned down the opportunity to bring him in as a coach.
