Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has slammed Sky Sports TV pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, saying the duo do not speak enough about the match they are analysing and talk too much about themselves.
Wenger went into bat for midfielder Francis Coquelin after Neville slammed the Frenchman’s supposed inability to defend in the lead up to the Gunners’ 0-0 draw with Liverpool on Monday night.
The Frenchman has worked for several as a co-pundit on TF1, and says former Premer League stars Neville and Carragher need to better “educate” the audience rather than pick holes in current day players.
“It is not just about talking. I accept you can be right and I can be wrong. But what you do not want is an opinion that comes out just because you feel like that. I watch sometimes, the guy doesn’t talk about the game, he tells you his life and what he thinks about football,” Wenger is quoted as saying by The Guardian.
“What is a concern is that it puts pressure on players, I believe that we are in a football job. With people who have been in the game, I love that they go on television, but what I would like is for them to help people to love football even more.
“The first mission is to educate people. That is fantastic because the [ex-pros] can explain things that the guy who has not played at the top level can understand and to get people to really love the game.
“That for me is the first mission. Some do it very well but the other way don’t like so much. I like to know that Schneiderlin [passes] to Carrick. Sometimes I watch games and at the end I don’t know the players who have played on the pitch because the guys don’t comment on the game any more.”
Neville said Wenger was either “naive or arrogant” for relying on flair players to win the Premier League title after slating the defensive workrate of Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla.
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