Training before Arsenal, Sporting criticised: bordering on absurd | OneFootball

Gary Lineker, the former England striker, took the opportunity this Monday to launch a harsh criticism of Mikel Arteta, the manager who will host Sporting on Wednesday at 20:00 in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, holding a 1-0 advantage in the tie.

After a slip-up by the Premier League leaders in matchday 32, losing at home to Bournemouth (2-1), the pundit targeted the Spanish coach following some unusual new methods introduced by him in training sessions with the London side. At issue were group balance exercises involving pens and motivational videos created by Artificial Intelligence.

The former Barcelona and Tottenham striker believes these additions are "bordering on ridiculous" and that Arteta is drawing extra attention to his team, when he should be doing precisely the opposite at this decisive stage of the season.

"Arsenal are fighting against themselves. Arteta is slightly bordering on ridiculous. With the pens, all of them walking around with ballpoint pens, then they show TikTok videos on big screens during training and I think: 'They’re doing things differently. Don’t do things differently.' If you’re in the title race, you have to stay calm. This is what we always do, training is a normal thing. This is what we do and, suddenly, they start doing things a little differently. They’re drawing attention to themselves and everyone is thinking: 'Well, they don’t usually do this.' They’re showing the world that the pressure is affecting them. If you do something different, do it internally. Keep it secret. Make sure no one is filming. That would be my friendly advice. And it must be difficult because, I suppose, if they were winning, nobody would say anything. But the problem is that if you draw attention to yourselves and then don’t win, it can become a bigger problem", he said on the podcast "The Rest is Football".

It should be remembered that last week, Arteta was asked in a press conference about the exercises in question: "A training session has to have different elements and be connected to the messages we send and the commitments we make among ourselves. I try to have those messages present in as many situations as possible, and training is one of them. What do the pens mean? That stays in the dressing room".

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.