Mikael Silvestre believes that the main difference between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger gives Mikel Arteta more in common with the former than the latter.
Daily Cannon had the chance to put questions to Mikael Silvestre in an interview facilitated by Esports Insider this week, with the former Manchester United and Arsenal defender looking ahead to this weekend’s clash between two of his old clubs.
Silvestre was lucky enough to play under arguably the two clubs’ greatest-ever managers in Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, and he explained the biggest difference between the two.
“The main one is that Sir Alex adapted to the opponent in a way and we changed a bit of a formation, the system that we played and the way players set up on the pitch, whereas Arsene was consistently the same, and we wouldn’t care so much about the opponent,” Silvestre revealed.
“In fact, it was shocking not to look at the opponents’ videos before games. So that tells you how much he believed in the Arsenal way of playing and the way we would just dictate and take ownership of the game no matter who was the opponent.
“With Sir Alex, it was different, we would watch the opponent and look at their strengths, weaknesses and sometimes change 4-4-1-1 or 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.”
Perhaps it’s unsurprising that Silvestre therefore believes Mikel Arteta has more in common with the ex-Manchester United manager than Arsenal’s old boss.
“For Mikel, I think he’s preparing his games really well, and we can see that tactically he’s looking at the opponent for sure,” Silvestre added. “Spending a lot of time on studying how to stop the opposition, and how to hurt them.”
On the other side, one major similarity between Arteta’s current team and Wenger’s title-winning teams is a strong defensive backbone, with Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba starring in the centre of defence as a callback to the days of Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Sol Campbell, and so on.
As a former defender himself, Silvestre suggested that Gabriel and Saliba just need trophies before they can start to be discussed alongside the great Premier League partnerships.
“They have to win multiple championships together,” Silvestre insisted. “That’s a priority. They need to be there for years to come and to continue being the backbone and the foundation for Arsenal’s success.
“[Then] you could put them in that bracket, for sure, because it’s consistency at the top level, winning the league, and we know how hard it is to do that and to do it multiple times.”
After a successful spell winning trophies with Manchester United, Silvestre’s own move to Arsenal was somewhat underwhelming, as he made just 43 appearances across two seasons before leaving for Germany.
Joining a Premier League rival didn’t go down well in Manchester, whilst Silvestre’s limited impact also made him a target for criticism in north London.
Silvestre is thus well-placed to empathise with players who come in for a lot of negative media scrutiny. Reflecting on the recent criticism of Gabriel Martinelli’s clash with Conor Bradley, Silvestre gave his advice on how best to deal with those situations.
“The best way to make amends is to just keep working and keep your mouth shut and stay fair play, because it was out of character,” Silvestre said.
“I think he’s got a good heart, but he lost his head. But he’s been in the Premier League many years now, he’s not a kid so I’m sure he understands and he has understood. And yeah, showing the best behaviour and focusing on his football, you know? He’s got a trophy to lift!”
Arsenal fans will certainly hope that’s the case, and that Arteta’s team can get over the line in at least one or two competitions this season.