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Can Mannone 'Vito' His Nightmare Start? | 
Arsene Wenger’s rapidly increasing dependence on youngsters within his squad reached new heights this midweek when he chose to start off the Champions League group stages with rookie Italian goalkeeper Vito Mannone between the sticks. With first-choice keeper Manuel Almunia and his deputy Lukasz Fabianski given a day off following Arsenal’s leakage of six goals in their last two outings, ‘The Professor’ handed Mannone a shock start away to Standard Liege.
As usual, most pundits criticized Wenger’s unnecessary tinkering with a squad that is often adjudged to be in a desperate need for settling down. While Mannone is no stranger to playing at the highest level – he impressed in a 4-1 win against Stoke City in the final game of last season – even the most staunch Arsenal fans have understandably started to doubt Wenger’s stubborn tactics of mysteriously maximizing inexperience on the field.
Last season, for example, Wenger’s refusal to sign a back-up fullback led to teenager Kieran Gibbs making the jump from the Arsenal reserves to the club’s starting line-up. Consequently, in an extremely high stakes Champions League semifinal against Manchester United, Gibbs was guilty of committing a clumsy blunder that gifted the Red Devils a priceless upper hand in the tie. In fact, despite possessing a huge amount of untapped potential, Gibbs could not respond to his stumbling nerve as he struggled throughout that evening when it came to marking FIFA World Player of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo.
On Wednesday night, when Vito Mannone was stunned following the two goals that Liege scored past him within the first five minutes of play, one could not help but reminisce the performance of Kieran Gibbs against Manchester United last on that fateful night at the Emirates last season. Just like Gibbs, Mannone had been rushed into the first team without adequate preparation. To the Italian goalkeeper’s credit, he managed to shut out the Belgian hosts for the rest of the night. His display of an extremely strong character was eventually rewarded as his side came from behind to record a thrilling 3-2 win away from home.
In a nutshell, it is obvious that Vito Mannone is just many of the Arsenal youngsters who need more polishing and mentoring before being asked to represent the North London giants on occasions as critical as the UEFA Champions League matchdays. With that being said, I continue to believe that in the long term, Mannone can contribute significantly to the Arsenal cause just like each one of his promising young teammates. In the short term, though, I cannot help but pose this question to the entire football community: Can Mannone ‘vito’ (overturn) his fortunes after such a rough start to his senior career?
Is Arsene over-optimistic about this youngster? Have your say below!
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Well said, Thomas! I am not exactly sure who is calling us Gunners “rubbish” here on this page, but I have certainly seen it left and right how people are writing us off. Last night was a classic example where we were 2-0 down in 5 minutes and our critics began laughing in our faces. By the end of the night, we stunned everyone with that comeback. On another note, while I do acknowledge that we have some real quality players, I still remain wary of the competition that we’re up against. With our current inconsistency, it will be very tough to win titles, but like you said, there is no reason for anyone to think of us as a “rubbish” team at such an early stage of the season.
After their start to the season, everyone was singing Arsenal’s praises, they should have beaten Man Utd only for some poor mistakes and had a lot of chances against City. They have a problem in defence but they are a quality side, Fabregas, Arshavin or Van Persie would be stars in other teams so to say they are rubbish is a bit premature thinking.
@Eris: True – This article should have been published once all the facts and injury reports had arrived completely. Sure, it’s not clever reporting, but that fortunately does not hinder the theme of this article. By the way, for those who are still struggling to comprehend the theme, it is “Mannone should hopefully be able to overcome a tough start”. As for the manager being “on a death wish” comment, you might want to be careful there. I am a great Arsene fan and I obviously know he’s not on a death wish. However, football is a funny thing and we must remember that Arsene’s tactics haven’t received too much acclaim in recent times.
@Utkarsh – First of all, thanks for the comment – you do seem to jump at conclusions rather than carefully understanding my points. Therefore, let me go over everything real slow so that you know my perspective, which by the way you should know is the perspective of a hardcore Gooner.
With all the due respect, I’ve seen the devastating CL defeat against United quite a few times so that I can find a reason as to why and how we failed so badly. From my observation of last season, I am one of the first few people to come out and say that Gibbs did a great job of stepping up. Now that we’ve cleared that, let me ask you something. Do you think his slip in that game was PURELY a coincidence? If you do, then your argument itself is slippery. Upon careful review of the incident, it seems obvious that pressure of the occasion took to him as he attempted that basic clearance. Yes, it could happen to anyone and you can’t put the blame for that defeat on him for than one incident. But regardless of his talent, like I said, he was too inexperienced for the occasion.
Oh, by the way, I couldn’t stop laughing on your comment about how Ronaldo was the lone forward, which you think exempts Gibbs from the responsibility of marking him. On paper, C. Ronaldo is United’s strength on the right flank, which means Gibbs was (at least on paper) DRAFTED to defend against Ronaldo. While of course the game was not played on paper, the strategic changes from Man. United are irrelevant to our case here. This is not a videogame simulation of FIFA or PES – this is Champions League football and a fullback is supposed to be all over the place in his bid to help clear the dangers. On that night, Gibbs struggled, and it was obviously down to a lot of inexperienced nerves. If am writing nonsense and bollocks, then I can’t even find an adjective for the illogical claims that you are making.
As for Mannone, I clarify that this article was published when the severity of Almunia’s injury was not a universally known fact. I surely think there is no need to sign another keeper and I clearly note that Mannone improved as the night went on. You need to understand that a nightmare start to a career is not always down to fault. Bad things happen to good people and with this article, I only demonstrate a hope that Vito can overcome a frustrating start.
So – there was my response. Argument is the foundation of learning so I urge you to absorb at least the essence of my entire argument before jumping to any of your rotten conclusions.
This is not very clever reporting. You should have gotten your facts right before making the comments about Almunia and Fabianski being “given the day off”. What do you take the Manager for? A man on a death wish. All said, herein lies the allure of The Arsenal to youngsters: they stand a chance to get first team action, early on. Mannone will be grateful for this experience and will be the better for it; it will serve him well some day soon.
“Last season, for example, Wenger’s refusal to sign a back-up fullback led to teenager Kieran Gibbs making the jump from the Arsenal reserves to the club’s starting line-up. Consequently, in an extremely high stakes Champions League semifinal against Manchester United, Gibbs was guilty of committing a clumsy blunder that gifted the Red Devils a priceless upper hand in the tie. In fact, despite possessing a huge amount of untapped potential, Gibbs could not respond to his stumbling nerve as he struggled throughout that evening when it came to marking FIFA World Player of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo.”
this shows what a load of bollocks u are writing.. First of all u very conveniently ignore that Gibbs played really well last season he slipped it could have happened to the ” Bought Full Back” as well it was a slip for gods sake… Secondly he was not marking Ronaldo.. Watch the match atleast before writing nonsense.. Ronaldo played as a lone forward all night and gibbs was the left back…
“Just like Gibbs, Mannone had been rushed into the first team without adequate preparation. To the Italian goalkeeper’s credit, he managed to shut out the Belgian hosts for the rest of the night. His display of an extremely strong character was eventually rewarded as his side came from behind to record a thrilling 3-2 win away from home.”
What is inadequate preparation the guy was playing Carling Cup for 2 years what is the manager supposed to do? Buy another 25 year old full back to put in front of a player who needs 10 games to find his feet in the league and then what after the 10 games sell the 25 year old full back ???
Manonne is 3rd choice for 2 years now gets game practise is match fit..He had nothing to do with the goals and he became more confident as the game wore on.. You are talking nonsense atleast ur title suggests so..looking forward to ur reply
@BRIAN: I am afraid you didn’t quite understand one of the main themes of my article. I clearly acknowledge that Gibbs was an emergency replacement for Clichy. But to say that Arsene didn’t have a choice is not true either. Like I said, if the man goes ahead and signs established back-ups, he would never need to resort to such drastic changes.
In the case of Mannone, I am glad that this article and the discussion in regards to it has served the purpose of clarifying what Arsene just confirmed – that Almunia had a very severe chest infection and he was NOT rested. So yes, resorting to Mannone all of a sudden was a tad bit unfortunate as opposed to the initial impression a lot of fans (including me) had of the situation as more tinkering from Wenger. But hey, all’s well that ends well.
@Tony: Good catch. I had initially gotten the impression that Almunia’s chest infection was not severe enough to be the solo reason behind his omission. The chaos surrounding our defending in the City game almost created a deja vu of how Lehmann’s injury in 2007 coincided with some nervy displays in the back, which led to his eventual dropping from the starting line-up. With that being said, I am glad that Wenger has no confirmed that Almunia was dropped only due to a chest infection and not because he also needed a day off to deal with a ‘burn out’ or anything along those lines.
As for Fabianski, I have been hearing promising things about his recovery since the unfortunate injury in the friendly against Valencia in August. It had seemed that he was originally slated for a return around this time but I guess it’s a good thing that Arsene and his staff are not rushing his comeback.
All in all, I agree that Mannone stepped up with a decent performance following the penalty (which I also note clearly in my article). And I never accuse him of being at fault for either goal at any point during the article. It’s just that it hurts a keeper’s confidence no end to see those two goals flash past him in a matter of minutes. So in that sense, regardless of whether or not he’s at fault, he would certainly remember the start to his CL career as quite a nightmare.
arsen had to play mannone through injury not choice same as when he had to play gibbs
Wenger did not “give Almunia and Fabianski the day off” as you stated. Almunia had an infection and Fabianski has a long term injury.
Wenger had no other choice than to play Mannone, who was not at fault for either goal. Yes, some of his kicking may have been a bit nervy but his handling of the ball after the penalty was faultless.