Jens Lehmann does not often give interviews, but when he does, there’s a lot to hear. Speaking to The Telegraph, the Arsenal legend answered many questions and shared his opinion on numerous topics. Of course, the first subject had to be, according to many, the best generation in the North London club’s history and its impeccable defence, especially in the Champions League.“It is about organisation. When you do not concede goals, it is never about a goalkeeper who can jump higher than the others – because I couldn’t – or the defender being twice as fast as the striker. It is about organisation and that was something we developed through the three years we did not get to the final. Without Arsenal, I wouldn’t have played for Germany. I was a master in organising. Really seeing things, positions, stuff like that. My style fitted well into that team because we played high up,” said Lehmann, whose last-minute penalty save against Villareal secured Arsenal the place in the 2006 Champions League final.🎙 “Riquelme… LEHMANN’S SAVED IT!” A special night. A special moment.Danke, @JensLehmann ❤️ pic.twitter.com/AbB6QSx3Xa— Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 25, 2020 After evoking memories, Jens commented on the current situation at the club from Emirates Stadium.“Arteta has done really well bringing Arsenal up, but if he is the right man for Arsenal now … I am not sure. Because you need to prove it. We could have won the league twice. Last year, they were leading, and in one month [April] they lost it [three draws and one defeat]. The culmination was when Saka missed the penalty against West Ham at 2-0 up, and it was a draw. It was two points. You can see there is huge potential. People want to do things with us [the players], whether it is a game, documentary, venue, whatever. Unfortunately, Arsenal didn’t win it this season, and as a big club, every now and again, you have to win … you can’t always be second, third or fourth. We [the 2003-2004 side] are still the last Arsenal champions which is a little bit of a pity. It’s too long,” the 54-year-old explained.Ex-Gunner opens up about his injury, wild lifestyle and bankruptcyThe comment about Mikel Arteta was only the introduction to a much more complex assertion about coaches in general. Namely, the German points out the importance of a manager’s playing experience and personality.“When you are a theoretical coach and you have never played, you think you need to manage the game. That’s what a lot of coaches make the audience believe. “Yeah, we had a game plan, then we made tactical changes and so on”. I can see it is not true. I see they are talking about something which did not actually happen on the pitch and had nothing to do with the outcome. What people who hire coaches sometimes don’t understand is that the personality of the coach is super important as well. Look at the personality of the coach. Is he a winner, or is he a nice guy who brings you to a certain level and then it is over?” Lehmann stated.Mudryk’s Arsenal regret should serve as lesson for SeskoFinally, he discussed the German national team’s chances at the EURO 2024, realistically claiming that Germany’s recent excellent form and victories over the Netherlands and France shouldn’t be overestimated.”Difficult to say how they might fare because they had terrible results. They rescued themselves with a win against France and the Netherlands in March, but we should not overestimate those results. For France and for the Dutch players, it was before the Champions League quarter-finals. For us, these games became highly pressurised because of the bad results before. All of a sudden, people are a little bit blindsided, but there isn’t a lot that has changed. We played a different formation and got Toni Kroos back. But Kroos was in the last four tournaments, and we got knocked out. I am not a believer in saying, “Now we are going to be great”. I can imagine that if we have three or four players with great talent they make the difference. I think as a maximum, a semi-final. After two years, they still don’t really know how to defend, but the good thing is that you only have to be a little bit better than the opposition,” concluded Lehmann.##NAJAVA_MECA_8151606##
