At a FIFA event, the football-specific findings of the preliminary round should be presented. Wenger also used the stage to rave about the hosts, to defend the World Cup expansion and to tease the DFB.
Arsène Wenger is an adviser to the world football association FIFA and has often been noticed as a supporter of its president Gianni Infantino in recent years. Among other things, he spoke out in favor of his plans to hold the World Cup every two years.
On Sunday (December 4th, 2022), the 73-year-old Frenchman used a stage at the World Cup in Qatar that was intended to present the football-specific findings of the preliminary round with a little delay. Wenger and Jürgen Klinsmann came together as representatives of the “Technical Study Group” to the large hall of the media center, where Infantino held a bizarre press conference a good two weeks earlier.
Broadside against German team
Wenger raved about the infrastructure in Qatar, that everything works perfectly, and between the analyzes of which teams run the most kilometers and play the most passes into the space between the opposing midfield and the back line, he interspersed that he was overwhelmed by the beauty of the stadiums : “I’ve never seen anything like it.“
Then he also said something that can be seen above all as a broadside against the team whose former national coach was sitting next to him. “Teams that were mentally ready and immediately focused on football instead of political demonstrations“, didn’t disappoint in the first game either. Germany lost 2-1 to Japan in their opening match. Infantino, who must have liked Wenger’s opinion, was seated in the stadium alongside German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who wore a “One Love” armband wore.
In terms of efficiency, Germany is only average
Klinsmann, world champion as a player in 1990 and responsible for the 2006 World Cup as national coach, also said something about the selection of the DFB, but nothing political. According to the former centre-forward, Germany had the most shots on goal of all teams in the preliminary round, but mostly with “not played a real number nine“.
In the background, a graphic on the big screen showed that Germany had exactly four shots “on target“, i.e. on target to score a goal. Wenger said that the value of the eventual world champion should be around two shots. The most efficient team in the preliminary round were the Netherlands with 1.6 shots “on target” per goal, followed by Spain (1.7) and England (1.9). With Denmark (9.0) and Belgium (11.0) two European teams showed catastrophic values, which consequently also led to elimination.
Goalkeeper more integrated in the game
Many values were similar to those from the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In one category, however, there was a “serious change“As Wenger said. In the preliminary round in 2022, the goalkeepers were played 726 times, four years earlier only 443 times. Wenger explained that the teams involved their goalkeepers more often in order to playfully free themselves from the pressing. “This shows that the technical quality of the goalkeepers needs to improve“, said the Frenchman. Klinsmann added that now is the time that “the goalkeepers also train with the field players and no longer away from them“.
Wenger defends World Cup extension
Most of the values presented will increase significantly in absolute terms at the 2026 World Cup. 48 teams take part in the edition in the USA, Canada and Mexico. In which mode the preliminary round will be played is still open. Wenger didn’t offer an opinion and put the decision in the hands of the FIFA Council.
However, he vehemently defended the expansion to 48 teams initiated by Infantino: “That is still only 22 percent of the member associations. More teams promise more spectacle.” It will also help the additional teams “in the development of football in their countries”. That will have pleased the president, who will probably only speak again at the end of the World Cup in just under two weeks.