Alan Pardew isn't convinced the Arsenal players are sure about Freddie Ljungberg, saying his message "was lost" in the 2-1 defeat by Brighton.
The Gunners were poor throughout Ljungberg's second match in charge of the north London club - his first at the Emirates - and have fallen down to 10th in the Premier League.
Arsenal looked devoid of ideas against the Seagulls, and Pardew reckons Ljungberg's sudden introduction following Unai Emery's sacking may have left the players confused.
"There might be a feeling in the dressing room among the players of them not being sure, and I felt that out on the pitch today," said Pardew on Amazon Prime Video. "Maybe the message got lost somewhere, about what they should do, because it didn't look right."
Former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon was less inclined to point the finger of blame directly at temporary boss Ljungberg, saying the players need to take shoulder some responsibility.
He said: "Maybe Freddie has gone into the dressing room and he's tried to make a change - he's tried to do something - and I think it is easy for us to say 'he should have done this or that'.
"I would like to think he put a bit of responsibility on them and watched the video from the Norwich game - they are intelligent footballers, they wouldn't be playing at this level if they didn't have some level of football intelligence.
"They should be able to look at a game, with their manager and coaches, and say 'look at that gap there, look at our back four running off because there is no pressure on the ball, let's make sure we don't do that against Brighton at home'.
"And I think at home they have wanted to win and please the crowd, but because Brighton were so organised and good at snuffing them out in the middle of the park and hitting them on the break, they lost all fathom of what they were doing again and the gaps opened up.
"It's not all Freddie's fault."
