Danny Murphy insists that Arsenal's players must take responsibility on the field after seeing the Gunners throw away a two-goal lead against Watford yesterday (Sunday).
Despite Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's first half double at Vicarage Road, the Gunners only left Hertfordshire with a point after Tom Cleverley and Roberto Pereyra netted for the Hornets to salvage a point.
But Arsenal were architects of their own downfall, with the Gunners causing themselves problems as they tried to play out from the back, with Watford's first goal coming as a result of a misplaced pass from Sokratis from an Arsenal goal kick.
And the former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder was critical of the Gunners, adding that he could not believe the players did not learn from their mistakes.
“Players have a responsibility – and you can call this leaders, but I just call it decent footballers," he said, speaking on Talksport.
“They have a responsibility to game manage, irrelevant of what the manager is telling you.
“You know he wants you to play out from the back, so you play out from the back, fine. And the reason you do that is to bring them on to you so that you can create space when you have got two of the fastest forwards in the game.
“So I get that, you bring Watford on to you, come on then, press, press, press, and we’re good players, we will play through you, or we will play past the press and get to our strikers, who are electric – that’s the philosophy - or you find a spare man somewhere.
“If a team presses you, you are leaving one v one, two v two, three v three, it’s a risk to play a high press, and that’s why a lot of teams don’t. But Watford needed to because they were trying to get back in the game.
“But not one Arsenal player, not one, decided this isn’t working, we have just conceded a goal doing it, and they should have conceded two or three more before that happened.
“Not one player said to the keeper, ‘oi you, right the next one, or the next five you kick it long’ because we are going to get up the pitch and stop this avalanche of chances and shots."
And Murphy said that although it may be a tactic from the manager to play that way, he said Arsenal's players must take ownership on the field, with the former midfielder citing an example from his time at Fulham as to what the Gunners should have done.
“You have to listen to your manager, yes, but there’s a time in a game where you have to say ‘the manager is not out here, we are getting battered’," he said.
“They conceded more shots (31) yesterday than ever since stats began in an Arsenal game in the Premier League.
“But what I also don’t understand, with the manager’s instructions, and you have to do it to a degree, but why isn’t the manager or the coaching staff shouting on ‘lead, someone lead’.
“For example at Fulham, we liked to play out and I was playing holding role in midfield, so I would go to the edge of the box sometimes and encourage them to get it in and play, because we liked playing.
“But there were times in a game when Mark Schwarzer would say to me in no uncertain terms, irrelevant of what the manager is saying by the way, ‘go away, you’re not having it, go away’.”
