Neville slams ‘crazy’ Arsenal coach for ‘screaming’ at ‘appalling’ Gunners star in Newcastle loss
Gary Neville has hit out at Arsenal set-piece coach Nicolas Jover for “screaming” at Leandro Trossard “like he was the manager” in their 1-0 loss to Newcastle United.
The Gunners suffered their first defeat of the Premier League season with a controversial Anthony Gordon goal ending Mikel Arteta’s side’s ten-match unbeaten run.
Arsenal slipped down to fourth in the Premier League and could be as many as five points behind arch-rivals Tottenham – who could go top of the Premier League – if they beat Chelsea on Monday night.
Arteta’s men pushed for an equaliser late on but a number of corners from Belgium international Trossard were easily defended by Newcastle.
But Neville thought Arsenal set-piece coach Jover put too much pressure on Trossard from the sidelines with the German “screaming” at the winger during the closing stages.
When asked about the Gunners’ set pieces towards the end of the match, Neville told his Sky Sports podcast: “It was driving me crazy. The set-piece coach down here, he was doing my head in as well.
“He was screaming on like crazy like he was the manager. I’m not sure that helps. He’s screaming on at Trossard who was taking the set-pieces… sit down, he knows what to do, you’ve gone through it in the week, it’s up on the board in the dressing room before the game, and you’ve told him three, four times.
“To me it felt like he was putting more pressure on Trossard taking the corners, which, to be fair, Trossard didn’t handle because his corners were appalling.
“They were real chances, in a game that’s so tight, set-pieces, no one needs to tell Mikel Arteta or any of the coaches in this league, they’re the vital moments, Arsenal are good on corners, they’ve got a good record. The delivery has got to be good, if the delivery isn’t good it all falls over.
“I just felt as though he was being screamed at down this near side by the set-piece coach and, to be fair, he was probably putting pressure on him unnecessarily.
“When you go to take a set-piece or a dead ball you’ve want to be relaxed, it’s not easy taking a corner, I mean people might say it’s the easiest thing in the world, honestly, it’s not easy to take a corner, if you’re good at them it looks really easy, but honestly as a right-back I couldn’t have taken corners and I could cross a ball.
“But to actually get it into the right areas all the time with precision, that’s not an easy thing to do. So actually making sure the players are relaxed before they take them is an important thing, and I don’t think that helps.”
